USDA Dietary Guidelines and Cancer Prevention | Stronger Than Cancer

Internal Documents Reveal USDA Dietary Guidelines Panel Dominated by ADA | Stronger Than Cancer

What a sad article, but it goes without saying that much of the regulations and standards support the corporations.

In general, the FDA guidelines fall short of optimum health. They are the bare MINIMUM required, not a goal we should reach for.

A perfect example of this is their standard for Vitamin C. The USDA guideline for vitamin C is the minimum amount to prevent scurvy (a disease that sailors used to get when they didn't have access to fresh foods for long periods). Even lab monkeys are given more Vitamin C than the USDA for humans, because they don't want insufficient nutrition to skew results of their research.

Clearly, relying on the FDA, or USDA guidelines are NOT going to lead to health, but surviving cancer means we need to make sure our body always has what it needs to support the immune system...

As Cancer Survivors, we are going to have to take it upon ourselves to create our own dietary guidelines.

If it helps, you can start with a Cancer Prevention Cookbook - they generally contain excellent sections on the nutritional needs that support the immune system - a good example is The Strang Cancer Prevention Center Cookbook:

Or you can start with a Cancer Fighting diet (like the Mediterranean Diet), then adjust and modify to suit your needs. The important part is to eat plenty of nutrient-dense veggies and other cancer fighting foods.

As you go, your guidelines make more sense. As you survive, the USDA requirements make less sense.

I think this is something all cancer survivors come to at some point of their journey.