The No-Dairy Breast Cancer Prevention Program: How One Scientist's Discovery Helped Her Defeat Her Cancer [Paperback]

I went through conventional treatment for breast cancer--6 months of chemotherapy, surgery and radiation. I was given the all clear. A year later routine scans showed metastatic disease in my lung--devastating news. My oncologist was hopeful but not encouraging for my long-term prospects. Incredibly luckily for me, someone close to me heard about Jane Plant and her research that suggests a link between breast cancer to dairy. I had been a daily and enthusiastic consumer of dairy products but I stopped as soon as I learned about it, and read Jane Plant's book. I was persuaded by the science, and have spent the past year almost vegan and completely dairy free. I went back into chemotherapy, and found I coped much better with the side effects because of my plant-rich diet. It hasn't always been easy (I miss cheese!), but here's the payoff: my lung tumor started to shrink within a few weeks, and I have just been pronounced cancer free. I will stay off dairy food, and I want to spread the word as widely as I can. If you've got breast cancer, or if you're at risk, what have you got to lose by giving up dairy? I feel wonderful, and I'm beginning to believe I've got my life back. Thank you, Jane Plant!

The leading cause of death for women between 25 - 75 years of age is cancer. The type of cancer that kills the most women is breast cancer. About 1 out of 10 women will contract breast cancer.

That is a large number of wives, girlfriends, mothers, sisters, friends and coworkers who will be lost to people.

One of these victims was almost Dr. Jane Plant, the first female head of the British Geological Survey and one of the first women hired by the British Geological Survey as a scientist.

Floored by a diagnosis of breast cancer, Dr. Plant decided to respond with what she knew best: science. Part of what the British Geological Survey does is to analyze the relationship between diseases and geographic areas to find links between the disease and what is going on with the land.

Dr. Plant knew from her work that Asians of the far east do not get breast or prostate cancer as often as westerners do. It has been noticed that until recent times Asians tended not to consume milk.

Still having a growing breast cancer tumor threatening her life after having had a mastectomy, several other surgeries, several radiation treatments and chemotherapy Dr. Plant decided to remove all dairy products from her diet.

The tumor began measurably shrinking after a few days and the cancer disappeared from her body not to return.

This story sounds like a fairly typical anecdotal account. What makes this book atypical is that being a breast cancer survivor who is also a scientist Dr. Plant's book has ample citations from well respected sources to support her beliefs.

Dr. Plant's strongest argument is that cows and human beings share a hormone in common: Insulin Like Growth Factor 1 ( ILGF-1). This hormone is identical in structure in both cows and humans. Cancer is basically cellular reproduction running amok and ILGF-1 stimulates cellular growth. Higher levels of this hormone in the blood stream have been associated with increased breast and prostate cancer activity. Dairy cows have been systematically bred for centuries to produce more milk, which means that their bodies also produce more ILGF-1, which finds its way into milk. Contemporary dairy production in the US also involves feeding cows a cocktail of various hormones to increase milk production.

The dairy industry has always maintained ILGF-1 in milk is not a problem because ILGF-1 doesn't survive the human digestion process. In her book Dr. Plant quotes two contemporary studies that show that it is likely ILGF-1 does survive digestion intact and does make it into the human blood stream.

Dairy products and to a lesser extent meat are the dominant sources of ILGF-1 in the diet of most westerners.

Dr. Plant also presents citations for many studies that show possible relationships between cancer and milk. Most of them having little to do with milk fat. Dr. Plant took personal interest in this observation. Like many women she had always made it a point to eat low fat dairy products to avoid potential health issues.

Dr. Plant also gives a fascinating description of how she thinks science works and where she thinks the philosophy of contemporary cancer research has gone astray in terms of good science and has deprived people of freedom from breast cancer.

This book is not dry and maintains the tone of a personal story while being clear without sacrificing rigor with the facts.

The book also gives her personal account of what she went through emotionally and psychologically while she was being treated for cancer.

It has many useful tips for someone else who might be going through the same ordeal. For example, she is convinced that had she known about philosophical differences in the medical culture she could have delayed if not avoided her mastectomy.

Neither a vegetarian or a vegan Dr. Plant concludes her book with a dietary regime for reducing breast ( & prostate) cancer risk. It calls for a vegan diet dominated by organic produce for people who have cancer and as near vegan a diet as people are willing to tolerate to prevent breast ( & prostate) caner.

I found this book to be enjoyable as well as personally empowering. The book has a warm, personal tone. It also plays out like a fascinating detective story of science while giving the reader a lot of information to take charge of their health.

What we eat DO reflect how our body function. Everything that we eat wrong will accumulate into a life of illness and disease. This book details a change of nutrition venue that can literally change the health of your life. Today's society is consuming high levels of toxic chemicals from pesticides to drug-infested meats. I have followed the recommended change in my daily food choices and my (migraine)headaches and sinus allergies are gone! I've started my children on this healthy diet as well.
If you have any cancer or disease, this change will definitely give you a new outlook in life.