SILVER LININGS 2008
September 6
Atlantic Hall, Waterfront Hotel, Lahug, Cebu City  
Speaker : Dr. Romulo De Villa
Topic : Eating Right  During & After Chemotherapy
Host  : Gaby Dela Merced 

Emcee: ICanServe supporter, Miss Gaby De La Merced.

Gaby De La Merced: Hello, good afternoon po. Kamusta naman lunch n’yo? Okay ba? Nag-compliment ba sa juicing na ininom n’yo kanina?  Anyway, awhile ago we were talking all about juicing, you know, on how you should juice it before and after chemo and marami tayong natutunan. You know, actually, kahit ako marami ho ako talagang natutunan dun and I can’t wait to use it at home.

Now this time, we are going to talk all about nutrition and with this, I would like to call on Dr. Romulo De Villa to tell us more about nutrition.

Dr. Romulo De Villa (RDV): Good afternoon. First, I would like to thank the organizers for inviting me here to talk to you on nutrition, “Eating What’s Right During and After Cancer”.

Now, in the beginning I always do a survey, quick survey lang.  Can you just answer this to yourself on eating what’s right.  What kind of foods do you eat more often? Is it usually the refined? Refined foods which are white rice, white bread, white sugar, the preserved, those that are cooked, those that are peeled? Eating what’s right is that one on the right. If you just give me one minute, tapos na ako, one minute, just here.  It’s the one on the right, that’s what’s right, during and after cancer; even before cancer.  Eat more of the unrefined, fresh, unpeeled, uncooked, raw, fruits and vegetables. 

Other things that are associated with diseases are those that reduce physical activity; those who like to use the elevator, escalator, car, telephone, driver, and all those conveniences in life.  Remember, they’re all good but they reduce physical activity, and physical activity is very important.

Now who of you feel the urge to move every time you eat a large meal? Kokonti.  We should feel that urge to move every time we eat a large meal. That is an indication that we have eaten enough dietary fiber before in the previous meal, and that will reduce risk of cancer, risk of colon cancer.

Who has relatives and friends with heart attacks, stroke, cancer, diabetes, hypertension? Who? Lahat. Who are suffering from these diseases, just tell yourself. One’s long-term survival depends on mainly two things. One is continuous flow of energy; energy input through the diet and output through physical activity. Hindi dapat naiiwan yan dun sa loob, lumalabas yan dapat through physical activity, otherwise we will all be overweight. The second principle is that of provision of nutrients and even non-nutrients in the proper amount, proper amount. You know that. There must be a recommended dietary allowance.  

In the Philippines its now recommended energy and nutrient input (RENI). But it shouldn’t be just the proper amount; it should also be proper proportion. The balanced diet is not balanced; its not equal balance. A balanced diet is more of fruits and vegetables, that’s the balanced diet. And for fats, it should be balanced; the proper proportion of fat should be more of the healthy fat than the bad fat, because there’s good fat and bad fat. It is not anymore the high or the low of the fat, but it’s the good and the bad. 

Now our body is on automatic control, but we control what we eat, it’s under our control. We control what we drink. We control what we breathe. We can choose to speak or not speak beside a smoker. You can choose to live in certain places where there’s no pollution or you want pollution. And, we can even choose what we do physical activity, whether we are always going to sit down or stand up and walk and move around. We have a choice.

I have a 4 o’clock habit. That habit is 4 o’clock I stand up and walk; walk briskly anywhere around, to walk briskly at around that time. So it provides the physical activity. And there are some initial studies showing that increased physical activity does reduce the risk of cancer.  

A study was done actually in the States, but it was serendipity. Because what they wanted to study was the effect of physical activity of exercise on the mice that has liver cancer. And they induced liver cancer in the mice with a chemical, and the mice developed liver cancer. Then, in about 21 days to one month of exposure to that chemical the animal will develop liver cancer; and then they check for the worsening, they look at the worsening of the disease. Nung una, nasobrahan nila ng toxin, nagkamatayan yung animal, so, inulit.  These were students, so nagkakamali.

Then the second time around, they did it again, exposed, and sa umpisa pa lang they divided into two groups. There’s a group that was receiving physical activity.  So, the mice meron silang wheel na umiikot, so may physical activity yun; the other group, wala. But both were exposed to the chemical that will lead to development of liver cancer, and at the end, nung after ng 21 days, they were supposed to continue that study when the teacher said, “it’s the end of the semester, you finish, and make the report. So they did the report and I happen to be there in their presentation. And in their presentation, they showed yung liver tissue nung may physical activity there was no cancer. Whereas the one walang physical activity nandun yung cancer, liver cancer. So what does that tell you?  Physical activity will reduce the incidence of cancer.

Now we choose our food, we’re going to food; we choose our food based on taste. Taste. What makes food tasty? Yung may fat, yung mataas ang cholesterol. Yung pinirito, yung fried. Yung mataas yung white sugar, sweet, yung salty yan ang nagpapasarap ng pagkain.

Psychological gratification is next, then convenience. What makes the food convenient, yung packed, canned, highly processed.  Packed in plastic, tapos nainit yung plastic on its way in the transport, and when food is heated in plastic the chemicals in the plastic migrates to the food, so, its already toxic food.

Then you have cost, there’s another consideration.  And least of all is health, sometimes psychologic health. Humihingi siya ng tulong, eto ang dapat. It should be health. So, it should be health. And when we get out of this room later, you should know what is right so that you don’t get cancer. If you have cancer, you get better and if you are better already, the cancer does not come back.

Now if you make the poor choices in the food, it can lead to these things: poor quality of life, you age faster, our body degenerates earlier, and we get the diseases that are supposed to come out 70, 80, 90 years old is coming out 20, 30, 40 years old. And we have these modern day diseases now appearing. We have cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes, hypertension, arthritis, magkakapatid yan, yang limang yan, magkakapatid yan. Iisa ang nanay at tatay nyan. They are a dysfunctional family. Yung tatay barumbado, nangbubugbog ng asawa ng anak. Ang tatay na nangbubugbog, anong nangyayari sa asawa at anak niya? Namamaga, nagkakaroon ng inflammation, pamamaga. Ang chronic inflammation is one of the culprits now, identified culprit for all of these diseases, and so, siya yung tatay.  

Sino naman yung nanay?  Bubusina lang ako, huwag magagalit yung mga nanay dyan, pero meron iba na toxic, chemicals and toxins. Toxic sa tenga, maganun ba. So ang effect ng chemicals and toxins, eto rin, mga sakit na ito: cardiovascular diseases, cancer, diabetes, hypertension and arthritis. So these killers now are on a rampage. They kill more Filipinos than the Abu Sayyaf, NPA, terrorists combined all of them. Mas marami pang pinapatay ito. Look at the incidence in our country, the infectious diseases as a killer pababa ng pababa, but cardiovascular disease and cancer pataas ng pataas.  

This is the reason why our Department of Health is shifting gears in taking care of people before they get sick. And I want to do that too. Take care of all of you before you get sick. And if you are sick already, still take care of you first, di ba? Let us also take care of people who are not yet sick. We always think we got diseases from what we do yesterday, or what we did yesterday. What we did last week, last month, maybe last year. But we do not think diseases can come out of what we do everyday since the last 10, 15, 20 years.  

Marami dyan naninigarilyo sabi niya, “Eh, dalawangpung taon na nga ako naninigarilyo hindi naman ako nagka-cancer eh.  Tingnan mo si lolo, oh, 80 plus na hindi pa nagkaka-cancer.” Anong sagot ko dun? “Just wait, you will have your time.” And, gusto ko na nga kausapin yung mga pasyente kong lung cancer. Pwede bang magsalita kayo, mag-testimony kayo sa harap after this? Na talagang masama  yung naninigarilyo. Dahil smoker kayo, ngayon may lung cancer kayo. Para napapansin din naman yung may mga naninigarilyong may cancer.

Problema kasi ang lung cancer can also come out in women who are not smokers, who are not exposed to second-hand smoke. And you know what? We already discovered the cause for these women. It is the fumes of frying. Yung usok ng pagpi-prito, yung usok na yun may acrolein. Acrolein is the chemical produced from the oil. It doesn’t matter kung saturated or unsaturated, all of it, whether saturated or unsaturated may acrolein na napo-produce doon sa fumes.  And when they tested this acrolein on laboratory animals, they set up a cooking and may frying na nangyayari dyan is may hood and then there’s a tube. Sa hood kinolekta yung fumes and then yung tube naka derekta sa cage nung animal; the animal developed lung cancer. Would you like to live in that cage? A house where there is this frying everyday; lalo na kung hindi ventilated yung kitchen, because that is the result of the study. They found it in the household that do not have ventilated kitchen where frying is done everyday.

So here’s the healthy diet, eat raw foods and vegetables daily. Eat enough dietary fiber. Have a balanced energy intake, balanced fat intake. It’s now straightforward, either you do that or if you don’t do that, what are the consequences if not followed? Those are the consequences (hindi na mabasa clear dito sa kabila, dito hindi na mabasa). I’ll just tell you, you have here heart disease, cancer; you have here colon cancer, vascular problems, diabetes, that is a result of not eating enough dietary fiber. Cancer can come out also from not having enough carotenoids. Balanced energy intake, if not, you get obesity, diabetes, hypertension, cancer, heart disease. A balanced fat intake, if not, you get heart disease. 

Straightforward, you choose. You can choose what disease you want. What do you want? Tell me and I will tell you what to do or what not to do. Here’s another one, healthy lifestyle, adequate, regular physical activity; not smoking or exposed to cigarette smoke. And, pollution is not just cigarette smoke and vehicle exhaust, there are now five. You have cigarette smoke, you have vehicle exhaust, and you have what, factory emissions. What else? Fourth, you have burning of leaves and trash. Burning of leaves, bawal na yan. That’s prohibited already. You can tell your neighbors, if they are burning leaves. If you are burning leaves, stop it. That’s carcinogenic. And then fifth, is what I told you earlier, the fumes of frying, that’s the fifth.

If you don’t do that, here’s the consequence, so you get diabetes, heart disease, cancer, heart disease pinaka-common. What’s the most common, heart disease?  Halos sa lahat ng yun. That’s why the number one killer or the most common is still heart disease.

Today’s unhealthy lifestyle. Eto lifestyle natin ngayon, excessive stress, pollution, vehicle exhaust, factory emissions, cigarette smoke. Even our foods are already polluted, and we make the choices that are polluted. We chose the polluted food, we don’t know. But I will tell you later, or you will tell yourself later, “Ah, polluted pala yun.” Excessive alcohol consumption, low physical activity, convenient but unhealthy diet, maraming preservative, coloring and flavoring; micronutrient deficient, fast foods and junk foods. You know vitamins and minerals are not the only micronutrients, we now have phytonutrients, plant nutrients. Nutrients found exclusively in plants. These are the phytonutrients, they fight cancer.  Phytonutrients: fight-ito-cancer.

Then you have unbalanced diet, kulang nitong what I call “high fiber diet”. It should be high, but there’s a lack of these food, fruits, vegetable, whole grain cereals, fish, full cream milk boiled egg. These are the right foods. Eating what’s right. They’re right.

Milk, full cream milk; milk does not feed cancer. Milk does not feed cancer. Maraming nagsasabi niyan, milk feeds cancer, but milk does not feed cancer. I give you the information, marami ng nagbigay sa akin niyan na, “Doc, ang milk daw nakaka-cancer daw.  It feeds cancer daw.  Here’s the study, you make the conclusion. 

The study that I found was done in Australia. They mix milk in saliva, hinalo nila yun, milk and saliva. That’s what happens when we drink milk, right?  We mix milk and saliva, and when they mix milk and saliva, it became mucoid consistency.  It became like a mucus. You feel like parang dumami yung mucus ko, but it’s not mucus. It just feels like mucus. The consistency is just like mucus.  Actually, kahit ako guilty ako niyan. Dati sa mga bata sa anak ko pinapatigil ko yung gatas pag may ubo o may sipon. Kasi, sabi ko, lalala yung ubo, sipon, dadami yung plema, pero hindi. Now, I don’t ask them to stop drinking milk, hindi naman dumadami ang plema. I just give them the right food and some supplements and they get better even with the milk. So, milk does not stimulate mucus. Kasi sabi nila milk daw feeds cancer because it stimulates mucus production and mucus feeds cancer, yun ang sabi. But milk does not stimulate mucus production. Milk with saliva is mucoid in consistency.

Next is, I do this in my lab. I’m a cancer researcher also.  I grow cancer cells. I feed cancer cells in the lab so that I can investigate them to find out how to kill them. I first make them survive, give them their food and then I find out how to kill them more effectively. So, what do I give them? I give them vitamins, minerals, amino acids, fatty acids, I don’t give them mucus. But as they grow, later on after about five days to seven days that they’re growing there in the lab, when I observe I see mucus around the cells, the cancer cells. What are they doing?  They are producing mucus. They are not feeding on mucus, they are producing mucus and in fact, one of the mucous proteins, mucoid protein that the cancer cells produced; we are developing a medicine targeting that.  So it’s not true that milk feeds cancer cells.  

Naisip ko lang na siguro may nagkamali niyan. Merong researcher na-invite ng kaibigan niya, lay person, pinakita niya, “Tingnan mo ito mga cancer cells yan.” Tapos nakita niya, “Uy! Maraming mucus.”  Sabi niya, “Siguro kumakain ng mucus ang cancer cells. Tapos pinagsabi, sinabi ng sinabi ng sinabi. You know, false information, yung hindi katotohanan sabihin mo one hundred, one thousand times, dun sa susunod na huling makakadinig totoo na yun. So like that. So milk is good.  

Full cream milk is good. The cream of the milk has conjugated linoleic acid, it is anti-cancer. The cream of the milk has butyric acid; this is a kind of saturated fatty acid that is short chain. And they found that this short chain saturated fat reduces the risk of colon cancer, so, it’s anti-cancer, the cream of the milk.  There was a case, na umiikot din sa internet na sinasabi na breast cancer patient ito na nung tumigil ng pag-inom ng gatas, nag improve yung breast cancer niya, imbes na lumalaki, lumiliit yung cancer. How come?  

There are two ways of growing the cow, either they’re grass-fed or they’re given feeds. During the manufacturing of feeds merong dioxane na napo-produce, that’s the chemical/toxin that will feed cancer to get worse. Then when you stop drinking that kind of milk, that is, from cows given feeds, then the cancer will get better. This woman was living in Europe, and in Europe the cows there are given feeds. Where’s the place where the cows will be given grass, New Zealand and in Australia. She was living in place where the cows were fed with feeds not grass. That’s why she got better. Milk is good but it depends on where you got it.  

So eating what’s right, ito na umpisa natin, introduction pa lang yung kanina, marami sa inyo seryoso na. Eating what’s right during and after cancer. What is right? I have summarized it already in one statement. What is right? Obey the traffic light. If you obey the traffic light, you will not get into an accident. You will not get into an accident.  

Pag green light, what does that mean? Go! Okay, walang problema dun, Go. Kaya lang  baka merong ibang nagbe-beat  ng red light, tumingin ka din sa kaliwa’t kanan as you go.  How about yellow light, what does it mean?  Go pa rin?  Go faster?  Caution, prepare to stop.  Wala namang go dun, eh.  Prepare to stop.  How about the red?  Stop na talaga. Hindi go as fast as you can. I have seen drivers of vehicles who went as fast as they can and naaksidente, major accident. You’ll get into a major accident if you go on a stop. If you go on a caution, it may be a minor accident, some bruise and scratches. Pero yung major accident, it can cause you your life. So obey the traffic light. And I have summarized it into the traffic light.  

I have developed this Dr. De Villa’s Traffic Light. Dr. De Villa’s Traffic Light of Nutrition. That is what is right, obey the traffic light. So, interactive ito, I can make this short, one minute, five minutes, ten minutes; maybe two hours, three hours, one day, I can do it. Kasi interactive ito, I can change the slides according to the time allotted. So, this is the traffic light. 

You have the traffic light of food, and the traffic light of processing. Meron na ngang pangatlo, eh. I already have the traffic light of utensils, cooking utensils and eating utensils. That is the traffic light there. And it is all based on where we get the chemicals and toxins. Where we get a lot more, and then it has accumulated, that’s where I have classified it in the red, itigil na natin yun, okay? And then sa hindi masyadong marami and there are ways of avoiding or reducing, then dun, nilagay ko sa yellow.  And those na hindi natin masasabing hero, ‘coz in the North Pole and in the South Pole, eh, may pesticide pa din dun, wala namang agriculture dun. Makakapagtanim ba tayo dun?  Hindi.  So, may pesticide pa rin dun, so, if it’s there, it’s everywhere. Wala na tayong ligtas. We just have to neutralize these chemicals and toxins with antioxidant supplements.  The ones I classified in the green are the ones with the least chemicals and toxins, but they are nourishing to the body. They have cancer fighters particularly the fruits and vegetables, may cancer fighters yan.   

So, first the food, these are the principles that I used to identify which foods have more chemicals and toxins in them. Bioaccumulation, biological mechanisms of accumulation of these herbicides, pesticides, industrial chemicals, mine tailings. They accumulate through these two principles: the food chain and the water cycle.

Food chain, this eats this, lower in the food chain. Then this one eats this, higher in the food chain. And if this eats this, and in here you have one pollution unit, and this animal eats ten of these how many are in here? At most it would be ten but it is usually less because of the processing and all that. But generally, there’s accumulation, bioaccumulation through this food chain as you go higher. Then the next one, assuming this is ten and eats ten of these, then how many here?  One hundred na. Now my question is who’s on the top of the food chain? Us, man. So we better eat lower in the food chain. Which one is lower in the food chain, plants or the animals? Plants, we better eat more plant foods. Evidence shows that people who lived to be centenarians like the Okinawans of Japan, they live to be centenarians. You look at their diet, its 80% plants and only 20% animals. So eat more plant foods.

Next, water cycle, susundan natin yung tubig it evaporates from the sea, forms clouds in the air, then it rains over land, over polluted atmosphere. San nanggaling yung pollution? Lima, vehicle exhaust, factory emissions, burning of leaves and trash, cigarette smoke, what else, fumes of frying.  Be careful sa malls, enclosed mall, tapos maraming  nagpi-prito-prito na mga kiosks na maliliit dun sa gitna, mga bandang alas-kwatro  o alas-singko, ganyan, marami ng acrolein sa hangin. 

So it falls over land, gets the pollution, over land it goes to the streams, goes to the river pabalik sa dagat. In the river, this is joined by sewers which drain more chemicals and toxins. Then the river is joined by effluence from factories who’ve positioned themselves beside the river. So, kung nandyan sila beside the river, siyempre, derecho na lang sa river yung wastes nila, na nagkakakulay tuloy yung river. Walang kulay yung chemical and toxin, pag mix dun sa river nagkakulay, huh, huli, mahuhuli yun. So, dun maiipon.  

And then the river gets wider and wider as it goes back to the sea. The flow gets slower and slower, the pollution settles to the bottom. Who lives in the bottom of the river, in the mouth of the river, the bottom of the mouth of the river, nandun yung dalag at yung hito sa ilalim. Nandun yung crabs, yung shells, yung shrimps.  Kanino naiipon? Sa bay lalabas yung tubig sa bay, tapos from the bay out to the open sea. Sa bay they already found pollution accumulating in the bay.  So, pati yung bay fish meron din, dapat out there in the sea, may isda na malinis nandun sa sea. So, that’s the effect of the water cycle.

How about processing? Processing produces toxic substances. Certain processing exposure to high heat of cooking above 100 degrees centigrade converts unsaturated fatty acids to lipid peroxide. What is that cooking above 100 degrees centigrade that is cooking oil, cooking with oil that is frying. When we fry the unsaturated fatty acids which is good, the unsaturated oil which is good will turn bad. So sa fat, it’s not the high nor the low, but the good and the bad.  Always, we must identify what’s good and what’s bad. Unsaturated oil is good, yes, if you get this unsaturated oil from the very vegetable where they came from. Because unsaturated oil came from vegetables, they’re vegetable oil. So eat the vegetable and you get the unsaturated oil. But if you get the oil, and then heat it to very high temperature, then, it will turn bad. It turns into peroxide.  Would you like to drink peroxide everyday? 

Of course not!  

But that’s what you are doing if you’re eating fried foods everyday. Papasok na yung chemical and toxin lipid peroxide dito, tapos habang kinakain mo pa yung fried food, ang init-init pa, may fumes, naaamoy mo pa yun, may toxin pa ring pumapasok sa lungs, double jeopardy. So high temperature cooking, baking, frying of starch based, of starchy foods, if you bake, if you fry them they turn into the starch itself, turns into acrylamide. Acrylamide is a nerve poison and it is also carcinogenic. The food that has the highest acrylamide of all is fried potato and fried camote. Yun ang pinakamataas na acrylamide. 

Laging sinasabi ko, I’m just an information broker here. I give you the information and you decide what to do with your body. So if you want acrylamide which is carcinogenic, then go ahead, I will not stop you, okay? Kahit kumain ka pa sa harap ko, hindi ako magagalit. So yan, broiling of meat, charcoal produces carcinogenic substances such as benzopyrene, methyl colantrine, ano yan, barbeque yan.  Okay?  Heating food in plastic containers, releases chemicals in the plastic to the food. Those are the processing, frying, baking, broiling and cooking food in plastic.

Look at boiling, in the study, they did not find acrylamide in boiled vegetable. The boiling will not produce toxin. Boiling is perfectly okay. Maraming ways of cooking the food by boiling, cooking in water. Sa American way is two. Sa atin ano? Nilaga, sinigang, pangat, those are the boiling.

Fish, let me focus on fish. Fish is healthy, according to the Bible.  God told us already what fish to eat. “These shall ye eat,” sabi Niya in Leviticus, “of all that are in the waters you can eat them whatsoever hath fins and scales, in the water, in the seas and in the rivers, them shall ye eat.”  Okay? So fish, but those that have fins and scales, okay, fins and scales. Why is fish healthy?  Because of the omega-3 fatty acids in them, they balance the omega-6 fatty acids. The healthy balance of omega-3 to omega-6 is 1:1 up to 1:4, but if you are a land meat eater, a land meat eater, ano ba yun? Pork, beef, chicken, yun ang land meat eaters, specially pork, your proportion is 1:40, from 1:20 up to 1:40.  And if you have excess more than 1:4, omega-3 to omega-6, that will produce inflammation, yun ang tatay ng pagkakasakit, chronic inflammation.  And pork, look at pork.  Pork is rich in omega-6. The proportion of omega-3 to omega-6 is 1:9. May nabasa akong article one time, sinasabi, “Pork is better than beef, because pork has unsaturated fat,” sabi niya.   

Pero ako, hindi ko tinatanggap yun, bakit? Eh, duktor ako eh, duktor ako ng mga pilosopo eh. Hindi lang ako duktor ng tao, MD; I’m also a PhD, di ba? Itagalog mo yung PhD, Doctor of Philosophy, ano yung tagalog ng Doctor of Philosophy, duktor ng mga pilosopo. O, di ba? So, hindi ko basta-basta tinatanggap yun.  Inieksamen kong mabuti. I’m also a molecular oncologist, I look at molecules. So what is the molecular basis for that? Hindi porke’t sinabing unsaturated fat is good, lahat na ng unsaturated fat good. Hindi rin. It’s the proportion of omega-3 to omega-6 that will make it good. The proportion in pork is 1:9 omega-3 to omega-6. Sobrang-sobra yung omega-6, because sobra siya, then its bad.  So the unsaturated fat there is bad. Plus, the saturated fat in pork is also bad.  Why?  Because it is long chain saturated fat, and that long chain saturated fat, when that’s metabolized in our body will produce cholesterol, bad cholesterol, LDL, pampataas. 

Now, the medium chain saturated fat that is good. It’s found in coconut and the medium chain protects us from viral infections. Yung short chain, that’s also good. It protects us from, what, colon cancer. It reduces the risk of colon cancer.  It nourishes the lining of the colon. It nourishes also the good bacteria. And that’s butyric acid.  Butyric acid is found in the cream of the milk.  

Pre-distribution of this … perfloro octane sulfonic acid. This is a chemical toxin in the Belgian Dutch Marine and Estuarine Environment. Ok? Estuarine. Estuarine is the mouth of the river ok. At rather hindi naman high lang, at rather high concentrations. Ok? This is published in the Environmental Toxicology Chemistry 2003 pa. Ok? And yung iba sasabihin, pilosopo kasi. Sasabihin “eh sa ano naman yan eh, sa Dutch, sa Belgium, hindi naman sa Pilipinas.” But industries that make this pollution are also here in the Philippines. So and they, they also stay beside the river and then they dump their waste also in the river. So nandun din. Toxins in bay fish, heavy metal toxins found in fish from Kishmir Lake, Turkey. Those are the concentrations that they found mercury, cadmium, lead, chromium ok? Those are the heavy metal toxins ok?  

And now we also find it in man. They collected toe nail and hair samples from 160 subjects – 83 males and 77 females, residing in Lahore City and in suburban areas in Pakistan. And examined the concentrations of arsenic, cadmium, lead and other metals ok using that method. And the mean level of hair, toe nail, arsenic levels were high already. So that’s published in Environmental Science.  

So I based all my statements actually on studies. What next? How do you want me to discuss this? Let’s look at… you have….You want more toxins? Where do you get toxins? They’re up there. In the red. Ok? Pork. The meat ok? Eto na naman. Where, it says God said “Nevertheless, these shall ye eat, not eat ok?  Not eat the swine.”  Ano yung swine? That’s the pig ok? And look at meat eating, heart disease and bowel cancer correlates positively with meat consumption. Ok? Look at that. The lower the consumption of meat, the lower the incidence of heart disease. The greater the consumption of meat, the greater the incidence of heart disease and bowel cancer or colon cancer. Ok? Now, so for me pork is out.  3 strikes on pork it’s out. Minsan china-challenge ko nga ito eh. If I show you and convince you that there are 3 strikes will you take it out? Yes, ok so I will go ahead and show you.  

Strike 1: 80% of chemicals and toxins are fat soluble ok? And pork has a very high fat content in its body ok? All over. High levels of fat soluble chemicals and toxins and these are the ones that generate damaging free radicals in our body.  Ok?  

Second. It’s rich in long chain saturated fat. And this long chain saturated fat ok, promotes athro-genesis, which is the culprit of heart attack and strokes. And also diabetes. This is a recent finding. Ok? It may be promoting the development of diabetes. Why? Because long chain saturated fats when they are absorbed, ok into  the blood, your blood levels will go up and these blood levels of long chain saturated fats ok will inhibit the pancreas from releasing insulin. And so your blood sugar after the meal will remain high. Will not go down because there’s lack of insulin released from the pancreas ok? And if you eat food that is refined, no fiber, your blood sugar will go up very fast. And with the pork, it’s going to stay high…. Longer. And what is that? That is impaired glucose tolerance. When it remains high for a longer period of time ok? So it can promote the development of diabetes. And after diabetes is born, next will be cancer. Pag nagkaroon ng cancer, o na-diabetic very happy yung cancer cells. Ang dami niyang pagkain.  Ok?

Strike 3: it is rich in Omega 6 fatty acids that promote inflammation which is a factor not only for heart disease, cardiovascular disease and arthritis because inflammation, really siyempre pag namaga yung joints mo, arthritis lalong lalala yan. Ok? But it is now being discovered to be a factor also in the development of cancer. Ok? Yung chronic inflammation ok? Iyan ang dadalhin ng pork. So… for me pork and pork products are out.  Ok? 

Now, you want evidence? Here’s evidence. A pesticide content ok, of pork tissue in the fat, in the muscle and in the brain, ok… this is a link to the internet downloaded from PubMed, an article there of a study showing that the pesticide content in fat underneath the skin is high. But when they looked at the muscle, it’s even higher and much higher pa sa liver. And the highest is in the brain.  Now, doctor nga ng mga pilosopo eh so tinanong “Bakit?” Bakit mas mataas dun? Bago ko tanggapin kailangan may rason muna.  And you know what I found, the kind of fat underneath the skin turns over. Yung nagfo-form siya tapos nagbe-break down. Kung meron kayong taguan, chemical is fat soluble. So the chemical, toxin will go with the fat. Dito sa storage room na ito na ginawa niyo. So maiipon, pupunta dun. Tapos hindi pa napupunuan, sinira niyo na yung fat.  Bin-reak down yung fat.  Eh di kailangan lumabas yung toxins, chemicals di ba?  So hindi talaga mapupunong-puno. Pero ung kuwarto na ginawa niyo na hindi na nasisira, mapupuno yan. Ganun yung fat sa muscle, sa liver at saka sa brain, lalo na sa brain ok? Once it’s made, it’s not broken down. That’s why it accumulates more chemicals and toxins.  

Ok, crabs, shells and shrimps I think I’ve discussed that na. Fried… frying produces lipid peroxides. And this is a study on rats that was given thermally oxidized corn oil. What is corn oil, saturated or unsaturated?

Unsaturated. Ok? And the peroxide is produced from the unsaturated fat or oil. The more unsaturated fat content of the oil, the greater the peroxide produced ok? And they found toxicity of oxidized fats ok? Of tissue levels of lipid peroxides in rats fed thermally oxidized oil ok.  

Diet, your diet is given thermally oxidized oil. Ano bang ibig sabihin nun?  Pinakain nila ng prito, yung mga pinirito sa corn  oil. Yun ang pinakain nila dun sa rats. And they found lipid peroxides in 6 organs ok? Tissue levels of lipid peroxides in 6 organs, namely the liver, the kidney, the brain, the heart, the lungs, the testes ok? They are only found in 6 organs the lipid peroxides because… that’s what they tested.  If they tested other tissues pa, they will find it there.  Ok?  

So next.  Ooppps sorry… let’s go back.

So how about baking? Baking when you heat the food, when you bake the food.  Bake starchy foods. Baking starchy foods will produce acrylamides. Heat treated foods produces acrylamides ok? 

Just to show you, this is the study. This was taken from PubMed. Pubmed is a published medical literature from the National Library of Medicine in the US. So these are the studies. Occurrence and analytical method of acrylamide in heat treated foods. So they found acrylamide in heat treated foods. The heat, the heating was by frying and by baking.  

Now, we go to the … those are the foods that will feed development and worsening of cancer. How about fruits and vegetables?

God said in Geneses 1:29 “in the which of the fruit of the tree yielding seed, to you it shall be for meat. “ Ok, ang meat pala natin, hindi karne. It is the fruit. And I have given every green herb. This is actually vegetables. For what? For meat ok.

So that is our proof, that is what is right. We must eat a lot of fruits and vegetables. That will prevent cancer. That when you have cancer already, that will still prevent, prevent worsening of cancer.  

And after cancer already, that will still prevent. Prevent what? The return of cancer. So that is what’s right. Ok?

For cancer patients already, malnutrition will kill 40% of cancer patients. 40%...so dapat mabigyan ng tamang nutrisyon, the right one.  Nutrition protects patients against toxic effects of chemo and radiation without reducing the effectiveness of the chemo. So it should be combined. This is what I say, our enemy, cancer is actually a heterogeneous enemy. If you can line up all the cancer cells in one patient, pagtabi-tabihin natin yung cancer cells, hindi sila pare-pareho.  Iba-iba sila. Yung isa may dalang armalite.  Yung isa may dalang grenade. Yung isa may grenade launcher. Yung isa merong bayonet. Yung isa may shovel, yung kanyang dulo ng… baril niya kayang humukay.  Yung isa may cellphone yung baril niya. Iba-iba ok? And if your enemy is different, how will you fight it?  With only one? No, you must also be heterogeneous.  Ok?  So iba-iba, we should combine. Combine the right nutrition, eating what’s right with the chemotherapy, radiation, surgery and other, maybe other modalities and kung ano-ano pa.  When a study was done on cancer survivors, they found, they found that….

Sorry….wrong side…

They found that these survivors, the survivors are the ones who are open to a lot of things. May nabalitaan na ganyan, ok try that. Try this, try that. Sa dami ng sinubukan, nag survive. Hindi mo na masabi kung alin ang nag-work.  Ok?  And who cares, for me if I was that, who cares I’ll try more, other things. Ok? Sa akin lang that should be cautioned by 2 S’s. One is safety. Safety considerations. As long as whatever you will try is proven safe. And second one is studies were done so that hindi naman sayang yung gastos dun, meron talagang nagagawa in relation to cancer and in relation to fight against cancer by strengthening the immune system.  

So….Let your food be your medicine and your medicine be your food. If you choose the cancer killing, your cancer starving foods, your food is medicine. And what are those cancer-killing foods? They are plant foods, yung vegetables, broccoli, beans, like soybeans, food herbs like garlic, teas like green tea. And then animal foods like full cream powdered milk from grass feed cows, boiled eggs is also ok as long as the chicken is not given feeds because the feeds are what? Dioxane. Ok? And as long as it’s boiled, not fried.  Fish, salmon, sa fish tatlong S.  Dapat from the Sea, with Scales, because they found the fish without scales nandun yung mercury. And the third is Small fish. Because big fish eat small fish right?  And the bigger the fish, the higher in the food chain of fishes in the sea.  So sa akin practical lang, kung kaya mong hawakan mula ulo hanggang buntot, kaya mong hulihin… pwedeng kainin. Pero kung mas malaki pa diyan baka ikaw na ang hulihin at kainin nuon. So marami nang toxins sa katawan nuon.

So cancer starving nutrition, yan yung anti-oxidants rich in phytonutrients. Fruits and vegetables na naman. Second, reduce the available glucose for the cancer by eating a high fiber diet ok? Eating a high fiber diet. In fact I say fiber foods first. Eat fiber foods first. And the second, I’m on my way, on track to pursue a study on this, high Vitamin C. High Vitamin C. because when you combine high lipoic acid from spinach with high vitamin c, it becomes toxic to the cancer cells.  And third of course, will be to balance excessive Omega 6 with Omega 3 from the fishes

So ito yung prevention of cancer. Dietry substances with potential chemo protective properties, green tea, polyphenols plus veratrol, soy isoflavones, lipoic acid, curcumin, lycopene, sulfurade. Ok? Those are the phytonutrients. Green tea from….catachins from green tea, resveratrol from red grapes, soy isoflavones from soya of course, lipoic acid from spinach, curcumin from luyang dilaw.   Luyang dilaw or curry, or turmeric. Lycopene, you know that, sulfurein this is from broccoli.  So it’s really fruits, vegetables, beans, tops, legumes, teas ok?  Whole grain cereals, those plant foods, you will not go wrong.  

And I think I should end with this but…. Where will I end?

So dito ko na ii-end. Traffic light of nutrition, just simply obey that traffic light of nutrition, you will not go wrong. I have 2 traffic lights here. The traffic light of food and that traffic light of processing, I have already developed a third traffic light and that’s the traffic light of processing. I’m preparing a book which will be entitled The Traffic Light of Nutrition. Dr. de Villa’s Traffic Light of Nutrition. So I will discuss it there, give all the evidences why and… so that you will know why, why this is in the red, why this is in the yellow and the other one is green. So I think that’s it. And essentially ito yung hi-five.  Thank you very much.

GDM:  Thank you doctor.  Now the floor is open for any questions.

Q1:  Doctor, what can you say about Equal, about aspartame? Is that good or is that bad?

RDV:  It is not natural, controversial pa yung mga studies. May or may not but for me, for me I’d rather have the real…. The real food. Kung sugar, the problem is not the high nor the low of the sugar but is the proportion of the carbohydrates with fiber. So  it’s the proportion… it’s coming from this…ok, for me it’s not that… the sugar, the source of the sugar but.. we should go natural. Eat more of the foods that are high in fiber to control the blood sugar. It’s not the high nor the low of the sugar itself but it’s the presence of the fiber foods. Maybe you want to say…

Q2:  Coffee for instance… doctor.  So oftentimes most people use now Splenda or Equal and then how about Light Coke and the light carbonated wa---

RDV: Even if they are not diabetic?

Q2:  Even if they are not diabetic, they are trying you know to prevent the onset of diabetes so they take anything light.

RDV: There is no study that it will prevent the onset of diabetes. What will prevent the onset of diabetes is….increasing the fiber content of the diet. That is the one that will prevent the onset of diabetes.

Q2: But you can take for instance, if you do not eat enough fruits and vegetables, you can take supplementary cilium?  Is that ok?

RDV:  It is not an alternative. It’s not a replacement for the fruits and vegetables.

Q2:  Supplementary… in addition to…

RDV:  Still, supplementary. So you still… what is a supplement? That means in addition to so that means you still have to take fruits and vegetables. So if you feel it’s not enough the fruits and vegetables, then take it as a supplement. But…. Still have to take fruits and vegetables. Because cilium does not have catachins, resveratrol, curcumin, lipoic acid and the other phytonutrients. And they are in the thousands.  So… we still have to eat the…

Q2:  So how do you know that you have taken enough fiber in your diet.  And they say they float…

RDV: If you move your bowels after every large meal. Or you still, you feel the urge. At least you feel the urge to move. That means you have enough dietary fiber in the previous meal and that this fiber is now in the colon and if it’s… this fiber is in the colon, then you eat, it… your stomach expands, it’s on top of the transverse… colon, it’s going to press on that, stimulate that to contract.

Q2:  And how about this, they say you have enough fiber if when you poop, your poop floats, how is that?  How true is that? 

RDV: The floating is the amount of air. It depends on what happens during the, during the process of compacting the stool. So if it’s very compact, it’s going to sink. If it’s not so compact, imagine tunaw na, dun sa, sa pila. Tapos sumunod, sumunod ito. There is some air in between that got packed. That’s going to float.

Q2:  Thank you so much because that’s what I, what I have heard.

RDV:  The amount of stool everyday, the total length of your stool should be… this…. The length when it comes out. The length should be this. Yes. Not this big ‘no? Mahihirapan lumabas iyan. Pero yung length. Yes, when it comes out. That means you have enough fiber and you also have enough pro-biotics. Because pro-bio also is in that mass

Q3:  Doctor, tilapia and bangus are fresh water fish, is that not good to eat also?  Secondly… my second question, we cannot memorize everything you have said, where can we find it?

RDV:  The traffic light of nutrition you will find that in my website ok.  My website is drdevilla.com  www.drdevilla.com First one is on…

Q3:  Fish and tilapia… bangus and tilapia are fresh water…

RDV: Ok. Yes. I’ll give you the information then you decide ok? I’ll give you the information then you decide. A study was done because I told you I always base it on a study. A study was done locally here in the Philippines. They did a nationwide survey of… of pond fish. So fresh water fish, tilapia and bangus and they found mercury in the tilapia and bangus. Where does mercury come from?  From mining for gold. And there’s going to be more and more mining for gold.  This is mine, this is mine and this is mine.  

Q3:  But salmon is very expensive doctor. And salmon, and we have little salmon in the Philippines, it’s imported.

RDV: Yeah, there are many other fishes that are from the sea, with scales and relatively small. Banac, talakitok, maya-maya… marami.

Q3:   Thank you. 

GBM:  Would anyone like to ask anything else?  

Q4:  And doctor, what can you recommend for a cancer patient, the intake of vitamin c of cancer patients who are hyper-acidic.

RDV: Do not take ascorbic acid.  Do not take ascorbic acid. Take the, the non-ascorbic acid which is the mineral ascorbate like sodium ascorbate, calcium, magnesium ascorbate. What I recommend is the sodium ascorbate.

Q4:  How about the intake of juice? How… the limitation as to the number of glasses that we have to take in a day.

RDV: For my cancer patients I give 12 to 16 grams of sodium ascorbate together with 35 mg of lipoic acid which was found in a study to be cytotoxic to cancer cells. When you combine those 2 – 35 mg of lipoic acid with 12 grams of vitamin c.  And I use sodium ascorbate. So when, when you combine these 2, it became toxic to cancer cells. Ok? And … but the lipoic acid, 35 mg, you will find that in 210 lbs. of spinach. So you cannot eat the spinach. How about 12 grams of vitamin c? You cannot eat that from citrus fruits either. And so it must really be supplemented. At supplemental levels, they show that it became toxic to cancer cells. Ok?

Q5:  Doctor, can you recommend what particular supplement to answer that requirement?

RDV: Well, I don’t talk about brands here. And I have patients out there who are surviving now and you can ask them. But I use a supplement, yung the one with lipoic acid. The one that already has the…. the other phytonutrients in it. And one pack of that twice a day given, taken twice a day, you will get the 35 mg of lipoic acid. Ok? The brand that I use with sodium ascorbate is the one with that is not in capsule. Because if you will take it in capsule 500 mg capsule of sodium ascorbate, you will need, how many capsules? 24 capsules a day. And the one I use is in powder form. So the one level teaspoon is already 4 grams and you take 3 teaspoons a day, one teaspoon three times a day mixed with juice, water like that.

GBM:  Ok, we have time for one last question.

Q6:  Doctor, I have read women taking coffee has less, are not prone to uterus cancer, what can you say about that?  Women taking coffee, men also.

RDV: Yes.  Actually coffee, coffee has anti-oxidants. It’s true, coffee has anti-oxidants. But…I…and a lot of the anti-oxidants are actually also cancer fighters.  So I’m just making a generalization. But I don’t know exactly what are the anti-oxidants in coffee, which one is anti-cancer in coffee, I don’t know. But that’s a general, generalization that a lot of anti-oxidants are also cancer fighters. I discussed that actually, pinutol natin yung slides ko that I have the evidences for, for phytonutrients being anti-oxidants as well as cancer fighters. But these cancer fighters are actually… snipers in a war, parang snipers sila. They can distinguish cancer from normal cells ok? Kahit magkatabi yun. The cancer cell will die, the normal cell will survive and will be nourished by the nutrient. But the nutrient will kill the cancer cell. Example, catachins from green tea, triggers cancer cells to commit suicide, apotosys…ok? Whereas normal cells do not commit suicide.  Lipoic acid is another one that can distinguish cancer cells from normal cells. Yung cytotoxicity na yun is on cancer cells only. Ok? But snipers, you give them a barrage of enemy, they will lose. That’s why I still combine with chemotherapy, radiotherapy and other therapies.  

GBM: Well, this ends our session for now. Thank you very much Dr. De Villa for a fruitful and informative talk. If you would like to know more, please check the icanserve website at www.icanserve.net.  And now we would like to invite you and to please remain here at the Atlantic Hall for the Stories of Hope and the closing ceremony which will begin in a few minutes. Thank you very much.  Hope you enjoy!