Illustration by Kat Frick Miller
Back in the late 1980s, Dr. Brad Nelson was completing his PhD in molecular and cellular biology at the University of California, Berkeley when his mother-in-law was diagnosed with ovarian cancer.
“Seeing what she went through battling that disease was really motivating for me,” he says. It opened his eyes to a need for better diagnostics and treatment, and motivated him to pivot his career to cancer immunotherapy.
Nelson works as an immunologist and director of the Deeley Research Centre at BC Cancer in Victoria. As a leading researcher in immunotherapy, Nelson studies cancer treatments that use the body’s own immune system to fight cancer cells.
In his own life, his vocation has manifested as lifestyle approaches that promote his well-being. Nelson shared some of those perspectives with students during a recent lecture at the University of Victoria. This included a suggestion for people to consume 10 servings of fruits and vegetables a day. His recommendations, he said, could help prevent at least 50 per cent of cancers.
As taxing as eating 10 servings of fruits and vegetables sounds, Nelson told The Globe and Mail that his advice is as basic as ’an apple a day.’
According to the Canadian Cancer Society, eating a variety of fruits and vegetables may help protect against 14 types of cancer. A serving, it says, is one cup of leafy raw vegetables or salad, one piece of fruit (such as a medium apple, orange or banana), or half a cup of fresh, frozen or canned vegetables or fruit or 100-per-cent fruit juice. Whether it’s the fibre content or the vitamin compounds, Nelson says it is still unproven why vegetables and fruits have such a positive effect on preventing certain types of cancer, but it has been proven that they do work.
In his own kitchen, the 62-year-old incorporates servings of fruit and vegetables into his meals throughout the day. For breakfast, he eats a piece of fruit, such as an apple, along with oatmeal.
A mainstay of his diet are his snacks, including baby carrots, celery, cherry tomatoes and snap peas, which he packs in a large container to eat raw throughout the day. That gives him about six to seven servings of vegetables for the day.
“If you put this down beside you and you graze on it, it’s surprising how quickly it disappears,” says Nelson.
When grocery shopping for him and his partner, he begins with fruits and vegetables, and typically buys the same things every time.
For others, Nelson recommends that people incorporate fruits and vegetables into their diet gradually, or wherever they can. Instead of cutting out fries altogether, for example, he recommends ordering fries and a salad with your burger at lunch.
“I don’t feel like I failed if I don’t hit 10 [servings]. Every one of these helps.”
How I save money on groceries: I save by eating a pretty basic diet of whole, one-ingredient foods.
How I splurge on groceries: I splurge on organic fruits and vegetables. I don’t think organic food is necessarily better for me, but it’s better for the planet.
The hardest shopping habit to keep up: I’ve switched to about a 90-per-cent vegetarian diet since my family doctor recently told me that my LDL (low-density lipoprotein) cholesterol levels are high and have put me in a high-risk zone.
How I’ve changed my eating habits recently: I pay attention to my saturated fat intake. I love cheese, and I would often splurge on fancy European cheeses, but they’re high in saturated fat, so I now swap those with cottage cheese. I’m conducting a 12-week diet experiment, which is when I’ll have my levels retested. When it comes to lowering your cholesterol, not everyone responds to dietary changes, but I’d like to avoid medication.
Five items always in my cart:
- Oatmeal – Quaker Oats – $4.47: I enjoy oatmeal for breakfast, which is good, since the fibre can help absorb cholesterol.
- Corn tortillas – Casa Bonita – $3.97: A simple dinner for me is a burrito topped with black beans (which I make from scratch), lime juice, cilantro, salsa and coleslaw. I eat about a 90-per-cent vegetarian diet, so the beans are nice for some bulk.
- Apples – $3.79 a pound: I usually cut an apple up and top my oatmeal with it, which is an easy way to start my day with a serving of fruit.
- Coleslaw mix – President’s Choice – $3.50: This coleslaw mix has red and green cabbage and julienned carrots, so it’s an easy way to get a couple of vegetables in. I eat it without a sauce, typically on my burrito, or I simply add it to dishes.
- Oat milk – Earth’s Own – $2.99: I’m a huge fan of oat milk, which is good because it contains less saturated fat than whole milk. I put it in my tea, on my oatmeal, or eat it with granola for a snack.
