Episode 98
When Green Tea Isn’t Chemotherapy
When Green Tea Isn’t Chemotherapy
Introduction
Food is powerful. Eating well lowers your risk of many diseases, including cancer. Yet food is not chemotherapy. Still, the idea that broccoli or green tea could replace cancer treatment is tempting. It feels safe, natural, and hopeful.
However, cancer is not treated with vegetables or tea. Cancer is treated with medicine. Let’s break down what food can and cannot do when it comes to cancer.
Broccoli and Cruciferous Vegetables
Broccoli, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, and other cruciferous vegetables contain natural compounds like sulforaphane. In lab studies, these compounds slow cancer cell growth. That is promising.
Furthermore, population studies show that people who regularly eat cruciferous vegetables often have a lower risk of colon, lung, and breast cancers. So, broccoli can help lower risk.
But here is the key point: broccoli does not cure cancer. No oncologist prescribes broccoli as chemotherapy. Prevention is not the same as treatment.
Green Tea and Its Limits
Green tea is another food often linked to cancer prevention. It contains catechins, such as EGCG, which in test tubes can slow cancer cell growth. Some studies even suggest that people who drink green tea regularly may have slightly lower cancer rates.
But again, that is prevention. Once cancer begins, drinking green tea will not stop it. And when taken as concentrated supplements, green tea extracts can actually harm the liver.
So, green tea is a fine beverage. But it is not chemotherapy. Personally, I prefer black tea — green tea tastes a little too much like pond water for me.
Scams and False Hope
Sadly, the gap between prevention and treatment is where scams thrive. You’ve probably heard of things like:
- Gerson Therapy: organic juices and coffee enemas, still promoted in Mexico. No evidence, high risk.
- Apricot pits and soursop: marketed as natural cures, but linked to toxicity.
- Ivermectin: useful for parasites, but not proven in cancer.
Then there’s the Warburg effect. Otto Warburg correctly observed that cancer cells use sugar differently. But modern science has shown cancer is not a “sugar disease.” It is a DNA disease caused by mutations. Cancer cells can grow on sugar, ketones, and even vitamins. You cannot starve cancer with diet.
What Medicine Has Done
Now, let’s talk about the real success stories.
Chemotherapy in the past was harsh, like carpet bombing. Yet it saved lives. My brother Jimmy was diagnosed with stage 4 Hodgkin’s disease in 1969. Thanks to experimental chemotherapy and radiation, he lived 37 more years.
Today, treatment is even better. We have:
- Targeted therapies that hit the exact mutation in a tumor.
- Immunotherapy drugs that unleash the body’s own defenses.
- Combination therapies that extend survival with fewer side effects.
And vaccines are changing everything. The HPV vaccine prevents cervical, anal, and many oral cancers. It may even help lower melanoma risk. Researchers are now studying vaccines for brain cancers like glioblastoma and even for pancreatic cancer.
No apricot pit will ever do that.
Food Still Matters
We should not ignore food. A poor diet filled with ultra-processed foods and low in fiber increases cancer risk. In fact, the rise in colon cancer among younger adults is likely tied to diets low in fiber and high in processed foods.
The Mediterranean diet, rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, olive oil, and legumes, does more than prevent cancer. The large EPIC studies show it also lowers the risk of cancer coming back after treatment. That makes it the best diet for cancer prevention and recurrence.
So yes, food matters. Food empowers you. But food is not medicine. Food lowers risk. Medicine treats disease. Together, they protect us.
Conclusion
Green tea and broccoli are healthy. The Mediterranean diet is the best prevention strategy we know. But once cancer develops, treatment is essential.
Food isn’t chemotherapy. Medicine is. And that is something we should all be grateful for.
References
- World Cancer Research Fund/American Institute for Cancer Research. Diet, Nutrition, Physical Activity and Cancer: a Global Perspective. Continuous Update Project Expert Report 2018.
- Buckland G, Agudo A, Luján L, Jakszyn P, Bueno-de-Mesquita HB, Palli D, Boeing H, Carneiro F, Krogh V, Sacerdote C, Tumino R, Panico S, Nesi G, Manjer J, Regnér S, Johansson I, Stenling R, Sanchez MJ, Dorronsoro M, Barricarte A, Navarro C, Quirós JR, Allen NE, Key TJ, Bingham S, Kaaks R, Overvad K, Jensen M, Olsen A, Tjønneland A, Peeters PH, Numans ME, Ocké MC, Clavel-Chapelon F, Morois S, Boutron-Ruault MC, Trichopoulou A, Lagiou P, Trichopoulos D, Lund E, Couto E, Boffeta P, Jenab M, Riboli E, Romaguera D, Mouw T, González CA. Adherence to a Mediterranean diet and risk of gastric adenocarcinoma within the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) cohort study. Am J Clin Nutr. 2010 Feb;91(2):381-90. doi: 10.3945/ajcn.2009.28209. Epub 2009 Dec 9. PMID: 20007304.
- Jenkins DJA, et al. Green tea catechins and cancer prevention. J Nutr. 2003;133(11 Suppl 1): 3242S–3246S.
- WHO. Human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines. Updated 2022.
- Hanahan D. Hallmarks of Cancer: New Dimensions. Cancer Discov. 2022;12(1): 31–46.
Transcript
>> Dr. Terry Simpson: M. This is episode five, the final episode of our
Speaker:miniseries, Food Isn't a Prescription Pad. Today
Speaker:we're going to make sense of the madness of diet
Speaker:and cancer. You've probably heard it all. Green
Speaker:tea, broccoli, soursop, apricot pits, and even
Speaker:coffee enemas from Mexico, all sold as nature's
Speaker:chemotherapy. Here's the truth. The Mediterranean
Speaker:diet is associated with a lower risk of cancer.
Speaker:>> Dr. Terry Simpson: And.
Speaker:>> Dr. Terry Simpson: And if you already have cancer, following that
Speaker:diet lowers the risk of recurrence. That's
Speaker:powerful, but it's not medicine. Food lowers risk.
Speaker:Medicine treats disease.
Speaker:And that's where we begin today's episode. I am
Speaker:your Chief Medical Explanationist, Dr. Terri
Speaker:Simpson, and this is Fork U Fork University, where
Speaker:we bust a few myths, make sense of the madness,
Speaker:and teach you a little bit about food and
Speaker:medicine. People love the idea that food is
Speaker:medicine. It feels safe, it feels natural, it
Speaker:feels empowering. But here's the truth. Food is
Speaker:not chemotherapy. Food is powerful. It can lower
Speaker:your risk of cancer. It can support healing. But
Speaker:once cancer starts, food cannot replace treatment.
Speaker:Broccoli won't shrink tumors. Green tea won't cure
Speaker:the disease, and apricot pits are coffee. Enemas
Speaker:will not save you. Let's dig into what food can
Speaker:and cannot do. Let's start with broccoli or the
Speaker:whole group of cruciferous vegetables. Broccoli,
Speaker:cabbage, Brussels sprouts, they all contain a
Speaker:compound like sulforaphane, and that, in the lab,
Speaker:slows cancer cell growth. And yes, people who eat
Speaker:more cruciferous vegetables often have lower rates
Speaker:of colon, lung, and breast cancer. That's
Speaker:prevention, but it is not cure. Don't mistake the
Speaker:two. There's not an oncologist in the world that
Speaker:will tell patients to skip chemotherapy and eat
Speaker:broccoli. Cancer doesn't work that way. Now let's
Speaker:talk about green tea. Green tea is loaded with
Speaker:certain chemicals, one called egcg. In test tubes,
Speaker:EGCG slows cancer growth. In some population
Speaker:studies, people who drink green tea regularly have
Speaker:lower rates of. Of certain cancers. That sounds
Speaker:good, right? But here's the catch. The effect is
Speaker:modest, and it's prevention only. Once cancer
Speaker:begins, green tea won't treat it. And in the
Speaker:supplement form green tea extracts it can actually
Speaker:cause liver damage. Last thing you want to do if
Speaker:you have cancer is they'll damage your liver. So
Speaker:green tea is fine as a drink, but let's not
Speaker:confuse it with medicine. And to be honest, I
Speaker:prefer black tea. Green tea tastes like pond water
Speaker:to me.
Speaker:Let's talk about scam supplements and Gearson
Speaker:therapy. This is where grifters step in. They will
Speaker:sell you broccoli pills, green tea capsules, or
Speaker:apricot pits. They call them nature's chemo.
Speaker:They're not nature's chemo. First, let's start
Speaker:with the Gearson therapy, which is still sold in
Speaker:Mexico. It claims to cure cancer with organic
Speaker:juices, supplements and multiple coffee enemas a
Speaker:day. And people are told to avoid chemo. There is
Speaker:zero credible evidence this works. Coffee enemas
Speaker:can only cause infections, electrolyte problems,
Speaker:and even death. And the biggest danger? Delaying
Speaker:real treatment while chasing false hope. Yes,
Speaker:coffee enemas. I remember when the old joke about
Speaker:the person getting the coffee in them and saying,
Speaker:oh my God, no, no. And the person said,
Speaker:administering. And said, what? Too hot? Said, no,
Speaker:too sweet. Anyway, scams don't end there. Soursop
Speaker:called Graviola is pitched as a cancer killer in a
Speaker:petri dish. Maybe in humans. No, worse. It has
Speaker:been linked with neurologic disease that mimics
Speaker:Parkinson's. Ivermectin, a drug for parasites, has
Speaker:been sold as a cancer cure. It might be
Speaker:interesting in lab studies, but it is useless in
Speaker:human trials. Yes, human trials. It's useless.
Speaker:Taking Ivermectin instead of proven therapy will
Speaker:cost lives. And then there's those people who talk
Speaker:about the Warburg effect. Otto Warburg was a Nobel
Speaker:prize winning scientist. He noticed that cancer
Speaker:cells often use sugar for fuel, even when oxygen
Speaker:is present. It's a true observation, but modern
Speaker:gurus twist it, saying that sugar feeds cancer. So
Speaker:cut out carbs and cure it. Here's the reality.
Speaker:Cancer is not a metabolic disorder. It is a DNA
Speaker:disorder. It is a disease of mutation. And cancer
Speaker:cells are not picky eaters. Not only will cancer
Speaker:cells consume sugar, but they'll also consume
Speaker:ketones and they will thrive on vitamins. You
Speaker:cannot starve cancer with diet. Warburg gave us
Speaker:some clues, but science has moved on. Cancer is
Speaker:not cured with the keto diet. And multiple studies
Speaker:have shown this. And here's the final tragedy of
Speaker:this. I have seen people tell the parents that
Speaker:they shouldn't have their child eat fast food
Speaker:while they're undergoing chemotherapy. Do you know
Speaker:what? When kids are undergoing chemotherapy, we
Speaker:just want to get calories in them. We want the
Speaker:kids to survive. So if you are not their parent or
Speaker:their doctor, stop spreading misinformation.
Speaker:People who are undergoing cancer chemotherapy
Speaker:sometimes just need calories. And I don't care if
Speaker:they're eating ice cream or pizza or anything.
Speaker:It's their time. Leave them alone. Stop
Speaker:moralizing. You're not a doctor. And people have
Speaker:often asked me, if we've landed on the moon, why
Speaker:can't we cure cancer? The truth is, we have cured
Speaker:some and we have transformed others. Childhood
Speaker:leukemia used to be almost universally fatal, and
Speaker:now most kids survive Hodgkin's disease. My
Speaker:brother Jimmy was diagnosed with Hodgkin's disease
Speaker:in 1969. It was universally fatal. At that time.
Speaker:He was saved by an experimental protocol of
Speaker:chemotherapy and radiation and lived 37 more
Speaker:years. Sadly, my brother eventually died of lung
Speaker:cancer in 2006. But the Hodgkins didn't kill him.
Speaker:By the way, my son jj, named after my brother
Speaker:Jimmy.
Speaker:Let's talk about hairy cell leukemia. Once it was
Speaker:untreatable, universally fatal. Today it is cured.
Speaker:One of my biology professors when I was a student
Speaker:at the University of Chicago, died of hairy cell
Speaker:leukemia. I remember seeing him in the hospital
Speaker:and visiting with him, and he told me, hey, Terry,
Speaker:if you ever get something, I hope you don't get
Speaker:something weird like I have. Get something that's
Speaker:treatable, like pneumonia today, if he were to
Speaker:have it, if he were to be alive and got hairy cell
Speaker:leukemia, he would survive. I had pneumonia, by
Speaker:the way, wasn't fun. But breast cancer caught
Speaker:early is often cured. In the past, breast cancer
Speaker:wasn't caught early, and often it became fatal.
Speaker:Colon cancer. A colonoscopy can remove it before
Speaker:it even spreads. Lung cancer now has targeted
Speaker:therapies and immunotherapies that can save lives.
Speaker:So, yes, cancer deaths are going down, recurrences
Speaker:are going down, and that is progress. There is no
Speaker:one single cancer that we cure. There are multiple
Speaker:diseases. When my brother was treated,
Speaker:chemotherapy was like carpet bombing. It was
Speaker:brutal on him, but it was effective. Today, modern
Speaker:therapy is far more precise. We now have immune
Speaker:checkpoint inhibitors, medicines that let your
Speaker:immune system recognize and fight cancer. We have
Speaker:targeted therapies that hit the exact genetic
Speaker:mutation driving a tumor. Our outcomes are better,
Speaker:and side effects are often easier. And here's some
Speaker:of the exciting part in vaccines, take the HPV
Speaker:vaccine. That's been around for a while, like
Speaker:Gardasil. My son JJ has been vaccinated with
Speaker:Gardasil. Now, while he's not going to ever get
Speaker:cervical cancer, it does prevent the spread of
Speaker:human papillomavirus that has been linked to oral
Speaker:cancers, anal cancers, and now studies suggest it
Speaker:may even reduce melanoma risk because melanoma may
Speaker:have ties to hpv. Human papillomavirus and the
Speaker:pipeline is growing. Research are working on
Speaker:vaccines against glioblastoma, the deadly brain
Speaker:cancer that killed John McCain, that killed Edward
Speaker:Kennedy, and even killed some friends of mine.
Speaker:Here's the thing. They have now had patients with
Speaker:glioblastoma that they have pulled out a biopsy
Speaker:of, made a vaccine against, and they are saved.
Speaker:Others have developed vaccine cancer strategies
Speaker:against pancreatic cancers, one of the hardest
Speaker:cancers to treat. So no, apricot pits didn't do
Speaker:it. Peach pits didn't do it. No powder in a bottle
Speaker:can do that. Only modern medicine.
Speaker:Now back to food. The Mediterranean diet. It
Speaker:doesn't just lower the risk of getting cancer, it
Speaker:lowers the risk of cancer coming back. A, uh,
Speaker:massive epic study in Europe found that patients
Speaker:who followed this diet had fewer cancer
Speaker:recurrences and they lived longer if they had
Speaker:cancer. Yep. Fruits, vegetables, legumes, whole
Speaker:grains, olive oil and fish. The pattern is clear.
Speaker:But let's be very clear. The Mediterranean diet
Speaker:empowers you, but it's not chemotherapy. It lowers
Speaker:risk. It does not replace treatment. And another
Speaker:food story. Colon cancer in young adults is
Speaker:rising. Why? Diet is a likely reason. Low fiber
Speaker:diets leave the colon vulnerable. Fiber feeds gut
Speaker:microbiomes that help sweep out waste and provide
Speaker:anticarcinogenic targets to prevent colon cancer
Speaker:from even arising. For example, fiber feeds some
Speaker:of the gut microbiome that releases a substance
Speaker:called butyrate, which is a tonic to the colon,
Speaker:which prevents colon cancer. At the same time,
Speaker:ultra processed food, the sugary, starchy fatty
Speaker:filled with additives, has crowded out real food
Speaker:among younger people. And that shift may be
Speaker:fueling the rise of cancer among younger adults.
Speaker:So, yes, fiber matters. And so does cutting back
Speaker:on ultra processed foods. The bottom line,
Speaker:broccoli and green tea are healthy. The
Speaker:Mediterranean diet is the best diet. Fiber
Speaker:matters. But none of these are chemotherapy. Food
Speaker:is food. Medicine is medicine. And together, they
Speaker:protect us. But only medicine treats disease. This
Speaker:has been our final episode in food isn't a
Speaker:prescription pad. I hope you have enjoyed this.
Speaker:I'm Dr. Terry Simpson, your chief medical
Speaker:explanationist and fork you is researched and
Speaker:written by me, Dr. Simpson and all things audio
Speaker:and production by simpler media. For references
Speaker:and More, visit your doctor, simple disorders.com
Speaker:and 4Q.com and check out my substack newsletter
Speaker:for deeper dives. And remember, I am a board
Speaker:certified physician, but I am not your physician.
Speaker:This podcast is for education, not personal
Speaker:medical advice by me. Always talk to your doctor.
Speaker:A board certified doctor and a registered
Speaker:dietitian. Before making changes to your health,
Speaker:there are some diets that you should not be eating
Speaker:certain things on. All right, everybody, have a
Speaker:good week. Please don't drink the green tea if you
Speaker:don't want to. I'm just having cold black tea.
Speaker:Have a good day, everybody. Hey, Evo. I'm just not
Speaker:gonna eat the broccoli, but I will drink my black
Speaker:tea, because I'm gonna skip that pond water
Speaker:tasting stuff. So if I get cancer, I'm calling an
Speaker:oncologist, um, not some guy from Mexico. So tell
Speaker:me, Ivo, broccoli, black tea, or green tea? What's
Speaker:your pick?
Speaker:>> Dr. Terry Simpson: Hey, I like broccoli. I like green tea, I like
Speaker:black tea. Come on, man. Everything in moderation,
Speaker:including moderation.
