In 2004 the American Heart Association, the American Cancer Society and the American Diabetes Association formed the Preventative Health Partnership.  The goal was to help medical and public health professionals and the public understand what healthy lifestyles were and how to achieve them.  The idea was to simplify the messages by having one voice.  All three groups promote normalizing body weight, physical activity and a healthy diet.  Now Internal Medicine News reports that the AHA and the ACS have published data that a heart healthy diet also reduces cancer rates. http://www.internalmedicinenews.com/views/observation-unit/blog/lifestyle-changes-cut-heart-and-cancer-risks/f01fb748e0.html

The healthy diet score requires meeting four out of the following five criteria: consumption of at least 4.5 cups of fruits and vegetables daily, eating two or more servings of fish per week, sodium intake of less than 1,500 mg per day, not more than 36 ounces of sugar-sweetened beverages per week, and at least three servings of whole grains daily.

 The cancer data come from the ARIC analysis involving 13,253 subjects with a mean baseline age of 54.1 years. The incidence of four major cancers – breast, prostate, lung, and colon – was monitored for 1978-2006. The risk of incident cancer dropped in stepwise fashion as a greater number of the ideal cardiovascular health components were met, such that individuals with five to seven of the components had an adjusted risk that was 38% less than that of individuals with none of the ideal health components.

 As my lawyer wife says: “It seems that all of the diets recommended are the same from ADA to the Norwegian Sarcoid diet.”