New American Plate Challenge
The keys to the new American plate diet are portion and proportion.
Rather than overload your plate with big servings and centering eating around meat, the New American Plate helps you plan meals that are filling, well-balanced, and packed with nutritional value. These meals will leave you pleasantly satisfied, and will help you maintain your weight, and take care of your overall health and well-being.
Typical Old American Plate: The typical American meal is heavy on red meat, fish and poultry. Fully half of the plate is loaded with a huge (8–12 oz.) steak. The remainder is filled with a hearty helping of buttery mashed potatoes and peas. Although this meal is a home-style favorite, it is high in calories and low in phytochemicals and fiber. A few changes, however, will bring it closer to the New American Plate.
The New American Plate: The modest 3-ounce serving of meat (fish, poultry, or red meat) on a plate fits the guidelines for cancer prevention. This plate also features a wider variety of foods, resulting in a diverse assortment of cancer-fighting nutrients. Two kinds of vegetables increase the proportion of plant-based foods, and a healthy serving of a tasty whole grain (brown rice, barley, kasha, bulgur, millet, and quinoa) completes the meal.
Alkaline Diet
The philosophy behind the alkaline diet, is that cancer is caused by having an acidic environment in the body.
According to the framers of the alkaline diet, the Western diet contains too many refined carbohydrates and animal fats, like red meat, pork and white flour, which are acid-rich foods. If a person eats more fruits and vegetables and limits red meat, sugar and white flour/rice, more alkaline ions are available after digestion. The extra alkalinity decreases the acid load and helps reduce the strain on acid-detox systems, she says.
“You need to eat about 80 percent alkaline foods, like fruits, vegetables, whole grains and beans, according to this diet.
There is very limited data that the acid nature of your body causes cancer, but by increasing fruit, vegetables and whole grains, and by limiting red meat and simple carbohydrates, you’re essentially following the American Cancer Society and eating foods that decrease cancer mortality and recurrence.
Paleolithic diet
The Paleolithic diet attempts to replicate the dietary pattern of Stone Age humans — the hunter-gatherers who ate fruits, vegetables, nuts, meat and eggs — while excluding grains, legumes, dairy products and processed foods.
Devotees believe chronic diseases such as cancer arise from the consumption of foods available only after the agricultural revolution. Humans, adherents say, are not genetically equipped to digest these foods.
It’s based on the belief that our ancestors had a superior diet.
But strict adherence eliminates food groups, like beans and whole grains, proven to be beneficial for cancer prevention, decreasing cancer mortality and general health.
Also. anthropological evidence that there is no single Paleolithic diet and that grains have been processed and consumed since Paleolithic times.
This diet tends to have people eat too much red meat, although it does emphasize whole foods, fruits and vegetables.
Ketogenic Diet
The keto diet emphasizes a high-fat, low-carbohydrate meal plan, with 65 percent or more of calories coming from fat.
It works to shift the energy source of cancer cells away from glucose to ketones.
The research is mixed on this. Evidence suggests that some cancer cells appear less able to metabolize ketones compared with healthy cells, while other experiments show tumor cells use ketones for energy.
The biggest stumbling block is the diet is difficult to follow long term and patients often fail to reach the proper level of ketones. It also promotes nutrient deficiency, offering meals high in saturated fat that are low in fiber. It also includes processed foods.
Sadly, there are not many fruits or vegetables consumed here, nor are there any beneficial whole grains or beans, making the ketogenic diet the least in agreement with the ACS and WCRF/AICR guidelines.
Vegan Diet
The heart of the vegan diet is abstinence from eating animal products, such as meat, fish, eggs, dairy and honey. It encourages so-called “cancer-fighting” foods, including berries, greens, whole grains, nuts and seeds.
But not everyone chooses those foods and there are many highly processed and sugar-filled vegan and vegetarian foods. The problem is you can eat poorly while being a vegan or a vegetarian. Vegans often are low in calcium and vitamin B12 compared with omnivorous diets.
An analysis of several studies found that vegan diets are associated with a 15 percent reduction in total cancer incidence, but that figure stems from vegan followers who also exercised, partook in stress reduction and had a social support network in place, leaving scientists to wonder if the other factors influenced the drop.
Vegan diets can come close to ACS guidelines, but patients would need dietary advice to make sure no nutrients are forgotten and that whole foods are emphasized.
Macrobiotic Diet
Imbalance in the body can cause illness such as cancer, according to the Eastern philosophy behind a macrobiotic diet.
Eating — and exercising and meditation — for balance and homeostasis is the goal, so the diet is predominantly vegetarian and emphasizes unprocessed, organic, whole foods. Cereal grains, like rice and millet, make up 40 to 60 percent of the diet, while vegetables and legumes split the rest. It is high in fiber and free of red or processed meat.
The diet was found to have a lower percentage of energy from fat, higher total dietary fiber, and higher amounts of most micronutrients than the Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA), with the exceptions of vitamin D, vitamin B12 and calcium, which were lower than the RDA. It remains a good choice because it meets most of the dietary ACS guidelines.
