Avoiding "white"— or refined foods — is one way of trying to prevent cancer.

Refined foods — such as white sugar, salt, and flour — lack the basic vitamins and minerals needed for a healthy body and an efficient immune system.

Researchers have found that the ingestion of refined sugar results in reduced white blood cell activity for up to five hours. The white blood cells are the immune system’s first line of defense against foreign invaders and aberrant cells.

Many people snack on sweets several times per day, which can cause a near continuous suppression of the immune system. Over time, this leaves the body vulnerable to attack.

Remember, only your immune system can cure your body of cancer. By contrast, chemotherapy has been shown to suppress the immune system, while weakening healthy cells and making them more susceptible to becoming cancerous.

As an alternative to refined sugar, the natural sugar in whole fruits is unrefined and OK to eat. Common table salt has been bleached and processed so that all its nutrients are removed.

Instead of table salt, it is very important to ingest adequate amounts of unrefined sea salt, which contains more than 80 easy-to-digest minerals. The vast majority of my patients have improved their health by increasing their intake of unrefined salt.

Finally, refined oils that have been heated with hydrogen are not healthy. These include margarines, most vegetable oils, and any product that lists “partially hydrogenated vegetable oil” as an ingredient. Coconut oil and cold-pressed olive oils are healthy substitutes.