Expand what composes a cancer promoting or anticancer lifestyle; think beyond that black and white dichotomy.
Yes, it is helpful when the choices are clear cut—smoking causes lung cancer, broccoli sprouts are anticancer—yet there is a lot of gray area in between. What happens when something contributes to cancer formation in one individual but prevents it in another? What if that thing does both in the same person dependent upon degree?
This latter notion is encapsulated in the concept of hormesis; often discussed in reference to medications where a proper dose is medicinal while an overdose is deadly. Many features of a healthy lifestyle can be placed on such a bell-shaped curve. Being active builds resilience in the body, but being sedentary or working out to exhaustion are each damaging in their own unique way.
An example of biochemical individuality is observed with the consumption of animal protein. For some cancer subtypes, periods of adherence to a vegetarian diet might be an appropriate anticancer strategy. Others will find bone broth to be an anticancer powerhouse for their constitution.
Rather then obsess and disagree on strategies that fall in this gray area, it is far more productive to focus on simplicity: what makes you stronger, what makes you weaker?
For someone achieving success on a ketogenic diet, a banana might not be the best choice. For another individual with colon cancer, that same banana might retard cancer growth.
What makes you stronger, what makes you weaker?
Do you feel lethargic from running but energized from swimming? Do you feel satisfied with salad or does salmon make you swoon? Will greeting the sunrise brighten your day or settling in with the sunset calm your nerves? Maybe both.
What makes you stronger is anticancer. What makes you weaker promotes cancer growth, irrespective of whether that thing is a textbook carcinogen. In the end, it is not only about treating the cancer, but of treating the individual: building resilience and optimizing internal terrain.
What (and who) makes you stronger, what (and who) makes you weaker?