Plant-Based Nutrition, Cancer Prevention and the Power of Fibre

Transcript

Kevin: Summertime, and the living is easy. So says the famous song from Porky and Bess. And so, as is our tradition, Michelle, you know what summertime means, don't you? I do. It's time for our summer shorts. To our noobs, let me just explain. And don't worry. First off, don't panic. We will still be here with brand new episodes in your feed every other Tuesday, as is normal.

Michelle: Oh my God, you're so dramatic.

Kevin: I know. Well, hey, you got to bring some drama to the podcast.

Michelle: We're going to have some shorter episodes, the end.

Kevin: Yeah, so we're going to have some shorter episodes, the end. Okay. That's what I like about you, Michelle. You're succinct and to the point.

Michelle: Oh, I think my husband would disagree about that.

Kevin: So there, we've explained what's happening. So welcome to Summer Shorts. And this is our inaugural 2026 Summer Shorts. So, Michelle, what do you have for us today? I understand you had a really cool conference that you went to the other day.

Michelle: Oh my gosh. Yeah, it was the 7th Annual Canadian Plant-Based Nutrition and Health Conference when we had Dr. Zahra Kassam on a few episodes ago. We talked about that, right? Because that's the one that she founded. I can't share all the highlights in the short, but I want to touch on a few really cool things that I learned and just reinforced at that conference. Let me tell you, conferences like that that are so good, so packed full of incredible speakers and topics and information, and you're in a room with all like-minded people, delicious whole food, plant-based food. I would hope so. That's my heroine.

Kevin: That would be the place where I'd hope that you would get the best possible plant-based food and not like some rubbish catering that they just brought in from nowheresville.

Michelle: Everything is so good. And I would say cater to everyone's tastes really well, too. So let's jump in. I won't get to them all, but the first speaker was Dr. Becky Lee, a naturopathic doctor who did a talk on from evidence of clinical practice and nutrition gaps in oncology. And what's interesting about Dr. Becky is that she's also a cancer survivor. She reiterated that in Canada, we have the highest number of cases of cancer. We've talked about this before in the podcast. Globally, the number one cause of death is cardiovascular diseases, and in Canada, it's cancer. And that 42% of Canadians will be diagnosed in our lifetime. But just one of the slides, one thing I love about this, it's always a very purposeful presentation at this conference about here's the hope, here's what we do, here's the change that we can make. And four in 10, according to the data that she presented, or 40% of all cancer cases in Canada could have been prevented through healthy lifestyle choices. And they can be for those that haven't developed it yet. Compared to a meat-based diet, if a number of folks converted to eating primarily whole food plant-based, we would see in Canada a 21% risk reduction of pancreatic cancer, a 9% risk reduction of breast cancer, a 12% risk reduction of prostate cancer, a 28% reduction of kidney cancers. And a 31% decrease in multiple myelomas.

Kevin: That, for me, the message I get that really comes home for me is that there's a very clear cause and effect. And so even if you don't go whole hog, like full whole food plant-based tomorrow, even just reducing some of the, I mean, we've talked about this a million times in previous episodes, but ultra-processed foods and a lot of the carnivorous, like red meat and such like that, alcohol, certainly. But just reducing some of that and being conscious about what you're putting in your body would have a direct effect on your cancer probability.

Michelle: Yeah, absolutely. And your outcomes if you did happen to develop cancer.

Kevin: And also, yeah, exactly. So that's what's interesting, that there's a very direct connection and a direct link between, which makes sense, what you put in your body and then how your body reacts in a cancer situation.

Michelle: And this doctor also put up a statement, which is the statement that I use with anybody I have this conversation with, no matter what it is that they come to me with wanting help coaching their nutrition. And that is what we eat, whatever we put in our mouth, it has the power to either cause disease or the power to protect our health. And it is binary, like it really is. Like things like you mentioned, the red meat, we know it's a group two carcinogen as confirmed by the IARC, meaning that it is most likely cancer causing. We know that processed meats like hot dogs, bacon, processed hamburgers, things like that, those and luncheon meats, those are confirmed group one carcinogens, confirmed to have a link with cancer, alcohol confirmed to link with cancer. So there is a direct cause and effect with what we eat and our health outcomes.

Kevin: And be aware. So be aware of what you're eating. Yeah, no, exactly. Makes sense. Makes sense.

Michelle: But bottom line to this presentation was that plant centered diets should be the backbone of the cancer survivor diet. Boom. Right. I thought that was great. Yeah, there were so many good things. There was Dr. Rowena Leung, registered dietitian who talked about a lot about the composition of our plate. And one of the things she emphasized that I really love is, you know, just that point that we tend to be very fiber deficient in our diet. Right. And and, you know, we talk very much, very generally about increasing the plant based foods on our plate. But we need to be more conscious about increasing the fiber rich, the fiber goal that we would need for our requirement is going to be hard to meet if we only eat fruits and vegetables and we don't eat the whole grains and the legumes and the nuts and seeds. It's much harder. So it is about that whole Canada's food guide plate, that construction that we see where it's half fruits and vegetables, one quarter protein sources, which would be your legumes. And one quarter of healthy, intact whole grains. And one thing to remember, because I hear this a lot, too, I hear people say, oh, I can't eat a plant based diet because I get too hungry. This would be the reason why it would be because they're not getting the satiety from having adequate fiber. And what's actually interesting, Kevin, is people think that they need protein for that like and what traditional protein in the sense that they think of it as being meat, right? Meat and eggs. But fiber is actually proven to provide better satiety than protein.

Kevin: Oh, I'm sure. Yes, absolutely.

Michelle: Yeah, it's way more effective.

Kevin: Yeah, I can attest to that because for the last long time now, I have my overnight oats for breakfast every single morning. And the occasional time where I'll maybe go out for brunch or something and have eggs and toast or something or something else that's usually more protein based, I am hungrier earlier. Like I noticed that it's like I noticed, oh, I didn't have my oats this morning. Like I'm starving, you know, three hours later, whereas normally with my it's like it's it's funny. They're just they're just oats that have sat overnight, but they're super filling.

Michelle: That's why we emphasize things like breakfast, because like that's a critical point in your day to actually take advantage of that satiety because nobody wants to start work and then have to get up and have a snack like immediately.

Kevin: Unless you're a big procrastinator. But yeah, no, sometimes you do.

Michelle: But just a reminder, too, on this topic, when you increase fiber, you have to increase water.

Kevin: Right. Drink your water.

Michelle: Right. Water is always paramount. Best quality water within your means. And a reminder, too, that, you know, the old there isn't complete protein in plants is a fallacy. And, you know, think about the context of what you're eating in a 24 hour period. You're going to get all all of the complete protein that you need. No worries. Right. The last one I'm going to cover for our short today is was the keynote. Dr. Scott Stoll, he's really involved in helping to move the needle on the planet. Like he's in a lot of efforts to raise consciousness about what's going to be best for plant diversity, biodiversity, the health of the planet, compassion towards animals, etc. So he's always emphasizing a whole system, whole person approaches. So he reinforced whole person approaches. And food is one of the greatest wonders impacting every single biochemical system. And the way that we feel impacts how we interact with others. So he he did a very eloquent way of positioning how, you know. So, like, think of it this way. Don't think about, like, the cause and effect of you're disconnected through necessarily through screens, even though that is the thing. And that impacts your inability to really connect well with people and other topics. But if you're eating a diet that is nutritionally deficient and it's high in sugar and high in salt and fat and it's very refined. That's going to impact all of these biochemical systems in your body. That is going to be another barrier to our interaction with others. You might be grumpy. You might get migraines. Right. You'll just be you won't have energy.

Kevin: Right.

Michelle: That is also like it's if there's a there's another aspect to that. He he talked a lot about the regenerative plate. Like, how do we build sustainable, supportive systems? And he poses question. What if everyone on the planet ate a 90 percent whole food plant based diet and still had 10 percent of other processed and animal based foods in your diet? Statistically, according to the evidence, six point eight six million deaths of cardiovascular disease would be prevented globally and five million cancer deaths globally would be prevented. Wow. Yeah. And here's another mic drop statement from Dr. Scott Stoll. The greatest challenge in nutritional science is not discovering the science of an ideal diet. It is helping people sustainably live it within the realities of biology, psychology, culture, community and the modern food environment. Like that's that's being real. You ask me, right? Like that's a.

Kevin: Yeah.

Michelle: Your nutrition has to be personalized. You may have cultural preferences based on where you live or based on where you grew up or certain things just may not be available to you. Right. Or you may be living in some other constraints. But it is possible for everyone. But the practitioner needs to be skilled at recognizing that.

Kevin: Right. And what I like about that is, again, sort of going back to our previous speaker, like he's just saying 90 percent and that seems completely doable. Like he's again, he's not saying like you have to be 100 percent or nothing. And, you know, it's like, no, 90 percent seems like a very achievable goal. Absolutely it is. And then you still have 10 percent, you know, you can eat your your comfort food or your, you know, whatever you want for the 10 percent. But 90 percent seems totally feasible.

Michelle: Last thing that Dr. Stoll talked about that I want to mention here was people who rely on willpower alone. It will not work. They will they will not succeed because willpower is a very temporary thing. You can survive on willpower for three, four or five days or maybe even a month. But it will wane. And he reinforced that that's true. But he added some more science to it that willpower is comes from our executive function in our brain. And that is very limited. It is very prone to fatigue. And that's the reason why willpower or anything driven by executive function is very, very limited. Otherwise, though, the way to be successful is to make a connection to your why. Why are you doing this? And he says more than just health alone. The people who are the most successful at making these healthy diet transitions have a connection to identity. Because if there's an identity connection to it, it bypasses our executive function completely and it becomes much more automatic, driven and self-sustaining. He says that being informs doing. Identity transformation is the core of behavior change and that those who have a value based reason for changing their diet are 17 times more likely to sustain a plant based diet. People who attach their value to a health goal only 94% are likely to fail. But if they attach it to a goal of I want to be able to run that race, I want to be able to do X, Y, Z with my children, I want to be able to take that trip. It's about my interaction with my family. It's about my interaction with the environment. There has to be a value and not just, oh, I'm going to do this because I think it's healthier. Like that is enough for some people, but only 6% of people apparently.

Kevin: It's what resonates with you. So, yeah, crawling around on the floor with your grandchildren resonates with you. That's what's going to let you stick to it. And that's what's going to influence a change. No, absolutely. Humans are so...

Michelle: Yeah, for sure. And then just to round out that part of the discussion, he talked about the importance of instilling our children with these values and their awareness of things. Because we all know, as Whitney Houston used to saying, the children are our future.

Kevin: Teach them well and let them lead the way.

Michelle: The identity shift starts with children and moving from the identity of being consumers on this planet and with our food to contributors, to conscious stewards of the planet and to compassionate leaders in the world. Boom.

Kevin: Mic drop. Mic drop. That sounds like an amazing conference you went to. That sounds really, really interesting.

Michelle: Oh, I haven't even touched the surface, but I was bursting and messaging people afterwards. And we're going to have some great guests coming up this year as a result of some of the new connections that I made. There's so many more things that I can say, and I think they're going to turn into future topics, though. So we'll just leave it there for today.

Kevin: Excellent. Yeah, yeah. We need to save something for future episodes.

Michelle: I won't spill all the tea.

Kevin: No, exactly. Exactly. Save some tea for later. Well, thank you, Michelle. This has been amazing and very insightful.

Michelle: I know. It's kind of random, but yeah, hopefully some good things in there.

Kevin: I like randomness, though. We're getting into the hot weather. Our brains are turning off with the heat, so I'm good with a bit of randomness. Are you ready for a random dad joke?

Michelle: I'm so ready for a random dad joke.

Kevin: Velcro. What a ripoff.

Michelle: Oh, my gosh. That's a good one.

Kevin: I like that one. That's the only one today, because in summer shorts, we can only have one joke. Good. We'll keep it to one. Because we can't have too high of a joke-to-episode ratio, or that would just blow our listeners' minds. So thank you, Michelle. And if you have any questions for Michelle or you have any follow-up or anything like that, you can reach out to us through email at n4noobs. Or, of course, you can connect with us on either Facebook or Instagram at nutrition4noobs. So thank you, Michelle. And until next time, eat your greens. And be real, everyone. And some grains, too. Don't forget the grains, because you need the fiber.

Michelle: Yes, and water.

Kevin: Yes. This has been Nutrition for Noobs. We hope you're a bit more enlightened about how your fantastic and complicated body works with the food you put into it. If you have a question or a topic you'd like Michelle to discuss, drop us a line at n4noobs at gmail.com. That's the letter N, the number 4, N-O-O-B-S, at gmail.com. If you haven't already, you can subscribe to the podcast on whatever your favorite platform might be. Also, please consider leaving a review or telling your friends. That's the best way to spread the word. We'll see you next time with another interesting topic. The views and opinions expressed on Nutrition for Noobs are those of the hosts. It is not intended to be a substitute for medical, nutritional, or health advice. Listeners should seek a personal consultation with a qualified practitioner if they have any concerns or before commencing any actions mentioned in the podcast. Eat your greens and your grains and your water. That's going to be a really long catchphrase.

Michelle: You should turn it into a rap.

Kevin: No, I'm not rapping. No, no, no, no, no. That is never happening. I am not rapping.