Thursday Aug 10, 2016 (foodconsumer.org) -- Dietary factors may have something to do with the risk of various cancers including colon cancer, prostate cancer and breast cancer.  Many foods carry mutagens and or antimutagens.   One needs eating sufficient antimutagens to prevent mutagens from causing mutation or mutagenesis which could eventually lead to the development of cancer (carcinogenesis).

Common mutagens/carcinogens include thermally-induced carcinogens in meat, preservative-induced carcinogens like N-nitroso-compounds, fungal toxins.  Other factors such as high intake of meat, particularly red meat (too much heme iron from red meat can be a risk factor particularly for men), fat (particularly omega 6, saturated fat and trans fat), added sugar such as high fructose corn syrup and cane sugar) , and alcohol of any kind, can also indirectly affect the risk for the development of cancer.  Tobacco use can also get many mutagens into smokers' systems. 

What to do to reduce the risk of mutagenesis and carcinogenesis?  

The best and first-line defense is to reduce the intake of all possible mutagens and carcinogens.  For that effort, one should reduce intake of processed meat, meat cooked at high temperature and for a long time, and avoid peanuts, corn and grains with molds.  One should avoid use a lot of fat including saturated fat from animal products, vegetable oils such as corn oil and soybean oil which contain high levels of omega 6 fatty acids, trans fat that is commonly used in processed foods and maybe also in restaurant-served foods, and high-heat treated vegetable oil.  One should avoid drinking alcohol and eating added sugar commonly found in processed foods.

One the other hand, one should eat foods or supplements with a lot of antimutagens or compounds that can detoxify mutagens/carcinogens.  Certain types of dietary fibers like insoluble fibers and probiotics and large compounds from plants such as chlorophyllin can help.

Antioxidants such as ascorbic acid or vitamin C, vitamin E, glutathione, polyphenols and carotenoids can help scavenge free radicals which can otherwise interact with DNA leading to mutations.

Dietary selenium seems also important for the prevention of colon cancer and maybe other types of cancer.  Plasma selenium levels lower than 100 ng/mL may not be sufficient for the prevention against oxidative DNA damage.  High selenium is found in Brazil nuts and selenium supplements may also be used to maintain an adequate level of this antioxidant to prevent colon cancer and other forms of cancer.  Selenium may render the protective effect as an antioxidant on enzymes associated with DNA repair.

Other dietary factors such as various flavonoids and some sulfur-containing compounds that can modulate xenobiotic metabolizing enzymes may also help prevent cancer.

Multiple protective compounds can be found in many fruits and vegetables (not meats).  High intake of fruit and vegetables are protective against mutagens and carcinogens.   Vegetarian diet or even more strictly vegan diet has been employed by many cancer patients to treat various cancers.  Many cancer patients cured their disease by eating vegetarian diet or strictly vegan diet without resorting to conventional chemo and radiation therapy.  The anticancer effect of fruit and vegetables is particularly evident when raw fruit and vegetables are used.  Cooking destroys a lot of active compounds!

Dietary folate along with other vitamins and minerals may also help maintain genomic instability and help prevent cancers. (David Liu)

Lynnette R Ferguson, , Martin Philpott, Nishi Karunasinghe, Dietary cancer and prevention using antimutagens, Toxicology, Volume 198, Issues 1–3, 20 May 2004, Pages 147–159, Toxicology in the New Century, Opportunities and Challenges - Proceedings of the 5th Congress of Toxicology in Developing Countries