Eating Healthy in the Face of Fear of Radiation

Hopefully we won't have to worry about radiation, but I know that so many people are looking for Potassium Iodide to help keep their thyroid from using radioactive iodine.  Although of course I cannot make any claims about food and cancer, it makes sense to try to be on the safe side.  There's a good amount of evidence that what you eat plays a role as far as the chronic diseases like heart disease, diabetes, obesity, and cancer.

When you eat, do you just seek out food that you like the taste of and that fills your body, or do you also take into consideration what it is doing for your body?  Most people assume that health (including mental health) problems are out of their control, when in fact they might be directly related to the foods/beverages that are harming them, and/or the lack of foods that can nourish them.  When you consume food, why not make it really count?  Why spend your money on something that doesn't nourish you, and possibly even causes you problems? Do you consider that you might be drawn to unhealthy foods because of the way our tastes are intentionally manipulated by those that make/market processed and fast foods?

If, as some evidence demonstrates, healthy foods meaning whole plant foods like vegetables, fruits, beans, nuts, seeds, and grains can provide us with protection against cancer, and that certain foods might increase our risk of cancer like processed foods and excess animal protein, then isn't it worth the effort?  Isn't this the case when this way of eating can also decrease obesity, diabetes, and heart disease?

Honestly I don't know much about the effect radiation has on our bodies.  In the US, we're fortunate enough that we won't get very high amounts of it and are unlikely to get the acute radiation poisoning, or so we hope.  So if we are exposed to some of the radiation, the worst will be that we will risk cancer development 10-20 years down the line.  If we can take precautions to minimize this, why not?  Even if there's no risk of this radiation affecting us, there are certainly other reasons to maintain our health.

I hope that those in Japan affected by the radiation can look to the more traditional whole foods diet that a decreasing number of the healthiest Japanese population, the Okinawans, follow or followed.

For further information:
Listen to this video (which is from an audio version of a portion of the book The China Study): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SfWSHaaPiE8
And read the book if you get a chance.  There's an excerpt here too: The China Study excerpt

Cancer Alert: Your Best Defence- Go Cruciferous by Dr. Fuhrman


This is specifically about breast cancer, but useful nonetheless: Avoiding Breast Cancer with Diet

This has some information related to radiation and healthy food: Foods For Long Life: Is The West Coast At Risk For Radioactive Contamination? How Your Diet Can Help You Avoid Radiation Poisoning.