Do not consume ANY processed meats as they will 99% of the time contain Nitrates, a known carcinogen, which is represented on food labels as numbers 249-252.

Even Cancer Councils now acknowledge the research which has indicated that consumption of just 50g of processed meat three times per week or more can increase the chances of developing some cancers by over 30%. This includes (unless specified as “Nitrate Free”) bacon, sausages, smoked salmon, smoked chicken, corned beef, basically most meats that are presented in plastic packaging and has a shelf life of more than a week. Nitrates are used to extend the shelf life of meats that would otherwise spoil in four or five days. When nitrates and other preservatives are added, meats can last for weeks, reducing waste and increasing profits for food manufacturers.

While we recommend reducing your meat intake, when you do consume meat, try find organic, grass, not grain fed meat, and products that clearly state that they do not contain nitrates. Generally, meat bought from your butcher that is not packaged with labels will not contain nitrates. If you are buying sausages, buy them from a butcher you trust and ask if they contain nitrates or fillers such as flour etc.

You will find that products like bacon that don’t contain nitrates will be a little more expensive as they have a shorter shelf life.

Meat is a great source of protein which is essential for maintaining muscle mass, however excessive meat consumption can put pressure on our liver and kidneys and if our digestive system is not working effectively and we are not excreting the meat solids properly, it can become putrefied in our intestines and leads to more toxic buildup. When it finally reaches the colon, it can be turned into toxic substances such as ammonia.

Reduce meat intake to just one to two small serves per day of: organic beef, organic chicken, wild caught white fish (No shellfish as they are scavengers and contain high amounts of toxins) or salmon or oily fish with no skin. Around 125 – 150g maximum per serve. Or follow the Controlling The Odds Meal Plan for a structured plan. For more information on the Controlling The Odds healing meal plan, CLICK HERE.

Store oils in a cool dark place in airtight containers, as they quickly become rancid when exposed to heat, light, and air. Unsaturated vegetable oils have two bonds, whereas saturated fats such as animal fat and coconut oil have only one bond, making them more stable and less likely to go rancid.

While we are talking about oils, DO NOT use spray oil if they are self-propelled. You will find that most spray oils found in a can, will have a propellant to eject the oil from the can onto the pan. That propellant is… Petrol! Check the can next time you are at the supermarket and be as horrified as we were when we learned that a known carcinogen petroleum is used to propel oils in spray oil products.

Instead, get a spray bottle and fill with your own oil and manually pump the oil onto the pan.

Tap water can contain hundreds of unregulated substances, from pesticides and heavy metals to hormones and other pollutants. For tap water to become potable, chlorine and other chemicals need to be added to the water supply to ensure people drinking it, do not fall sick from ingesting pathogens and parasites such as giardia.

While it is commonly known that long term consumption and exposure to the many toxins added to the water supply can eventually make humans sick, if they are not added to the water supply, there is a real risk of immediate health implications which are greater and more obvious than effects of the long term health decline caused by regular consumption to the chemicals added to tap water. Therefore, adding toxic chemicals to the water supply has been chosen as the lesser of the two evils.

So, what can you do? Firstly, do not drink tap water unless in cases of emergency. The best solution is to have a water filter plumbed into your kitchen sink so that you have a consistent supply of clean decontaminated water.

You may choose to purchase filtered or mineral water from the supermarket, however if you do, try find options that are not stored in plastics which contain BPA. Read below for information on why you should avoid BPA.

If you find drinking still water a bit unpleasant, try adding the juice of ¼ medium lemon and organic granulated stevia to taste. You can also try sparkling mineral water. Be careful not to confuse soda water with tonic water as tonic contains as much sugar as cola.

Its estrogen-like activity makes it a hormone disruptor. Hormone disruptors can affect how estrogen and other hormones act in the body, by blocking them or mimicking them, which throws off the body’s hormonal balance. Because estrogen can make hormone-receptor-positive breast cancer develop and grow, women especially need to limit their exposure to these chemicals that can act like estrogen.

So, what’s the solution? When food is heated in plastic containers, more chemicals can leach into the food so purchase and use glass containers only for storage. It is ok if they have a plastic lid if the food is not in contact with it.

We recommend always eating fresh food where possible and limiting packaged foods such as canned goods, however some products such as coconut milk/cream and organic chickpeas, do often come in a can. There are companies now producing products in cans which are BPA free. For example, in Australia, there is a company called “Honest To Goodness” which sell various products in BPA free cans. Always check the label.

Try to avoid drinking water from plastic bottles. As suggested above, using an under-bench filter in your kitchen to fill up glass or steel bottles to drink on the go is preferable. It is also much more cost efficient and reduces land fill.

Diet and regular sodas should be avoided altogether, as well as any product that contains aspartame. Aspartame can be trickily disguised on food labels as numbers 950-952 and despite hundreds of studies showing that regular consumption of aspartame can become carcinogenic and a neurotoxin, aspartame production continues to be a multi-billion dollar industry and is somehow still permitted to be used in food production.

Again, food manufactures use the old line “Aspartame is safe in moderation” however moderation means one glass of diet soda, once every few days. While a glass of diet soda every few days probably won’t do any harm, who drinks just one glass every few days? And then when you inspect the labels of over 70% of processed foods, you will see those numbers again, 950-952, even in foods which claim to be healthy such as breakfast cereals.

Sadly, aspartame is hidden everywhere. You probably won’t even know when you are eating it. You’ll find it in tomato sauces, soups and even chewable vitamin C tablets! So how do we go about consuming it in moderation if it’s found in so many foods? The trick again is to avoid anything that comes in a packet or has more than one ingredient.

While we should be avoiding any product that comes in a packet and has a label, get into the habit of checking the label for any of those 950 numbers and avoiding the ones that do.

Sucralose (955), is made from sugar and is slightly more natural than aspartame, however it still has a host of negative side effects and should be avoided.

If you want to add some sweetness to your drinks or food, use organic stevia (960). Other sweeteners such as rice malt syrup are still full of naturally occurring sugars so should also be avoided.

When possible, choose organic vegetables over commercially grown vegetables that are sprayed with pesticides which remain on their skin and when ingested, can be toxic to humans. If you are not able to access organic vegetables, either peel or wash the vegetable skin with a warm water and vinegar solution, around a 10/1 mix.

Another reason organic veg is preferable to commercially grown, is due to the fact that since the late 1950’s, commercial growers stopped rotating crops. Crop rotation is a practice which allows the minerals in the soil to replenish in-between planting. Instead, growers pull up one crop, add chemicals such as nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium (NPK) to the soil and immediately plant the next crop. Important vitamins and minerals such as selenium and vitamin c, which used to be found in high quantities prior to the cessation of crop rotation, has become deficient, and unless you are consuming high quantities of organic veg or supplementing, your cells may be lacking important building blocks they require to grow and repair.

To be confident that you are not ingesting harmful chemicals, consume organic veg when possible. You will also ensure that you are receiving the maximum amount of nutrition from your meals.

When possible, choose While non-stick pans make cooking eggs and steaks a breeze, the Teflon used to coat them is highly toxic and has been linked to the development of many diseases such as cancer.

We highly recommend watching a documentary called “Dark Waters” where the company who invented Teflon, Dupont, is investigated and ordered to pay over one billion dollars in compensation to people affected by the chemicals found in Teflon, which caused diseases including kidney and testicular cancer, and ulcerative colitis.

We recommend using cast iron, stone, ceramic or stainless steel cooking pots and pans. We personally use and recommend one piece stainless steel pans from an Australian company called Solidteknics.

Unlike an oven which heats food from the outside in, microwaves heat food by turning electricity into electromagnetic waves called microwaves. These microwaves, cause water molecules in the food to vibrate and as a result, raises the temperature of the food from the inside out.

It is thought that these vibrations can change the molecular structure of the food and therefore change the way that our body processes it.

Also due to the speed of which foods such as vegetables are heated, it is thought that the rapid increase of temperature could damage some nutrients in the process. But then on the other hand, compared to boiling vegetables, in some cases, microwaves help retain more nutrients as they are not being lost in the water.

The issue we see is that the vibrational waves of the microwave could change the structure of an otherwise healthy food and change its healing properties. For that reason, until more conclusive and unbiased studies have been done, we advise to use traditional methods of heating food either on a cook top or oven.

Some people believe that microwaves make food become radioactive, however that is not true.

The first reason mainstream dairy can be harmful, (especially to cancer patients) is due to the fact that both beef and dairy cows, unless organically farmed, are fed growth hormone (GH) to speed up growth and maximise production. The artificial GH then gets transferred into the milk, which we then drink.

For anyone that has cancer, or anyone wanting to lose weight for that matter, the last thing you want to be consuming is anything that contains growth hormone. GH will speed up the growth of everything in your body, including cancer cells and tumours.

Whilst organic dairy farmers do not feed their cattle growth hormone, dairy in itself is designed by nature to help baby cows grow fast and therefore both traditionally farmed and organically farmed dairy, contains a certain amount of naturally occurring growth hormone. Bovine somatotropin (BST) or bovine growth hormone (BGH) is a naturally-occurring hormone in cows which helps them produce milk and stimulate growth.

For those reasons, we recommend that if you have cancer, consume only organic and fermented dairy in moderation, until you are in remission. Once in remission, consuming cheese or cream a few times per week is OK.

Then there’s the antibiotics cows are given so that they can be milked for many weeks longer than they should be, without the risk of developing mastitis. Mastitis is where the udders get infected and pus is transferred to the milk. Organic dairy farmers however do not follow the same processes and therefore is ok in moderation.

Although we are told that these amounts of antibiotics transferred to the dairy is small and is ok in moderation, if we are drinking half a litre of milk per day, a serving of yogurt and some cheese, it all mounts up. Over time, this repeated ingestion of antibiotics, causes imbalances in our gut flora and weakens our immune system, making us more prone to disease and resistant to antibiotics when we genuinely need them.

However, when dairy is fermented with a culture, a host of beneficial probiotic bacteria is created which can aid digestion and increase the good bacteria in our gut which has been proven to boost our immune system, helping our bodies naturally fight cancerous cells from within.

Fermented milk products are created when milk ferments with specific kinds of bacteria called Lactobacilli or Bifidobacteria. This makes the milk products easier to digest, especially for people who have milk allergies, are lactose-intolerant or have pancreatic, colon or stomach cancer.

Organic kefir is a tangy, but tasty drink which provides you will all the health benefits of fermented dairy. Another source of fermented dairy is yoghurt; however, you need to be careful as many yoghurts have a tonne of added sugar. So always check the label and if there is more than 5g of total carbohydrates per 100g, put it back on the shelf. Usually the fruit or flavoured varieties contain the most sugar.

Instead of using milk in your hot drinks, try an organic Oat, Almond, Macadamia or Soy milk alternative. However, we don’t recommend drinking large quantities as some of these milk alternatives can contain between 4-8gm of naturally occurring sugars per 100mls.

Not all oils are created equally. Some are more stable than others, some have high burning temperatures whilst others have low burning temperatures. Heating a healthy oil such as olive oil too hot, can not only destroy the oils potentially healthy qualities, but it can also change the molecular structure causing more harm than good.

When cooking with any vegetable oils, keep the temperature low to medium. If you need to cook something on a high heat, use a stable oil with a single bond and very high burning temperature such as coconut oil.

Low-heat cooking or baking (less than 240 degrees F) prevents oils or fats from turning carcinogenic. Instead of deep-frying or pan-frying, opt for healthier methods such as baking, boiling, steaming, or broiling.

Burning or charring meats creates carcinogenic substances. If you do choose to barbecue, don’t overcook the meat and be sure to cook at the proper temperature.

Purchase a food probe thermometer so that you can check the temperature of meat so you know when to remove it from the grill. To be safe, 165 F / 74 C should be achieved for poultry.

In addition to being absolutely delicious, coffee does have some useful health benefits, but when consumed in excess, coffee can cause dehydration, increase our heart rate, blood pressure, cause anxiety, hammer our adrenal glands, cause fatigue and digestive issues.

While one cup per day can be beneficial, more than one or two can be detrimental to our health. Coffee is best consumed black, or with a small amount of organic coconut, almond or soy milk instead of cow’s milk.

Refrain from buying your coffee from a café unless you ask for a long black with a splash of almond, coconut or soy milk. A store-bought medium size coffee will contain around 200-300mls of milk which can contain up to 24g (6 teaspoons) of sugar by way of lactose or naturally occurring sugars.