Did You Know Most Doctors Receive Little to No Training In Nutrition During Med School?
You could be unintentionally starving your body while feeding your cancer. Dr. Katie Deming, a seasoned radiation oncologist, takes you on a journey through the complex world of cancer nutrition, sharing her hard-earned insights and dispelling long-held myths along the way.
With such an astonishing gap in nutritional education among medical professionals, you'll begin to understand why so many cancer patients feel lost and unsupported when it comes to making dietary choices.
Key Takeaways:
No One-Size-Fits-All Approach to Cancer Nutrition
Understanding Cancer Cell Metabolism is Key To Dietary Decisions
Why Whole Foods, Low-Glycemic Diets, and Healthy Fats are Crucial
Chapters:
09:58 – The Importance of the Low Glycemic Index
12:13 – Ethical, Biodiverse Plant and Humane Animal Consumption
15:55 – Healthy Fats and Blood Sugar
Through a thoughtful exploration of the intricate relationship between food and cancer, Dr. Deming unravels the mysteries surrounding the seemingly contradictory dietary approaches that have gained popularity in recent years.
Whether you're drawn to the idea of a plant-based lifestyle or intrigued by the potential benefits of a ketogenic diet, you'll come away with a nuanced understanding of how these approaches can be tailored to support your unique needs and goals.
Discover how the choices you make at each meal can either fuel the growth of cancer cells or fortify your body's natural defenses. You'll learn to navigate the grocery store with confidence.
She offers a glimpse into the cutting-edge research that is reshaping our understanding of an ancient practice. You'll discover a powerful tool for optimizing your health and resilience.
Press play and discover the life-changing power of cancer nutrition.
Your body, mind, and spirit will thank you for it.
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Read the Transcript Below:
Today, I wanna talk to you about nutrition and cancer. And I also want to just give a little bit of background why this topic may be quite confusing for most people. And the first thing I wanna say is that actually most doctors so it is very likely that your oncologist, whether it's your surgeon, your medical oncologist, or your radiation oncologist, has had zero training on nutrition. And I don't say this to bag on them because I actually was the same. So I practiced radiation oncology for 20 years and never had a class on nutrition and nutrition and cancer specifically, for sure I didn't. But even in medical schools today, nutrition is not a required course. And this, I thought that maybe I just didn't know this that it wasn't taught when I went to medical school in like, I was in medical school in 9 1997 to 2001, and I was thinking for sure, students medical students now must learn about nutrition in school. But I've been diving head first into nutrition now that I've left my radiation oncology practice.Dr. Katie Deming [00:01:21]:
And last fall, I was at a conference called Teaching Kitchens, and this is a group of dedicated physicians, nutritionists, lots of different types of health care practitioners who are fighting hard to teach people how to eat and how to cook healthy foods. And they basically have lawyers working with them, and they have been lobbying to officials to get nutrition as a required course in medical school. Amazing thing about this, they have very powerful attorneys working for them, and the only thing that they could get past is that nutrition be optional for medical schools to teach medical students. And that to me is just horrifying and also enlightening. It tells you what the medical schools are about. The medical schools are training doctors who need to use medications because they are not taught how to use food or how to use natural ways to treat disease and illness. And I do not blame the doctors. I don't blame nurses.
Dr. Katie Deming [00:02:41]:
I don't blame any of the people within the system for not being taught this information. But it is important if you have cancer to know that your doctor likely doesn't have this information. They don't have training on nutrition, and they're not gonna be able to guide you in what is good and bad for you to eat when you have cancer. And I would love to hear from you if you go into your oncologist office and they have bowls of candy around because that is the first sign that your clinic has no idea about how nutrition affects cancer. And I know that in my clinic, we had candy and I didn't even think twice about it. Anyway, I just wanted to start there so that you can understand that there is a big void in oncologist education around nutrition. And so I'm just speaking actually about the medical schools not teaching it. But then, for sure, in residency for medical oncology, which are the doctors who give chemotherapy or radiation oncology or surgical oncology.
Dr. Katie Deming [00:03:57]:
These doctors are not trained in how nutrition impacts cancer. And the truth is is that if doctors were trained in nutrition, we would have far less cancer because cancer is not the only disease that's affected by nutrition as well. So diabetes, obesity, neurodegenerative disease, cancer, all of these things are related to the things that we're eating. And if doctors were trained in this information about nutrition, we wouldn't have the problems that we have. And so this is a systemic problem that we are seeing, a problem of modern society where we're eating less whole foods, more processed foods, more fast food. We're always in a hurry. We're eating on the run. And so, basically, understanding nutrition is supremely important for healing all disease, but especially in cancer.
Dr. Katie Deming [00:04:55]:
With that, I just wanna lay that out there, but then I wanna talk about the fact that the people who are talking about diet, actually, that can be very confusing because we have this very polarized approach to nutrition where some people are adamant that the only way to heal the body and to be healthy is to be fully plant based, no animal protein, and that's it. You know, that is the way to prevent cancer. That is the way to treat cancer, and they are very sure that this is the only way. And then there's data and information about using ketogenic diet, which is basically the opposite of a plant based diet and may actually incorporate very few vegetables in there, and that can be effective at treating cancer and also at preventing cancer. And so when you see lots of people talking about very different approaches that actually both work. So I just wanna say that there is data for both of these approaches. When you see this situation of having experts with such different ideas about how to heal and prevent cancer using nutrition with data to support these varying approaches, it tells you something. And the thing that it is telling us is that there is not just one way to heal cancer with diet.
Dr. Katie Deming [00:06:37]:
And this is the most important thing that I want you to take away from this episode. If you don't remember anything else, I want you to remember that there is not just one way to heal cancer using nutrition. And the reason why I say that is because I see so many people who beat themselves up about eating some animal proteins because they think that the only way to heal their cancer is by eating a completely vegan diet. And then there are other people who are doing keto that are like, I don't wanna eat too many vegetables or fruits because then it knocks me out of keto, and they beat themselves up over that. And so I want you to know that these are not the only solutions, that you have to go completely plant based, vegan, or that you have to go completely keto. And we touched on some of this in my episode with doctor Thomas Seyfried from Boston University, but you can actually use principles when you understand the science of how cancer cells utilize nutrients. If you understand that, you can use the principles to help you design a diet that works for you. And the important thing to know is that cancer cells generally use fermentation or anaerobic glycolysis for their metabolism, which is a different mechanism of metabolism than healthy cells.
Dr. Katie Deming [00:08:25]:
Healthy cells have abundant oxygen and use a type of metabolism called oxidative phosphorylation. And oxidative phosphorylation requires several things. It requires healthy mitochondria. And mitochondria are like the powerhouses in our cells that are responsible for doing this type of metabolism using respiration. And you have learned a lot of people are talking about mitochondria these days, and the healthier mitochondria are really important. And your mitochondria require antioxidants from the nutrients that we eat. They also require oxygen. They also do better when they're we're getting sunlight.
Dr. Katie Deming [00:09:20]:
And there are these different things that the mitochondria are using to generate any energy within our cells. And when we're doing oxidative phosphorylation using the mitochondria, we can use all different types of nutrients. We can use proteins. We can use carbohydrates. We can use fats for fuel. Normal cells can all use all three of those things. Cancer cells preferentially use fermentation, which uses basically glucose. So its primary fuel source is glucose.
Dr. Katie Deming [00:09:58]:
If you listen to the episode with Thomas Seyfried, you'll also learn that they use fatty acids, glutamine being one of those. But the primary nutrient source is glucose. And so whatever we're doing, we want to make sure that we are lowering the glycemic index of the food that you're eating. And glycemic index is basically how quickly does any food or nutrients spike your blood sugar. And so if you're gonna do a vegan diet, you wanna make sure that you are eating truly a plant based diet and not processed foods that are high in carbohydrates or have a high glycemic index because this is basically going to feed the cancer with the nutrients that you're eating. And with a ketogenic diet, you want to make sure that you're getting the antioxidants and the nutrients from the plants that we need as well because that is also an important piece. And so, personally, I think it's problematic to be totally one space or the other and say, this is the way that you have to eat for the rest of your life. Because the other thing is our bodies are dynamic.
Dr. Katie Deming [00:11:21]:
Our bodies are changing. Our bodies need different things at different times. And so you don't want to lock into this mindset that I have to eat only this way for the rest of my life because the truth is is that your body's needs are gonna change. And so the most important thing is that we're eating whole foods. Are you eating real food? Are you eating vegetables? Are you getting the rainbow in your foods? And, basically, when you're eating the rainbow, you're getting the antioxidants that you need and the nutrients that you need from the vegetables that you're eating. And you also wanna make sure that if you're eating meats, you're eating high quality meats. And when I say high quality meats, I mean that whatever. Actually, this is not even just meats.
Dr. Katie Deming [00:12:13]:
Also, this should be with plants. We want the food that we put in our body to be raised in a manner that is in the highest good of that organism. So for plants, we want them raised, you know, in a biodiverse ecosystem so that they're not just, like, mass grown in just, like, a single crop because that's not actually what is in best for the plants in the way that they're grown. So you want to be looking for nutrients that are grown in a way that is good for that organism. So for animals, that means that those animals are humanely treated, that they are able to roam freely, that they are not, you know, pumped full of hormones and caged and killed in inhumane ways. But eating animals eating animal proteins is not bad for your health if you're eating humanely treated animals and you're also lowering your carbohydrates. If you eat a very high carbohydrate diet or diet that's high in processed foods and then you have animal proteins that can cause inflammation, but it's not the animal proteins that are causing the inflammation, it is the carbohydrates that you're eating with them. And that is why a ketogenic diet works because, basically, if you're eating high fat, moderate protein, and very low carbohydrates, it's actually very low it's non inflammatory, basically lowers inflammation in the body.
Dr. Katie Deming [00:13:52]:
And, really, that's what this game is all about for all diseases, cancer included, is lowering inflammation in the body. And you can create inflammation on a vegan diet and also on a keto diet if you're doing it in the wrong way. And so you just need to wrap your head around that you want to eat foods that are real, not processed, high nutrient value, and low glycemic index, and that the proteins that you're eating, the animal proteins, so whether if you're eating animals, you want to make sure that they are pasture raised, grass fed you know, with beef, you want it grass fed. With dairy or eggs, you wanna make sure that they're pasture raised, and you want to make sure that they're humanely treated. Okay? So those are a couple things that I just want you to think about. When you're eating plants and vegetables, you want to look at the glycemic index and make sure that it's low so these foods are not spiking. And then with the animals, you wanna really be clear about how these animals have been raised before you eat them because, basically, we are ingesting what these animals have gone through. And so if they have been treated very poorly, basically, we are ingesting that, and that is not good from our for our body from an energetic standpoint.
Dr. Katie Deming [00:15:23]:
And then the other thing that I wanna talk about are fats. Fats are very healthy if you eat them in the right way. And this is something that we were sold a story. You know, this has now been decades ago that you're supposed to eat low fat. And now we know that that's not true. Actually, a low fat diet is not healthy for you, but it's still getting the right kinds of fats into your bodies. And the fats do a couple things. Fats, number 1, mitigate that whole spike in your blood sugar.
Dr. Katie Deming [00:15:55]:
And so when you're eating fats with your food, you're basically blunting the blood sugar spike and helping your body utilize those nutrients so the fats can be used by our healthy cells, but the cancer cells don't use those fats. Okay? And then the other thing is that deuterium, which is an isotope of hydrogen that can incorporate into our water and into carbohydrates can also affect the functioning of our cells in our bodies. And it turns out that reducing deuterium in our bodies can be helpful for the function. And one of the ways that you can reduce is by eating fewer carbohydrates and more healthy fats. And when I am talking about healthy fats, I'm talking about things like coconut oil, grass fed butter, avocado, healthy fats in fish like salmon, Brazil nuts. And these are just a few examples, but incorporating fats and more fats into your diet can actually be a very good strategy. But you have to be careful. Again, it's less about the fat and more about how much carbohydrates are you taking in with the fat.
Dr. Katie Deming [00:17:14]:
Because if you take in high levels of carbohydrates with high levels of fats, you're gonna gain weight. But it's not the fat that's making you fat, it's the carbohydrates. And again, doctor Seavried talked about that in that episode. So if you're really wanting to dig into the science, I would go back and listen to that episode. But fats are really important for us, and they help satiate us. So they help make us feel full. They help blunt blood sugar spikes, and they also help lower deuterium levels in the body. When you're looking at nutrition, you can actually eat any diet.
Dr. Katie Deming [00:17:52]:
You could be totally plant based. If for you, your values are that you don't want to eat animal proteins, that is absolutely fine. You just want to make sure that those nutrients that you're eating on your plant based diet are nourishing your body and that you're getting healthy fats with it and moderate proteins. And then if you're doing something that is keto, you wanna make sure that the quality of those foods that you are eating are high, including the quality of the animal proteins, but then also wanting to make sure that the fats that you're eating are healthy fats for your body. And if you wanna do something in between, that is fine too. And I think this is where it gets so confusing because people feel like I have to be on this very strict diet. And the truth is is that strict diets don't work. This is a lifestyle change.
Dr. Katie Deming [00:18:48]:
If you want to approach cancer through nutrition, you need to approach it from a lifestyle standpoint and look at, okay, what fits with my lifestyle, my values, the way my family lives? Because if you're on some super strict diet and the rest of your family, it doesn't fit with all that, that can be a big challenge and a source of conflict. And so I just want to give you permission to not do it one specific way. And I'm planning a workshop series, but the first workshop in my series is going to be healing cancer through nutrition. And so I'm gonna break down some of these principles so that you can really understand how do I create a plan for myself that is manageable, sustainable, and nourishing for your body. And the other thing with nutrition is that not eating or fasting fasting is also a very powerful way to stimulate healing in the body. And we heard about this from Lauren Lachman and how water fasting is a beautiful way to detoxify your body. So our contaminants in our body and toxins get stored in our fat. And one of the ways that we can release those toxins is actually through fasting.
Dr. Katie Deming [00:20:19]:
Approach to treating cancer through diet. So I wanna keep this episode short because I just wanted to come in and give you some general principles to understand there is not one way that you have to address your diet if you have cancer. But you do have to look at the fundamental principles and make decisions about what is right for you. And there are some fundamentals that will help you make better decisions in the way that you eat and the way that you feed your family. Because let's be honest, it's not just about treating yourself. If you have cancer, you also want to make sure that your family understands about nutrition because most of us have not been taught these things. And if you think about, like, the food pyramid, it's just like completely backwards. The food pyramid was created by industry, so it was not like doctors and, you know, scientists really saying this is the best way to eat.
Dr. Katie Deming [00:21:18]:
It was a lobbyist. It was the dairy and the meat industry and the, you know, basically, the I forget which, agricultural groups, but, basically, it was all based on business. It was not based in science. And so this idea of high carbohydrates in our diet is actually really bad for us, and we've been misled. And we've all been taught a lot of things that are not correct. And so in order to undo that, you wanna understand the fundamentals. And and really, you can't go wrong if you eat whole foods, get rid of the processed foods, learn how to incorporate fasting into your routine, and make sure that you're getting high quality fats in your diet. Those are just a few things that you can do that are really gonna help you up level your nutrition.
Dr. Katie Deming [00:22:10]:
And I would argue to say most of us are malnourished in today's society. And this is part of what's making us sick is not only that, you know, we're getting sadder and basically the blood sugar issues, but also we're not getting the right nutrients into our bodies. I'm gonna stop there for today, but I hope that this is just helpful. One of the things that I wanna do is I want to clear up this idea that you have to do things one way or you have to do them another. And, like, when you see experts telling you you have to do it their way, To me, that's a red flag. It's like, okay. That's we're not all the same. All of our bodies are different, and our bodies change over time.
Dr. Katie Deming [00:22:53]:
We're gonna need different things. So I would look for someone who is flexible and understands the fundamentals so that they can help me create a plan that is going to help me nourish my body in the way that my body needs, not in the way that just, you know, this one person has decided this is the only way to eat. So I hope that helped, and I look forward to seeing you on the next episode. Thank you for joining me on Born to Heal. It's been a privilege to share this time with you, and I hope that today's episode has offered you valuable insights on your journey toward optimal health. Please consider subscribing, sharing this podcast with your friends, and leaving us a review. To learn more about how you can work with me, please visit katydemming.com. You can find additional resources in the episode show notes linked below, and remember to join us next week as we continue to explore more holistic approaches to healing.
Dr. Katie Deming [00:23:59]:
Until then, this is doctor Katie Deming reminding you that just like me, you were born to heal.
DISCLAIMER:
The Born to Heal Podcast is intended for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for seeking professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Individual medical histories are unique; therefore, this episode should not be used to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease without consulting your healthcare provider.