Don't Chase Superfoods - Why Variety Beats the Miracle Berry
Cancer is something that touches almost every family.
In Canada, approximately 2 in 5 people - about 42% of the population - are expected to be diagnosed with cancer during their lifetime. In 2025 alone, an estimated 254,800 Canadians were expected to receive a cancer diagnosis.
Worldwide, the numbers are equally striking. Almost 20 million new cancer cases were diagnosed in 2022, and that number is projected to reach approximately 35 million per year by 2050 as the world's population grows and ages.
In my clinic, I have met and supported many patients who are living with cancer or undergoing cancer treatment. Naturally, this has made cancer prevention an area of great interest to me.
What We Can Actually Influence
We cannot prevent every cancer, and food is certainly not a guarantee against developing cancer.
However, there are risk factors that we can influence. The World Cancer Research Fund estimates that around 40% of cancer cases could potentially be prevented through modifiable factors - including not smoking, maintaining a healthy weight, being physically active, limiting alcohol, and following a healthy dietary pattern.
And one of the things we can change every single day is surprisingly simple:
What we put on our plates.
And here is perhaps the best part: we don't need to spend a lot of money searching for exotic "superfoods" or buying expensive supplements.
Many of the foods that have attracted researchers' attention are ordinary foods we can find in our local grocery stores - cabbage, onions, garlic, daikon, soybeans, carrots, tomatoes, broccoli, and many more.
Healthy eating doesn't have to be complicated or expensive. Rather than depending on one concentrated supplement or the latest superfood, we can simply begin by bringing a greater variety of everyday whole foods onto our plates.
A head of cabbage, an onion, a block of tofu, and a little garlic and ginger can provide an incredible variety of naturally occurring nutrients and plant compounds.
Where Did the "Anti-Cancer Food Pyramid" Come From?
In the early 1990s, the U.S. National Cancer Institute (NCI) launched what became known as the Designer Foods Program.
Researchers were becoming increasingly interested in naturally occurring phytochemicals, the biologically active compounds found in plants - and whether some of these compounds might play a role in reducing the risk of cancer.
Foods being investigated included familiar things such as garlic, cabbage-family vegetables, soybeans, ginger, citrus fruits, carrots, and tomatoes.
From this period of research came the well-known "Designer Foods" pyramid, which grouped foods according to the scientific interest surrounding their potential cancer-preventive properties at the time.
But there is something very important to understand about this pyramid.
It was never proof that eating the food at the top would prevent cancer.
Even researchers writing about Designer Foods in 1992 cautioned that results from experimental and animal studies could not simply be assumed to have the same effects in humans.
More than 30 years later, we know considerably more about nutrition and cancer. And perhaps the most useful question isn't:
"Which food is #1?"
Instead, I think the more useful question is:
"How many different nourishing foods can I introduce into my diet?"
Why Variety Matters
Different foods bring different things to our bodies.
Cruciferous vegetables such as cabbage and broccoli contain glucosinolates, which can form compounds including isothiocyanates.
Garlic and onions belong to the allium family and contain a different collection of phytochemicals, including organosulfur compounds.
Soybeans provide isoflavones.
Tomatoes contain lycopene.
Carrots and many other colourful vegetables provide carotenoids.
And then there are countless other fibres, vitamins, minerals, and naturally occurring compounds contained within the foods we eat.
So why would we choose just one?
Modern cancer-prevention recommendations emphasize an overall dietary pattern rich in whole grains, vegetables, fruits, and legumes, rather than relying on a single supposedly miraculous food or supplement.
The World Cancer Research Fund recommends consuming at least 400 g, about five portions of a variety of non-starchy vegetables and fruits each day, along with whole grains and legumes.
The Chinese Medicine Perspective
This is also where I find the perspective of Chinese Medicine particularly valuable.
In Chinese Medicine, we rarely look at a single food or herb in isolation. We consider how different ingredients work together, the nature and flavour of foods, how they are prepared, the season, and most importantly, the individual person eating them.
More of something is not necessarily better. And one "superfood" cannot provide everything our bodies need.
Don't look for a superfood. Build a diverse table.
This is one of the deepest teachings of classical food therapy - synergy over singular potency. A dish that balances warming and cooling ingredients, that pairs a cooling vegetable with a warming aromatic, that includes something for each organ system -this is far more nourishing than any single "miracle" food taken in isolation.
The ancient physicians knew this long before modern phytochemistry gave us the vocabulary.
A Series Begins
Over the next several newsletters, I would like to explore some of these ordinary foods with you.
We will look at onions, daikon, soybeans, and different varieties of vegetables. We'll talk about what modern research has discovered about them, but we'll also look at food through the lens of Chinese Medicine.
And eventually, we'll talk about something that I believe is just as important as what we eat:
When we eat it.
Nature doesn't produce exactly the same foods throughout the year. Summer gives us different foods from autumn and winter. Instead of expecting tomatoes and cucumbers on our plates throughout a Canadian winter, we can learn again to appreciate cabbage, daikon, onions, root vegetables, and other foods belonging naturally to the colder seasons.
Eat a variety of foods. Eat ordinary foods. And let the seasons help choose the variety.
For Those Who Would Like to Read the Research
Original 1992 Designer Foods paper — PubMed
Current evidence on whole grains, vegetables, fruits, and beans — World Cancer Research Fund
Or feel free to text 519-781-6957 or email info@trilliumchinesemedicine.com with any questions.
Next month: we'll begin with onions.