Cancer is a frightening disease for those who live with it, and food can be one of the ways to rationalize it and gain strength to overcome it. In the book Comer para Prevenir e Confrentar o Cancer, Marta Carriço and Catarina Sousa Guerreiro present some tools for those who already have the disease, but also for those who want to prevent it. However, always with the proviso that the advice provided is not a substitute for professional medical advice.
This book arose on the basis of an invitation from the publisher who wanted to develop the topic of nutrition and oncology, and the authors decided to take up the challenge. “For us, the need for this framework with the population is obvious, for there to be a greater explanation of the importance of nutrition in the different stages of the oncological process,” says Catarina Sousa Guerreiro, nutrition expert and associate professor at the Faculty of Medicine of Lisbon (FMUL). The ability to clarify the people who follow, and who sometimes get carried away by all the misinformation that exists about the relationship between nutrition and oncology, motivated the authors to write the book.
Throughout the process, Marta and Catarina based their writing on scientific evidence and nothing else, they say. “There are many studies that prove this connection [entre nutrição e oncologia]but the big message will be our clinical experience and everything backed by scientific evidence, “says Catarina Sousa Guerreiro. The experience of working with patients also enabled the authors to know what the doubts really are that plague them.
Marta Carriço is currently a nutritionist at the Champalimaud Foundation, and Catarina also practiced the subject for several years before dedicating her time to academia. The authors focus their analysis on two aspects: prevention and the context of the disease.
In terms of prevention, they present food as a way to give the body everything it needs to stay protected and deal with the aggressions it is exposed to every day – some of which can lead to an oncological disease.
In the context of the disease, “we know that we must guarantee a range of nutrients, energy, protein, we must help patients deal with numerous symptoms, and nutrition here is fundamental in the sense that the patient must know what to eat, clarify your doubts, deal with your symptoms “, explains Marta Carriço.
The authors hope the book will serve as a guiding guide for those undergoing a treatment process with chemotherapy, radiation therapy, surgery, immunotherapy or whatever, and they can find helpful tips on the most appropriate diet for each situation.
Marta and Catarina recognize that when a person is diagnosed with cancer, they are more susceptible and seek more information to find ways to alleviate the effects of the disease. Methods such as intermittent fasting or the alkaline diet may occur in these studies. “It involves a lot to explain to the patient what the scientific basis is for the diets that are ultimately proposed, and to explain to them whether there is scientific evidence or not,” says Marta Carriço.
They also insist on reinforcing that, although there is no scientific evidence for the effectiveness of calorie-restricted diets, they are not recommended by experts. One of the main goals of this book is reading skills, enlightening patients but also their families. The two nutritionists estimate that many of the mistakes made in areas related to nutrition and health have to do with the lack of food knowledge, but that Portugal is well on its way to changing this paradigm.
The book was already written when the authors decided to include a chapter on relative and absolute risk. Absolute risk refers to the likelihood that a person will develop a disease due to their characteristics, while relative risk assesses the risk of a person taking into account behaviors such as eating for example.
“Often when people see that tomatoes reduce the risk of cancer or meat increases this risk, it is necessary to frame it in the risk that the person has because of their age, gender, family history, which are large variables to assign a risk This is the absolute risk “, explains Catarina Sousa Guerreiro.
Then there are the small risks that are added by factors like diet. “Sometimes when patients read that a particular food increases the risk of cancer by 50%, they get scared. But we’re talking about an increased risk that I already have because of my internal variables.” The authors therefore consider it important not to overestimate food and to provide knowledge and information to the patient so as not to lead to exaggeration.
sara.a.santos@dn.pt
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