Questions like "What do you recommend? What should people eat?" or “What exactly it is the proper diet?” can not be answered only with "eat less fat" or “exercise more” and “base your diet on low fat food like…”. This "do’s and don'ts" will direct you towards a plant-based diet. Although nutrition is a more complicated mater and it can not be solved in a few phrases, this can be a start.

Don’t eat:

Ground beef and other fatty meats are dangerous for both your health and weight. It is known that red meat is the largest source of fat and saturated fat and that saturated fat is the most important factor in heart disease. Ribs, bacon, and sausages are other fats that we should not eat. Also don’t eat lean meat more than three times a week although it has less saturated fat. Studies show that lean red meats may increase the risk of colon and possibly prostate cancer but not poultry or seafood which is healthier.

Don’t eat pizza or other cheese based meals because it is well known that almost any pizza, especially a cheese pizza will use up 40 percent of your saturated fat limit for the day.

The food industry causes our salt problem. More than 70 percent of the sodium we eat comes from processed foods. For a healthier life we should try changing a frozen dinner with our own steam broccoli or broiled fresh flounder in low-fat mayo, lemon juice, and dill. Don’t use the commercial salad dressing and try your own vinegar, fresh garlic, mustard, and olive oil.

Do not consume so many sweets. It can drag down a good diet and may cause other important health problems. Soft drinks give 160 calories at 12-ounce and no vitamins, minerals, fiber, or phytochemical. Other sweets like brownies or some cookies, cheesecake, pecan or cinnamon rolls, give you an entire meal's worth of calories and fat. Fat-free or low-fat versions of sweets are healthier, but can not take the place of fruit, grain crackers, or other nutrient-packed foods.

Don’t overdo consuming alcoholic beverages. For women that drink often than three times a week the risk of breast cancer is greater and the death rate is higher.

Do eat:

Eating more plant foods and especially vegetables, may reduce the risk of cancers, including colon, lung, stomach, mouth, throat, esophagus, pancreas, and bladder. And it can help lower your risk of heart disease and stroke by decreasing the cholesterol level.

Also eating at least five to nine servings of fruits and vegetables is recommended by the National Cancer Institute. The risk of heart disease and stroke may be reduced mainly because fruits and vegetables contain phytochemicals, fiber, folic acid, and potassium. Make your everyday fruits and vegetables handy for you. Keep a bag of peeled baby carrots on your desk. Peel a grapefruit, orange, or tangerine. Keep a bowl of fruit salad in the fridge. Make sure that you eat as much fruits and vegetables as possible.

Switch to fat-free milk, yogurt, ice cream, and cheese. Women especially don't get enough calcium to diminish the risk of osteoporosis. You can eat ice cream or frozen yogurt only if it's low-fat or fat-free. A daily cup of regular ice cream can jeopardize a healthy diet. Most dairy foods have calcium. But they can also be field with artery-clogging saturated fat.

Eat whole grains because they are more nutritious than refined grains, and they're risk of colon cancer is lower. Buy only light tubs or sprays margarine or butter because they are healthier. Butter's field with saturated fat. The spray butter and the light margarine have no more than six grams of fat or three grams of saturated fat per tablespoon. When it comes to cooking these varieties of butter and margarine may not serve it purpose and you should try the ordinary forms but not in normal quantities or change the regular butter whit olive or canola oil.

Make sure your body has enough vitamins and minerals for a proper development and a les painful ageing. Vitamins can't repair a broken diet, but they may make a good diet better, especially if your body lacks in vitamins and minerals. The folic acid and vitamin D are especially important.

One way our diet may increase the risk of cancer is by dietary carcinogens. There are four groups of carcinogens:

• Naturally present carcinogens
• Carcinogens forming during food preparation
• Preservatives and coloring agents added to food
• Some substances are changed in to carcinogens in the body

Naturally present carcinogens:

An example of this is 'Aflatoxin', a mycotoxin produced by fungi. Grains and nuts can be contaminated by fungus, which then produce chemicals called aflatoxins. They are known to cause liver cancer in Africa and the Far East, especially in people who are carriers of hepatitis antigens.

Carcinogens forming during food preparation:

Polycyclic hydrocarbons, such as benzopyrenes, are formed during barbecuing meat on an open fire (e.g. preparing jerked chicken). These polycyclic hydrocarbons are also one of the main constituents in cigarette smoke that cause lung cancer.

The traditionally high intake of fried and broiled food, such as meats, can increase the risk of breast, distal colon, prostate and pancreas cancers. Several studies showed that populations that eat fried or broiled meats have a relative risk greater than 2 (deviation from median) for colon and breast cancer.

More than 20 such chemicals have been identified. They are present in fairly small amounts, but their action is promoted, an effect associated with n-6 polyunsaturated oils such as corn or safflower oil at 30-40% of energy in animal and human studies. A lower fat intake, 15-22% of energy, dramatically decreases those effects.

Preservatives and coloring agents added to food: (Need some more tests to establish this relationship).

Food colorings are added to increase the appeal of the food but not all are good for us. An example is "butter yellow". Artificial sweeteners (like saccharine & cyclamates) and preservatives which produce nitrosamines are known to cause bladder and stomach cancers respectively.

Some substances are converted in to carcinogens:

Nitrosamines are formed from sodium nitrite. Sodium nitrite is present in drinking water and vegetables.

Cancer is one of the main causes of death among humans. Visit "Cancer Information", FREE web site for those who want to learn how to deal with this vicious disease. www.cancer-data.com

Recomended reading: Beating Cancer with Nutrition Beating Cancer with Nutrition  Sugar feeds Cancer: diet and supplements can starve tumors  Nutrition makes chemo and radiation more toxic to the tumor while protecting the patient  Nutrition changes underlying causes of cancer, improving outcome for cancer patients regardless of other therapies. Why Beating Cancer with Nutrition is unique: The book was developed after working with over 500 cancer patients and organizing 3 international symposiums on the subject. The information contained in BCN is both scientifically backed with references and clinically proven in the hospital with patients. This information helps cancer patients to improve quality and quantity of life. BCN had been translated into Japanese and Chinese and is being translated into Korean. BCN had become a home study continuing education course for registered nurses. BCN 2001 version will contain a 72-minute audio CD version in response to the requests from tired cancer patients who said they needed and audio version of the book to get started. BCN had sold 110,000 copies in 7 years in print, which is impressive for small publishers. Why Patrick Quillin is Unique: For the past 10 years, Dr. Patrick Quillin has served as the Director of Nutrition for Cancer Treatment Centers of America. He is an internationally respected expert in the area of nutrition and cancer. He has earned his bachelor's, Master's and doctorate degrees in nutrition and is a registered and licensed dietitian ( RD & LD) and Certified Nutrition Specialist (CNS) with the American College of Nutrition.