Us -Too! Brampton General Meeting 
Tuesday, March 14, 2006

“Dietary Change for Cancer Risk Reduction”

Tanya Giaquinto

Member of the Ontario College of
Dietitians and Dietitians of Canada

Member favorite Tanya Giaquinto was back in form as she presented the latest on
Nutrition - a subject always near and dear to our members. Around 50 members,
wives and guests were all ears as they soaked in the information offered in Tanya's
latest Power Point presentation. We are well aware how the contradictions and
controversies surrounding food now days has rendered nutrition a huge and
complicated panorama - it confounds even the most informed amongst us!

Keeping this in mind, Tanya delivered a talk well focused and largely tailored to
address member's queries and concerns relayed ahead to her. Tanya had researched
these areas well as she provided detailed explanations on the different types of fatty
acids, the types of foods where they could be found and what the studies revealed
in terms of their interactions and relationship to cancer.

Citing several studies Tanya explained that the typical North American diet averaged
8:1 ratio of Omega 6 (linoleic) to Omega 3 ( linolenic) Fatty Acids whereas a healthier
ratio should ideally be 4:1. The diets of the Inuit and Japanese, both groups with
historically low rates of Cancer and Cardio Vascular Disease (CVD), for example,
showed this ratio as 3:1. And parts of Asia which were adopting more Western style diets,
cancer rates were increasing alarmingly along with CVD.

What the studies were recommending thus meant no more than 2 servings per week of red
meats; avoiding the use of Flaxseed oil supplements; instead 2 to 3 servings per week of Fish
such as Salmon, White fish, Halibut or Tuna [canned in water], low fat dairy products along
with a diet rich in fruits and vegetables was essential in reducing cancer risk.

Tanya went on to cover a variety of other topics ranging from Soy, Flax seed, Fibre,
Lycopenes, Green tea, Vitamins, Selenium to Boron and their possible impacts on [prostate]
cancer. The jury was also out on supplements - studies consistently recommended that the
needed nutrients be obtained as far as possible from natural foods whereby they were more
likely to be available to the body and thus better absorbed.

The importance of regular exercise was highly emphasized with around 45 minutes (preferably
an hour) per day, 5 days a week being recommended. The effects of exercise are cumulative
- so it can be undertaken, over the day, in seperate 20 - 25 minute sessions.

Tanya also touched upon Boron, its levels and the foods where it could be found. She had
felt it premature to put any slides together on Boron, a trace element, explaining that further
studies were needed to arrive at consistent recommendations.

Tanya provided simple, sensible and balanced meal plans that were easy to implement and
that were not only nutritious and delicious but contained the needed amounts of foods that help
reduce the risk of cancer occurrence or reoccurrence. In closing she advised members to
discuss any dietary change with their medical professionals in case they were concerns of
interactions with their individual condition or medications.

Several one-on-one sessions with various members took place during the break after which
Tanya opened the floor to member's questions. Need less to say this led to a very interactive
Q&A session and for once the 'Answers' had 'Questions' clearly heard
by all as most members stepped up to the mike!

Overall it was a very informative and educational evening and a much needed refresher
to instill back healthy eating habits, which admittedly, do drift astray over time!
We could not have asked for more, except as Fred remarked in closing the session :
" .... we wish we could have Tanya back every month " !!

On behalf of the group our thanks to Tanya Giaquinto
for an excellent presentation.

A strong appeal for volunteers was announced at this session.
We are glad that it has been responded to at least in part - some members have
come forth to back-up and support critical areas like the AV and Newsletter.

Certainly more volunteers are needed for other activities. Please contact
Fred Norris:
Tel: 905- 877- 8092
Email: fred.norris@ustoo-brampton.com

SLIDES & AUDIO DOWNLOADS

We are pleased to offer the full slide presentation made by Tanya.
These slides undoubtedly provide a wealth of
useful nutritional information and recommendations.
An active link as well as the URL are given below:

SLIDES: “Dietary change for Cancer Risk Reduction”
[http:// www.ustoo-brampton.com/dietarychange.pdf]
Secure Acrobat File, Size: 123. 28 K Bytes, Pages: 64
Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader 5.0 or higher

Download Free Acrobat Reader

AUDIO RECORDINGS: Unfortunately the Audio recordings of this session
were impacted by an unforeseen technical glitch. We are attempting to recover the
situation and if successful the recordings will be made available later- please revisit
this area around mid April.

We are aware of the numerous queries from members for the Audio and Slides and
that many of you have been waiting for the downloads of this valuable session - the
inconvenience is deeply regretted. You can, nonetheless, get the nutritional
recommendations and other information from the summary and from Tanya's
presentation slides above.