Question: hi chris, do you believe some foods could be the problem to some sorts of cancer? because the food also effects what happens in your body cells and enzmes.

Hi, thanks for following up with this question. What I was thinking of is some evidence that chemicals called bioflavinoids can cause chromosomal translocations (a type of mutation where whole chromosomes get rearranged), and this can cause leukemia. This effect is much greater in people who have a genetic deficiency in a particular enzyme (NAD(P)H:quinone oxidoreductase) which is responsible for detoxifying the bioflavinoids. Bioflavinoids are found in quite a lot of fruits and vegetables, and it doesn’t seem to be particularly associated with yellow vegetables as I suggested during the chat.

However: 1) This effect is controversial (ie lots of scientists don’t believe it), and 2) bioflavinoids also do lots of good things for you (for example, they are good anti-oxidants, which protects against cancer). So I would certainly not avoid eating these foods in an effort to protect against leukemia: in fact, as a vegetarian, I probably eat more of them than most people.

Thanks again for the question!