Optimal Nutrition, Physical Activity Recommended After Cancer Diagnosis

Could a headline be more stupid?

New guidelines from the American Cancer Society say for many cancers, maintaining a healthy weight, getting adequate physical activity, and eating a healthy diet can reduce the chance of recurrence and increase the likelihood of disease-free survival after a diagnosis. The recommendations are included in newly released Nutrition and Physical Activity Guidelines for Cancer Survivors, published early online in CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians.

Increasing evidence shows that for many cancers, excess weight, lack of exercise, and poor nutrition increase the risk of cancer recurrence and reduce the likelihood of disease-free and overall survival for cancer patients. "The data suggests that cancer survivors, just like everyone else, benefit from these important steps," said Colleen Doyle MS RD, American Cancer Society director of nutrition and physical activity and co-author of the guidelines. "While we've published previous reports outlining the evidence on the impact of nutrition and physical activity on cancer recurrence and survival, this is the first time the evidence has been strong enough to release formal guidelines for survivorship, as we've done for cancer prevention. Living a physically active lifestyle and eating a healthy diet should absolutely be top of mind for anyone who's been diagnosed with cancer."

First off, "optimal" is unknowable.

All optimization is lagging, i.e., there is no way to predict optimal.

Second, shouldn't one do the best he or she can nutritionally and physically whether they have a diagnosis of cancer or not?

If this is the kind of crap the ACS wastes donated bucks on, it may be time to consider donating elsewhere.