It is an incredible feat that organisms can begin from one cell and then differentiate and compartmentalize into the millions of diverse tissue and organ niches that represent a mature body. Why brain, fingernail, liver, intestine and bone cells ever become what they are is mystery enough. Why they stay what they have become while still retaining the full genetic information to produce an entire new body, compounds the miracle even more.

     Cancer is a condition in which cells lose their orientation and proliferate uncontrollably. Any cell can become cancerous. A lot of them do, but are squelched by cell death (apoptosis), the immune system or nipped in the bud by DNA repair mechanisms. Successful cancer cells escape these impediments, disregard normal cellular checks and balances and become an island unto themselves with only their own survival and self-interests at heart.

     The cause of cancer is no mystery. It is our aberrant modern living context that has put us at cancer risk. When cells are forced to bathe in a milieu (the tissue soup we create with modern foods, drugs and lifestyle) entirely unlike what they are genetically programmed to expect, they revert to their most primitive directive - multiply, multiply, multiply - without regard for neighbors. It's a sort of payback for our disregard for "neighbors" when we pollute and repudiate nature. Why should our cells be polite to their neighbors if we don't have regard for ours? Since the immune system is compromised from the chronic stresses created by modern living, defenses are down. Couple this with the nutritionally depleted and perverted modern processed diet and you have the incubator for cancer.

     Today, about one in three humans will get cancer. In pets it is worse and perhaps the leading cause of death. No evidence exists that the disease was of similar incidence before our modern era. President Nixon's "War on Cancer" (beginning in the early 1970s) is the most failed and embarrassing "military" campaign ever undertaken by any nation at any time in history. One person in 30 got cancer at the beginning of the 20th century, now almost one in two do.

     Some will say that the only reason the incidence has increased is because humans and animals live longer due to modern medical measures. So when science fails in their mission to defeat cancer, they cleverly spin the failure as their success. As I have shown previously (Why Modern Medicine is the Greatest Threat to Health), this is nonsense since modern medical measures are themselves probably the number one threat to life.

     The reason for cancer and most chronic degenerative diseases is modern living, pure and simple. We have subjected ourselves to an artificial environment to which we are not adapted. Nature - not exhaust, sugar, pop and plastic - is what we are designed for. Screw with Mother Nature and a price will be paid.

     Whatever the inciting cause, it is known that inducement and propogation needs to be relentless and of long-standing duration. Cancer can have a latency period of decades, requiring continuous exposure to the inciting stress. Our departure from our genetic roots certainly qualifies.

     If disease does not strike immediately after a bad life choice, then the conclusion is that the choice is just fine. We refuse to take the long view and make intelligent decisions now for consequences that may not emerge until years later. It's a common human failing we see replayed in every aspect of human endeavor. It's the modus operandi in government, economics, agriculture, social issues and health care. Living in the moment is what children and animals do. We should do better with the pounds of gyri and sulci resting on our shoulders.

     Nevertheless, this common sense approach (returning to our genetic roots) to preventing cancer and other diseases will be ignored. Instead we will pour billions of dollars into research to discover the cure for cancer. But there will never be a cure other than respecting our genetic heritage and living, eating, breathing and drinking as we were designed to do. A pill or vaccine to save us just isn't going to happen.

     Let me give some examples of recent research findings that reveal the obvious. First there is the "discovery" that fresh fruits and vegetables contain anti-cancer nutrients such as antioxidants, vitamins and flavanoids. Why would they not be anti-cancer, they are the natural food of humans? No research is necessary to discover that!

     Then there is the "discovery" that cancer preferentially feeds on glucose, diverting it from body use and inefficiently metabolizing it by glycolysis into lactate and a couple ATP energy molecules. (Glucose normally yields 38 ATP.) The body then has to reconvert the lactate back, via the Cori cycle, into glucose (at an energy cost). The net result is that the cancer acts like an energy sink resulting in cachexia, a pathetic condition of severe muscle wasting and debilitation. Modern diets are laden with sugar and starches that not only provide the perfect food for cancer but the perfect acidic medium in tissues. Processed sugar and starch is not a natural human food. No research is needed to discover that!

     Research has also shown that a low carbohydrate, high protein, high arginine (meat amino acid), low omega-6 fatty acid and high omega-3 fatty acid diet is useful for both preventing and treating cancer. Tumor cells do not do well on fats or protein. But they love that sugar. The natural, raw diet for humans and their pets is high in fat (the preferred energy source) and protein, high in omega-3 fatty acids (fish, wild meat, some seeds and vegetables) and low in omega-6 fatty acids (grains, grain-fed meats and most oils), and is alkalinizing. This is no scientific discovery. It's common sense.

     But companies are clamoring to patent versions of natural diets and crediting their science for discovering the obvious. Examples are new patented, "cancer-fighting" foods featuring high fat, high omega-3 fatty acids, low carbohydrates, and high protein and arginine. Finally, feeding people and pets what they should have been getting all along (as, I hate to say, I have been arguing for decades) is so novel that it is patentable!

     It is the edge-of-the-map science that is responsible for this sorry state of affairs. Like the ancient mariners who believed the world ended where their maps left off, science has assumed that calories, regardless of their source, were the edge of their map. Their nutritional world ends with calories and percentages of known nutrients. Science has insisted that if a human or animal requires X calories per pound each day, it matters not whether those calories come from fresh, real foods or Twinkies. That's why hospital patients paying a thousand dollars a night dine on Registered Dietician Jell-O, diet pop and instant potatoes.

     What has been ignored is that calories are not the edge of the map; ships do not drop off the Earth when they disappear over the horizon. Now the world beyond the edge of conventional medicine and nutrition is slowly being rediscovered. The world is round... and people and animals require their natural, genetically programmed diet that lies beyond the edge of science's calories. Quality of calories do matter and is a whole new world promising health.

     So, to increase the chance of having cancer, or to speed its progression, eating the standard modern fare is the way to go. Get lots of sugar and lots of grain-based foods such as pasta, bread, cereal, bagels, donuts (which convert to sugar after consumed) and lots of vegetable oils. Increase carbohydrates, eat oleo and look for low-fat foods. Drink very little water and instead enjoy acidified pop and municipal acidic water. Tumors thrive on this banquet.

     You can wait for "research" to prove that natural foods and natural living (fresh air, exercise, sunlight, loving relationships) prevent and reverse cancer, or you can be a thinking person and apply this obvious wisdom beginning today.