News Seen through a Naturopathic Doctor’s Eyes

A recent study published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute (Volume 102, Number 8 Pp. 529-537) has concluded that eating fruits and vegetables doesn’t seem to make much difference in preventing cancer in people. This study included over 400,000 men and women from 10 European countries aged 25-70 years.

The authors explain that they know of no other study that includes so many people and eventual cases of cancer. The implied message here is that this is the definitive study to date. When the major media reported this study they also tended to frame it as a definitive study.



Now, let’s look at this study through a naturopathic doctor’s eyes:

If you take the time to read the actual study, the first point that stands out (to me) is the way they found out what people were eating. They asked them to “remember” what they ate. I have been working with people and their diets for over 30 years and of the thousands of people I’ve helped I could count on the fingers of one hand the number of people who can accurately remember what they recently ate. People forget. This is a major flaw in the source information for this study. If the foundational source information is flawed or inaccurate, all the results that are based on that information will also be
flawed and inaccurate. So how could this even be considered an accurate, let alone a definitive study?

The next point that stands out is the way they defined fruits and vegetables. The classification for “fresh” fruit included canned and dried, and they said “fresh” fruit made up 90% of the fruit intake. Additionally, we don’t know what was considered the other 10% of the fruit intake? They never explain this other 10%.

Reading further we find that tubers, legumes and freshly made vegetable juices were NOT considered to be vegetables. A person eating lots of canned fruit and deep-fried onion rings would be classified as having a high “fresh” fruit and vegetable intake, while someone eating lots of bean sprouts and drinking lots of freshly made vegetable juice could be classified in the low fruit and vegetable category. Again, if your source information is flawed, the conclusions based on that information will also be flawed.

Another important consideration here is the amount of fruits and vegetables a person had to consume to be considered in the “high consumption” category, which was 511 grams daily. This is not very much. According to the USDA three oranges are 554 grams, and two cans of peaches contains 524 grams. Either of these is more than the highest category of fruit and vegetable consumption in this study, and I really hope that no one reading this thinks that eating canned food would be even remotely as beneficial to their health as eating truly fresh fruits and vegetables.

This study seemed credible in its initial presentation, but looking deeper the foundational information, and therefore the conclusions, are seen to be inaccurate and flawed. To receive the truly healthy benefits of fruits and vegetables they should be truly fresh, and to significantly improve our health we certainly need more than 3 pieces a day.

Gil Alvarado, N.D., L.Ac.
THE NEW LIFE CENTER
118-A OLD DURHAM RD.
CHAPEL HILL, NC 27517
(919) 490-4930
www.DrGil.com