EATING RIGHT: EIGHT PRINCIPLES OF FOOD AND HEALTH 235be surprised if one died of a heart attack at age fifty-four, and the other
died of cancer at the age of eighty. What explains the difference? Genes.
Genes give us our predispositions. We all have different disease risks due
to our different genes. But while we will never know exactly which risks
we are predisposed to , we do know how to control those risks. Regard-
less of our genes, we can all optimize our chances of expressing the right
genes by providing our bodies with the best possible environment-that
is, the best possible nutrition. Even though the two Americans in the
example above succumbed to different diseases at different ages, it is en-
tirely possible that both could have lived many more years with a higher
quality of life if they would have practiced optimal nutrition.
PRINCIPLE #5Nutrition can substantially control the adverse eHects
of noxious chemicals.Stories of cancer-causing chemicals regularly appear in the press. Acryl-
amide, artificial sweeteners, nitrosamines, nitrites, Alar, heterocyclic amines
and aflatoxin have all been linked to cancer in experimental studies.
There is a widely held perception that cancer is caused by toxic
chemicals that make their way into our bodies in a sinister way. For
example, people often cite health concerns to justify their opposition to
pumping antibiotics and hormones into farm animals. The assumption
is that the meat would be safe to eat if it didn't have those unnatural
chemicals in it. The real danger of the meat, however, is the nutrient im-
balances, regardless of the presence or absence of those nasty chemicals.
Long before modern chemicals were introduced into our food, people
still began to experience more cancer and more heart disease when they
started to eat more animal-based foods.
A great example of a misunderstood "public health concern" regard-
ing chemicals is the lengthy, $30 million investigation of minimally
higher rates of breast cancer in Long Island, New York, referred to in
chapter eight. Here, it seemed that chemical contaminants from certain
industrial sites were creating breast cancer for women who lived nearby.
But this ill-conceived story has proven to have no merit.
Another chemical carcinogen concern surrounds acrylamide, which
is primarily found in processed or fried foods like potato chips. The