and good evening.

Thank you so much for watching PBS Fort Wayne and Line this evening.

My name is Mark Mark Evans, your host and we'll be talking about nutrition and cancer prevention this evening.

Our special guest is Allie Thomas and she is a registered dietitian nutritionist.

>> Great to have you.

Thank you.

First time on HealthLine.

Yes, it is.

Oh, hang in there.

>> Hold we're awfully rough I guess.

Actually we're not.

We're so glad to have you.

Thank you for joining us.

First question I have when I found out that you were a registered dietitian nutritionist what's the difference between a dietitian and a dietician nutritionist?

>> This is a really great question.

There's actually two classifications out here that we hear a lot about registered dietitian, a registered dietitian, nutritionist or read Ardian and then we have what we call a nutritionist out there.

So registered dietitian are Ardian are D are used interchangeably and what we do for those is that it's a four year degree.

It's required a bachelor's degree.

You require an internship that at least about a year and then you have to sit for a board exam to get certified to get those credentials.

Wow.

Once beyond that you have to do continuing education so many credits per year to be able to keep that credential because things are always changing.

>> Absolutely running things all the time.

Oh absolutely.

Especially in this world of nutrition and your nutritionist is different in regards anybody could be classified as a nutritionist if you have that knowledge of any kind you don't have to have any schooling.

>> So that's why I always caution make sure you're looking for that expert in that you're either a registered dietitian, those credentials that's good to know now we know what you do.

We're going to go ahead and open up our phone lines and the telephone numbers on your screen at 866- (969) 27 two zero or just locally (969) 27 two zero.

We'll be taking your questions and addressing your concerns for the next half an hour and we won't stop down for commercials because we of course are public television.

>> All right.

So what kind of what types of cancers and specific are linked to the way we eat?

>> That's a great question.

So really a lot of our lifestyle factors.

The World Health Organization says it is estimated about 40 percent of cancers can preventable based on the way we eat lifestyle factors and overweight and obesity can increase our risk factor for about twelve types of cancers.

Most of them are GI related esophageal head and neck mouth cancers.

Some of our hormone related such as our or endometrial cancers and other lifestyle factors that we can that can affect those is colorectal cancers.

Some of the things we eat such as red meats and processed meats can increase those risk factors hormones are affected by our weight more fat tissue that we carry the more hormones such estrogen that we may produce increasing our risk factors, some of those cancers and other hormone related and we'll talk about some of those specific foods and things that we should not eat a little bit later in the program.

>> So how can nutrition actually reduce the risk for cancer?

I mean you can cut this stuff out but what's causing the cancers?

>> So when we're going back to our overweight and obesity, unfortunately when we are carrying a little bit more weight we're carrying more information on our body.

>> This information is in other words a stressful environment.

>> It's an environment where cancer is more favorable to grow so that is what the risk factor for those 12 type cancers unfortunately are.

>> The key word is information .

And so when we look at foods, the foods that may cause more inflammation, inflammation, inflammatory stressors on our body so going back to things that might increase our weight process foods things that are higher in calories not as many nutrients but also we mentioned processed meats or red meat some these are more inflammatory foods that can cause more information leading to risk factors such as colorectal and you say processed meats and it's because of the nitrates and other ingredients that are in those to preserve them is that yeah, it's the way they're processed, the foods that are added to them.

>> Unfortunately that can include things like your nitrates and nitrates but even the method that they're made such as smoking, they can make them more of a carcinogen at that point.

>> So processed meats, deli meats, bacon sausage, hot dogs I know a lot of the good stuff sausage.

>> Yes.

Unfortunately I know.

>> I know I hate to say that and even though there might be some of them that are a bit leaner such as deli meats, turkey versus ham even though they're leaner it is still a processed meat and it's the way everybody breaks them down.

>> But it creates more of that information and there are some exciting colorectal lining that does pose more of a risk that sometimes you don't have a choice, you're going to be going to a luncheon or something or you you'll go to someone's party and they'll have orders and you'll see some sliced meats here and there.

>> Maybe you should just go to the vegetable tray.

>> But is it really going to hurt you that much if you just have it once in a while?

Not at all.

Once in a while.

Not at all.

Definitely in general where you can control in our home and when we're out and we have the options definitely try to go for more of the things that everybody is going to thrive more with such as our fruits and vegetables and we can clarify those in more detail but trying to up from where of those better alternatives if we can and knowing that there are times that we we cannot control that and those are not going to do all the good things you do most of the time but just most this time try to stay away from absolutely.

>> OK and then I saw that alcohol is one of those things that you need to of course stay away from.

Can you still drink that in moderation or is that just an absolute no no absolutely can drink in moderation of course.

>> So unfortunately alcohol is classified as a carcinogen or a toxin.

It's something our body doesn't like.

Red wine does have some great benefits for heart health .

Unfortunately though there's still that risk factor for about seven types of cancers when it comes to alcohol.

A lot of our GI related liver, esophageal head and neck some but even more hormone related cancer is one in particular alcohol may increase the circulation of estrogen in the body putting us more at risk for those recommendations are to really keep it in moderation, keep it to that one standard drink for women, two standard drink for men and it's more of the frequency and the amount we do at one time.

>> So enjoy occasionally but opt for more of that important nutrition that our body does desire that water infused water is whatever we can do to keep that hydration up.

>> All right.

We're going to stop down here for just a second because we have a call coming and in fact this individual owl does not want to be on the air and that's perfectly fine now.

But he's asking he's wondering what sort of diet to avoid.

We're going to the screen now what type of diet to avoid throat cancer such as low sodium diet.

Can this be an effective diet to avoid this type of cancer?

>> OK, so this is a great question.

Um, there's really no particular diet I recommend it's more of the lifestyle considerations so we really would love to focus on what we call a plant based focus to our diet and that's consuming more of your plant foods in your diet.

Those are typically your fruits, your vegetables we hear classically but also your whole grains, beans, nuts and seeds what these are doing and these guys have a compound known as phytochemicals or phyto nutrients and it's only found in plant foods and these are really the most important thing you can incorporate into your diet if you're not already doing so.

This compound is great for helping us reduce inflammation, helping us keep our immune system strong and helping repair damaged cells that we may have.

Unfortunately in our body whether that's nutritionally or environmental factors.

So the most important focus on your diet is incorporating more of those plant foods.

The plant that phytochemical is the color of the compound you find the plant their uniqueness.

>> So I say as many colors as you can in a day from your plant foods from their whole form really picking fresh or frozen is best and can being also a great option as well getting in the most abundance from those phytochemicals but also keeping limited with some of those things like sodium alcohol, some of those other things we talked about such as red meat and processed meat reducing that inflammation overall and came very good.

>> Let's see the just as Al did we're asking folks to call in and ask your questions.

>> We'll address those concerns and your questions.

Of course call us at 866- (969) to seven to zero throughout the program we're talking about nutrition and cancer prevention with Ali Thomas, a registered dietitian nutritionist now next this is a big one for me because I love sweets but what is the link between sugar and cancer?

>> A very common question, a very common one.

So this is often misunderstood and unfortunately our bodies use what we call glucose is energy.

All cells in our body use this in cancer cells do as well in glucose in another term is known as sugar and we get glucose from about everything we eat.

We're going to break it down into some form to get that glucose and that does include our fruits and vegetables.

But we also know cakes, cookies, cupcakes.

So unfortunately that cancer cell is going to get that energy from those that sugar content from anything that you're eating.

>> It does not know the difference between a cupcake or an apple.

>> But however what we often forget is we want to give our body the good things, the nutrients it needs to help keep strong the immune system healthy and the good cells need that to be able to do their job.

So that would be those fruits and vegetables.

But is there going to be any concern by doing cakes, cookies, cupcakes here and there occasionally?

Absolutely.

>> We want to get most of our diet from those plant foods but keeping in moderation and 80 20 is like what I like to say 80 percent of the time get those good things in 20 percent, enjoy the fruits of moderation.

>> Absolutely because we're human we should enjoy what we're eating.

That's right.

It's here for a reason.

Absolutely everything in moderation.

I keep hearing that underlying tone.

Exactly.

So in that case we need to use artificial sweeteners, right?

>> Not necessarily.

I mean they're not a bad alternative.

>> Often we hear that traditionally we did hear that there were concerns with artificial sweeteners linked to cancer.

That is not a concern.

There is no research to support that.

There's also nothing wrong with regular sugar and it really depends on you.

There might be reasons why we might need to go for artificial sweeteners such as if we have diabetes and we need to monitor that sugar a little bit more.

>> Is there one better than the other and not at all.

Not at all.

It's your preference some of our artificial sweeteners could potentially cause some GI intolerances bloating, discomfort.

>> Yes, some of those things can be common and that depends on the quantity you're doing.

But sugar is still sugar no matter what form it comes in.

If it's artificial or regular calories are no calories we still want to keep it in moderation.

>> Right.

And you know, I used to drink a lot of diet pop and I sit down one day and read the label and there were a lot of words on there that I still to this day could not pronounce or don't even know what they are and it's kind of scary.

So but they're still saying to this day that in moderation diet sodas are OK to drink.

>> Absolutely.

And we again want to focus on what are we missing, what are the good things?

Can we get in and getting that water and getting those things your body really wants first and then enjoy those other things of moderation 20 percent again, I didn't think about the water thing so I guess you know, that makes sense.

>> All right.

And let's talk about soy foods.

>> I'm hearing a lot about soy foods here lately.

So benefits are concerns if any for soy foods in relation to cancer.

>> So there's a lot of misunderstanding is soy a concern for a lot of our hormone related cancers, specifically cancer especially being Cancer Awareness Month.

So there's soy is safe to consume whether we have cancer history or we're trying to reduce our risk overall so soy in moderation has been shown to be beneficial.

It does have what we call phytochemical or phytonutrient known as ISO Flavien and it can actually help reduce our risk of recurrence for cancer but in moderation.

So soy is safe to consume about two servings a day.

That's about a half a cup of tofu tempeh at a mom or about a cup of soy milk twice a day is absolutely fine to do and beneficial.

>> That being said, if you don't like it does not mean you have to add in your diet.

>> OK, very good.

I haven't tried a lot of it but I've read a lot about it here lately.

Well we have calls coming in one from Don, one from Donna but we're going to go ahead and take Don who is actually on line three right now Don, your question for Ali, please.

>> Yes, I eat a lot of fruits and I eat some vegetable and I just wondered how good or bad that is.

>> I would imagine it's all good and absolutely.

Absolutely so please continue to do so.

Fruits and vegetables again are going to give you those phytochemicals, those antiinflammatory foods that we tend to hear a lot about and are going to do a lot of good for you especially from their whole farm.

I would always encourage going for as much fresher frozen that whole form of them.

So you're getting all the good fiber lots of fiber in our diet reducing our risk of colorectal cancer but also all those great nutrients and vitamins and minerals that we don't get from some of those other things.

>> So let me ask you you mentioned earlier fresh vegetables of course being the best.

>> I've read some things about canned vegetables.

>> Should we stay away from those rather than frozen?

Not at all fresh and frozen.

We kind of like to say they're pretty equivalent and frozen is just a fresh frozen immediately after preparing.

>> So it does have the best nutritional benefits just as much as fresh to you.

>> What about sodium in the cans, sodium in Kansas?

The only concern I would say is the sodium.

There are wonderful options now of low sodium, reduced sodium or even no salt added options now canned is absolutely better than nothing and sometimes that's our only option and that is still going to give us good vitamins and minerals not as vibrant and not as many variety as you would get from fresh but absolutely still good to do OK, very good.

>> Donna is online five Donna chooses not to be on the air so I read her question.

>> She's asking is there any substantial benefit or benefits to organic food as opposed to regular food?

>> Good question.

Oh very good question.

>> I get this often so organic versus not organic.

Is it really necessary to do the organic really good by going organic?

What we're doing is pesticides in our diet or pesticide residues on our fruits and vegetables.

However, there is no research to support as far as the cancer risk so that we should go organic versus non organic at this point it's typically up to you as a preference if you want to go organic please do so they can be a bit more costly but fruits, fruits and vegetables plant foods any sort of whole food that you can get that's regular is still going to give you just as many nutritional benefits as if they were not organic versus organic.

>> They're going to be equivalent.

I'm glad you cleared that up when reading the labels on products and I tend to do that a lot.

>> But what are some of the ingredient or chemical red flags that we should be looking for and in order to avoid so there are any particular I would say that we should be a red flag or look for what I look for is more of how many ingredients are in there.

>> Can we go for more wholefood and I know I keep repeating that but wholefood as if you were picking them out of your own garden.

That's how I ideally we'd love to purchase them or consume them and you're getting typically only one or two ingredients on that list.

Less is a little bit more.

You're getting more whole benefit from the plant food as we get more ingredients in there we tend to classify them more as processer ultra processed foods.

That's where they start to fall in two things that are going to be higher in sodium starches sugars and they lose a lot of their nutritional value as they're processed.

>> So it's more of the quantity and can you go for more of the whole ingredients, less ingredients on the list?

>> Well is still true to this day that you can look at the label and if they stack, for instance, sodium at the top, you know there's a lot of sodium.

Is that still absolutely.

Absolutely true.

The ingredient list shows the quantity in them.

So the first listed is the most abundance and as you go down that list they're less in there.

>> So great question and I typically get as seasonings what are the best seasonings if you're looking for a seasoning blend go for one that you see sodium very minimal or sodium not in there and you can tell by that list.

>> Yeah, a lot of those seasonings do have a lot of sodium.

All right.

And the benefits of if any drinking tea tea is a plant food.

So yes, going back to our plant sources tea coffee are great plant sources and great source of phytochemicals that we don't tend to always get in our diet .

>> Do you have to have tea in your diet to have a good healthy diet?

Absolutely not.

You're getting some plenty of those phytochemicals and other sources again going for the colors.

There's plenty of different colors that you can get similar to teas but teas are a great option to getting the caffeine is actually known as a phytochemical and it does a lot of great benefits for a risk reduction.

With that being said, there are some things that may be of concern overall is they tend to have your health halo or clean behind them too good to be true right?

>> Those are the things I would say being more caution if there is a cleansing or immunity boosting sometimes or adding some components and then that might be too concentrated for our body, we would rather get it from their whole form.

>> So those would be the ones I would say be cautious of .

Would that include green tea?

Not at all green tea near some of your herbal teas, more of those natural hole forms you're especially when you're getting the dry tea you can bag yourself wonderful option is getting some great phytochemicals in there and green tea also helps now if I'm wrong, please correct me but I'm just going on what I've been preached and also what I've read.

But doesn't it do something for you metabolized as well so it can help stimulate a little bit so it's not necessarily boosting their metabolism it's just more of that caffeine can help stimulate some things, get things moving similar to coffee .

So it's kind of burning up your energy a little bit, boosting it a little bit.

It's very temporary but it can more so eating those higher fiber foods, those whole foods are going to be what your body has to work harder to break down and that's going to be more the key in helping boost that metabolism.

>> OK, and green tea does have a certain amount of caffeine in it does it does something to drink before you go to bed?

>> Not at all.

Go for more decaf if you can.

There's definitely decaf options or more of your herbal teas.

All right.

Very good.

We took care of tea and coffee which were high on my list.

Ask about I love some good coffee but everything in moderation.

>> Absolutely.

Absolutely too much caffeine also too much of a good thing can be a bad thing to sure.

>> Now let's get into the mode of fast foods .

>> Are they contributing to cancer risks in any way so they are not a direct link so consuming them is not a direct factor but they are typically calorie dense.

So what that means is they don't have a lot of nutrients in them and they eat but they have a lot of calories per serving.

>> So what that can lead to is typically necessarily calories less satisfaction at meal so we tend to eat more and that can lead to the weight gain that's leading to the risk factor for those twelve types of cancer as I mentioned.

>> OK now and what we hear a lot not only nutrition but lifestyle and we know we've talked about nutrition tonight and we've just barely scratched the surface when they're talking about lifestyle, what does that mean?

>> Yeah, so for me that would recommend putting everything I'm recommending into applicable how can we apply it to my life now we hear a lot about I need my fruits and vegetables, I need to do this but how do you apply that and that's more of your lifestyle considerations taking everything that we're talking about and building small components starting small start where you are if that is fruits and vegetables.

>> So we're not doing any of those.

Let's start with doing one vegetable day, one fruit day and starting to build from there as you're building those lifestyles.

This is something that you can do lifelong so finding the fruits and vegetables you enjoy and building upon those and taking some of the considerations such plant foods and doing two thirds of your plate if possible from all of your plant foods and the remaining one third from your animal sources or less depending on what you'd like to do.

>> That's a good way to think of it.

Yeah, pretty easy from a viewer.

Randy has a question about acidic levels and asking if those can lead to any cancer and can normalizing p h stop cancer so this is not something I'm familiar with or that I've heard this is a very common topic right now the acidity and imbalances in our body.

So it's not something that I've directly heard a correlation to cancer.

I'm not familiar that there would be a link directly to cancer but oftentimes our bodies are pretty amazing.

I will say this everything we eat even some of the foods that we classify as acidic our bodies are able to balance their own pretty quickly and pretty easily even if they're acidic foods.

Our bodies are designed to do that.

It's a wonderful thing.

So based on do we need to do more Siddig do we need to do more basic alkaline foods?

Absolutely not.

There's a lot of costs behind some of those things.

It's more of a marketing or the health halo go for more of just your natural whole foods in your body does the work for you OK?

>> And then let's switch gears a little bit.

We've talked about prevention or trying to avoid cancer through nutrition.

What about cancer treatment if you've already got cancer, you're going through some treatments.

>> Are there any specific things that we should know about nutrition in that area?

Yeah, absolutely.

Nutrition plays a very important role not only for prevention but during treatments as well.

It's a very vital to helping with healing repairing recovery treatments themselves take a big demand on the body.

And so it is very important if we can take some of these points that I've talked about and tried to apply them keeping a healthy as much as you're able to during treatments are going to help make sure you're getting the right calories and nutrients your body needs for the healing and energy.

However, there may be some side effects that can put a nutritional impact on your wellbeing and we may not be able to do all of these recommendations and that's where I definitely recommend meeting with a dietician to help individualize that based on your treatment plan and what you're currently going through are there any specific foods, ingredients or anything of that nature that we should avoid if we are going through cancer treatments that would depend on each person definitely would depends on what symptoms you might be having maybe where our recommendations come in.

But typically I would say no, there's nothing that we say that you need to cut out by any means, not anything more than we've already talked about keeping in moderation.

So we want you to still get the good stuff in.

That's more focus.

I'm not taking anything out but let's get more of that good stuff in if we're not doing those fruits and vegetables, let's try to get them in if we're able to to get those nutrients your body needs.

>> No, of course during the treatment protocol I'm sure nutrition does come up.

So who's giving you the advice for nutrition?

Is it going to be your physician or is it going to be someone like you registered dietitian, nutritionist but that there's going to be telling us ah, who's going to be advising us?

>> Yeah.

So we work as an integrated approach.

We definitely would want to focus on what the doctors when they're designing your treatment plan they're going to give you all that direction and they may even give you the diet that they want you to follow.

And as your dietitian we're going to help make that happen and help get you the best and wholesome healthiest approach to that diet, whatever that may be during your treatment.

>> So it's it's a partnership definitely in both approaches for the patient.

All right.

And you know, people age and some of us aren't as young as we used to be and so forth some of us are in that senior category.

Any special advice for seniors?

Is there anything or are there any any items that we need to actually get incorporated in our diet and make us feel better and maybe even live longer?

>> Yeah.

So you're sounding like a broken record but those plant foods are going to be so important they are even more important that we may be at risk as we get older to more nutritional deficiencies.

Bodies aren't working as well as we want them to.

You might be more at risk for some nutritional deficiency so making sure you're getting a wide variety is very important especially as we tend to have a little bit more information as we get older.

So getting some more of those healing properties from those plant foods are very important but also making sure you're getting adequate lean protein like your poultry, fish and seafood low fat dairy products plant protein such as nuts and seeds are all going to be important to help preserving your lean muscle mass as we eat.

>> All right.

We have about a minute left to go.

Let's recap pretty much what we've talked about tonight.

Some take homes for our viewers tonight for good nutrition especially to avoid or prevent cancer.

>> Absolutely.

So eating a healthy diet that composes of a majority from your plant foods two thirds of that plate from plant foods and the remaining one third from your animal sources and trying to limit those red meats and processed meats helping reduce your risk for colorectal cancers and being physically active, helping maintain a healthy long term are going to help major risk factors to helping lower your risk for cancer.

>> I don't think we touched on dairy did we?

>> Dairy okay.

Absolutely dairy we encourage low fat just to help reduce the saturated fat in our diet putting that heart health in unnecessary weight gain.

So there is absolutely important in the diet for calcium and vitamin D are there some good not for profit websites people can check out for some guidance and direction?

>> Absolutely.

A lot of recommendations.

We come from the American Institute for Cancer Research.

It's a great resource and tool for not only these recommendations but how to apply them.

>> Yeah, use that site today is to prepare for the show.

>> Oh great.

Well, Ali Tompsett Thomas Rather Ali, we appreciate you being here.

A registration registered dietitian nutritionist here and get this partial adjusted but we thank you so much.

>> You did a great job first time on television.

>> Oh yeah.

Oh yeah.

So we got to have you back.

Thank you.

Thank you.

You take care and you take care.

Thank you so much for watching HealthLine on PBS Fort Wayne.

We'll be back next week with another show.

Until then, good night and good