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FOOD RULES

1 Eat like the war never happened: Make your main course what it was like before WW II: 80% vegetables, 20% animal protein at each meal. Choose the opposite of the quarter pounder tagged with a let’s pretend leaf of iceberg lettuce and an anemic slice of tomato. Meat should be used as a condiment for taste, as in the old days when it was scarce, not the core of the dish.

2 Mix your vegetables: Vary the vegetables you eat from one meal to the next, or mix them together. Broccoli is a powerful anticancer food, but more powerful yet in the company of tomato sauce, onions, or garlic. Get in the habit of adding onions, garlic, or leeks to all the dishes you cook (caution: do not try this with dessert).

3 Prefer organic when you can: But remember it’s always better to eat broccoli with pesticide residues than to not eat broccoli (or any other anticancer vegetable).

4 Add turmeric (with black pepper) to most dishes you cook, and to salad dressings.

5 Go low on potato: Potatoes raise blood sugar. They also contain the most pesticides of all vegetables, (to the point that most potato farmers I know don’t eat their own).

6 Eat fish two or three times a week: Sardines, mackerel, anchovies have less mercury and PCBs than bigger fish like tuna, and avoid swordfish and shark which the FDA says pregnant women should not eat because they are so concentrated with contaminants.

7 Choose only omega-3 eggs or don’t eat the yokes. Hens are now fed mostly corn and soybeans and their eggs contain 20 times more pro-inflammatory omega-6 fatty acids than cell-growth regulating omega-3s.

8 Use only olive and canola oil in cooking and salad dressings. Throw away your soybean oil, corn oil and sunflower oil. You shouldn’t even give them to your neighbors or relatives; they’re much too rich in omega-6 fatty acids.

9 Add Mediterranean herbs to your food: Thyme, oregano, basil, rosemary, marjolaine, mint, etc.

Keep your carbs brown: Eat your grains whole and mixed (wheat with oats, barley, spelt, flax, etc.) and prefer organic whole grains as pesticides accumulate on the shell. Avoid white flour (bagels, muffins, wonder bread, buns, etc.) whenever possible, and eat white pasta only al dente.

11 Cut down on sugar: Skip dessert most of the time, avoid sugar whenever you can and especially sweetened sodas and fruit juices, and avoid most foods which list any type of sugar (including brown sugar, corn syrup, etc.) in the first three ingredients. Eat fruits often, especially stone fruits and berries. If you absolutely need dessert, try a few squares of more than 70% cocoa dark chocolate.

12 Drink three cups of green tea per day: Use decaf green tea if it gets you too wired.

13 Don’t be too strict: What matters is what you do everyday, on most days. Not the occasional treat.

NON-FOOD RULES

14 Make time to walk, dance, or run: Aim for 30 minutes of walking or equivalent activity at least 5 days a week. That can be just walking part of the way to the office, or the grocery store, and back. A dog is often a better walking partner than an exercise buddy. If you’re having fun doing it, you’re more likely to stick with it.

15 Get in the sun at least 20 minutes without sunscreen (torso, arms and legs) at noon on most days in the summer (but avoid sunburns). As an alternative, discuss taking a Vitamin D3 supplement with your doctor.

16 Avoid common contaminants: Air our your dry-cleaning for two hours before storing or wearing it. Use organic cleaning products (or wear gloves). Don’t heat liquids or food in hard plastics. Avoid cosmetics with parabens and phthalathes. Don’t use chemical pesticides in your house or garden. Replace your scratched Teflon pans. Filter your tap water (or used bottled water) if you live in a contaminated area. Don’t keep your cell phone close to you when using it.

17 Reach out to at least two friends for support (logistical and emotional) during times of stress, even through the internet. But they’re around, go ahead and hug them often, and your loved ones too.

18 Learn a basic breathing relaxation technique to let out some of the steam when you’re stuck with it.

19 Do one thing you love for yourself on most days (doesn’t have to take long).

Give something back to your community.

Michael Pollan’s recent little gem of a book Food Rules inspired me to

compile my own “rules” about what I’d like every person to know about

how they can help avoid cancer— or slow it down if they have it.

—DAVID SERVAN-SCHREIBER, MD, PhD, in January 2010

Also by David Servan-Schreiber, MD, PhD, Not the Last Goodbye and Anticancer: A New Way of Life.

Available from Viking wherever books are sold.

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RULES

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