Cancer · Nutrition · Toxins

🎙 Guest: Professor Robert Thomas, MD  ·  📅 Aired July 31, 2026  ·  ⏱ 55 min episode

Introduction

• Things that promote inflammation: eating too much sugar, unhealthy diet, psychological stress, things associated with increased inflammation such as depression, anxiety
  • Excess inflammation encourages cells to divide faster
• Inflammation can be reduced through diet including polyphenols, exercise, no deficiencies for minerals

Genetics and Lifestyle

• The WHO and CrUK predicted that 42 % of cancers are lifestyle related. Within that 40 % caused by obesity
• If we lead a healthy lifestyle can modify the risks and severity of cancer. Healthy lifestyle can reduce the risks of cancer by 50 %

Recent Surge in Cancer and Turbo Cancers

• Due to environmental issues and diet
• There is an increased risk for bowel cancer in younger people
• The increase in breast cancers could be hormone related. The increase in environmental toxins such as xenoestrogens (found in plastics), car fumes, high alcohol intake and a sedentary lifestyle can be contributing
• Decrease in gut health for bowel health
• Increased consumption of ultra processed foods which are full of preservatives, highly processed seed oils, sugar
• In the UK, a study showed that 65 % of the calories children under age 16 are eating are from ultra processed foods

Factors That Drive Cancer

Sugar

• Depletes magnesium
• Increases inflammation
• Feeds unhealthy bacteria in the gut
• Gets us on a pathway to insulin resistance which is highly inflammatory
• Timing of sugar is important
• Eating sugar first thing in morning is bad. It triggers an inflammatory pathway
• Don’t eat sugar first thing in the morning; exercise first thing in the morning which extends the overnight fast. Then eat slow complex carbohydrates, lots of phytochemicals, zero sugars (no fruit juices, dried fruits)
• Blackberries are good

Artificial Sweeteners

• Aspartame is a neurotoxin
• Reportedly when the FDA was investigating the studies on the manufacture of aspartame, Donald Rumsfeld was hired to get aspartame approved by the FDA. He added one person to the committee, so it was a tie, and the senior administrator broke the tie by approving aspartame which is in many of our soft drinks
• Studies on people using artificial sweeteners did not show weight loss or a reduction in heart disease
• These artificial sweeteners adversely affect the gut

Meat Consumption

• WHO states that over 10,000 deaths per year are caused by eating meat more than three times per week. This costs the UK 1.2 billion pounds per year
• All meats have a negative effect, but it depends what it is eaten with
• A US health professional follow up study showed you have a significantly increased risk of cancer if there is a low intake of vegetables and phyto rich food at the same time
• If you eat meat with vegetables, spices and herbs, the risks are significantly lower
• Cooking method matters: if you char it, grill it, smoke it, cook it at high temperatures — this increases the carcinogenic risks and brings out nitrosamines
• For people with a plant-based diet, make sure there are sufficient amino acids
• The meat must be a good quality
• Organic meat is preferred to avoid the added hormones, antibiotics and insecticides/herbicides
• Processed meats, salamis, smoked meats have the biggest risk factors

Stress

• Is an independent risk factor
• Affects the gut motility and gut health
• Can cause inflammation; has been linked to insulin resistance
• Propranolol showed a benefit in triple negative breast cancer patients likely due to reducing stress response
• He is not necessarily recommending propranolol
• Concentrate on gut health, take a good lactobacillus probiotic, exercise 3 hours per week, good sleep
• Meditation and relaxation helpful

Depression

• Study in San Francisco showed depression and anxiety levels were higher than thought
• Men who reported higher rates of depression had higher relapse rate and lower survival

Toxins

• Aluminum-containing deodorants and breast cancer?
• EMF: opens the blood brain barrier, the gut barrier, interferes with intercellular communication. Hardell studies showed cell phones and cordless phones showed a strong correlation with glioblastoma and acoustic neuroma. American Toxicology studies showed correlation between cell phone use and glioblastoma and heart schwannomas
• Microplastics: directly contributes to prostate cancer; causes inflammation and negative hormonal effects; prostate biopsies showed higher concentration of microplastic where tumour is located
• Glyphosate: interferes with detox pathways, opens the blood brain barrier, the gut barrier, interferes with intercellular communication
• Advice:
  • Minimize toxin exposure
  • Counterbalance toxin exposure: good gut integrity, good microbiome, good phytochemical intake

Recommendations — Diet

Polyphenols

• Phytochemicals alone reduced cancer risk by 25 %
• Combining phytochemicals with a lactobacillus probiotic improves outcomes even more — up to 50 % reduction in cancer risk
• Polyphenol role: reduce inflammation, can help upregulate genes, improve gut health, gives diabetes protection by slowing glucose transporter across the gut wall, help inhibit cancer proliferation, helps DNA repair
• Vitamin D is better when combined with lactobacillus probiotics

Keto Diet

• Can help by reducing processed sugar and carbs
• Reduces the metabolic stimulation of cancer cells
• Need to add vegetables and fruits
• If one eats proteins without carbohydrates, the proteins are more likely to be converted into carcinogens
• He likes exercise to extend fast
• Doing the treadmill extends the fast for six hours
• BRCA mutations show that prolonged fasting and extreme diet may have negative effects

Intermittent Fasting

• Have a good overnight fast — 15 hours if possible
• It helps with autophagy, mitochondria and generating stem cells

Breakfast

• To continue intermittent fasting, exercise as it will extend intermittent fasting
• Eat complex carbohydrates, fats (for example nuts, pumpkin seeds)

Meat

• He recommends eating meat three times per week is optimal
• Grilling and cooking meat at high temperatures increases carcinogens
• This is mitigated by eating vegetables at the same time or for example basting the meat in rosemary
• In meat, nitrates when cooked become carcinogenic

Nut Mylks Containing Rapeseed (Canola) Oil

• Probably OK if oil is cold pressed and not highly processed

Omega 6

• OK in healthy form such as avocados, flax seeds, chia seeds
• Depends how omega 6 was processed

Do Parasites Contribute to Cancer?

• He has not seen any research on antiparasitic drugs such as fenbendazole or ivermectin helping in humans
• In theory these have anticancer properties as does green tea, broccoli, turmeric, ashwagandha
• These approaches are safe so he is not concerned about any toxicity

Exercise

• Improves outcomes and lowers relapse
• 2–3 hours per week will significantly reduce relapse for most cancers

His Research on Prostate Cancer

• His team looks at the evidence for certain foods having a protective effect against prostate cancer
• They narrowed it down to pomegranate, green tea, broccoli, turmeric, ginger, cranberry
• In studies, it is difficult to look at diet alone
• He uses supplements with measured amounts of the top phytonutrients
• They added a lactobacillus probiotic with vitamin D to improve gut health and they randomized 220 men
• The results: they saw a clear 50 % reduction in prostate cancer; MRI scans showed a significant reduction; improved urinary symptoms consistent with a reduction in inflammation; improvement in the longevity measures of grip strength and testosterone levels
• He will undergo a controlled study for women undergoing breast cancer treatment

PSA

• Is useful after a prostate cancer diagnosis
• Not such a good screening tool as many prostate cancers are very slow growing
• 60 % of men with hopefully a slow growing prostate tumour accept active surveillance. Half of them drop out and opt for more invasive approaches
• His program gives the patients a feeling of empowerment so men with slow growing prostate cancers can feel they are helping
• Conclusions:
  • Phytochemicals alone reduced cancer risk by 25 %
  • Combining phytochemicals with a lactobacillus probiotic improves outcomes even more — up to 50 % reduction in cancer risk
  • Showed a correlation with underlying disease, markers of inflammation, longevity markers such as grip strength
  • This approach reduces side effects in women undergoing breast cancer treatment

Breast Cancer

Soy Products

• Studies show that eating soy products decreases the risk of relapse
• Soy blocks endogenous estrogens a little bit
• Soy helpful especially if combined with legumes and green tea
• Soy milk, edamame, tofu
• Do not eat soy put in supplements — could result in excess estrogens

Turmeric

• Turmeric not taken in excess is probably OK
• Reduces tamoxifen by 5 %. Can reduce tamoxifen by 50 % — would be OK
• Pepper increases turmeric absorption

Advice for Breast Cancer Patients

• Concentrate on the diet
• Polyphenols and lactobacillus probiotic have been shown to decrease cancer progression
• Some supplements help as a useful tool
• Helps with side effects of breast cancer therapies
• Meat no more than three times per week; grass fed, don’t cook at high temperatures
• Risks with meat are mitigated by eating polyphenols and vegetables at the same time
• Diabetes, stress, depression contribute
• Rotate foods, mylks
• No processed sugars on an empty stomach