Cancer Moonshot

Sally: Hi Phil. the Biden administration is reigniting a program that he started back in 2016 when he was the Vice President, and that is the cancer moonshot to end cancer. As we know it now, we both know that, President Biden lost a son Bo Biden to brain cancer. So, I imagine this is a very, is very close to him as a lot of us. I, I don't really think I know anybody that hasn't been affected by cancer. So looking through this, there are some really great initiatives that have to do with fast tracking research and cancer screening, and a lot, lot of great efforts to, to bring those cancer numbers down. But I wanna read something to you that I read on the us national library of medicine, national institutes of health. And, and this is what I was hoping you would comment on Phil. It says here it has been estimated that 30 to 40% of all cancer can be prevented by lifestyle and dietary measures alone. When a diet is compiled, according to the guidelines here, it is likely that there would be at least 60 to 70% decrease in breast colorectal and prostate cancers and even a 40 to 50% decrease in lung cancer.

Phil: So there's no question. We've seen the data for years that talks about what we eat and what disease states we can prevent. So that's the good news. The bad news is in this cancer moonshot is I've gone through everything. They don't even talk about health and nutrition, not a nickel is going for education. And to be honest with you, to me, you know, Congress is investing 1.8 billion, at seven years of new funding for cancer research in many areas, but nothing about nutrition. And you know, I really think that they're missing something here. That's huge.

Sally: Yes, I agree. And we're gonna talk about this later in a Safeway story, but, I would really like to see them, them, provide some programs with incentives, for food retailers to up their game is selling, selling fruits and vegetables and healthier foods. How about working with food companies to make products that have better for us ingredients?

Phil: Yeah, absolutely. And there was some stat in here that I didn't know, that's really shocking, to me that during the pandemic, nine and a half million people have missed their cancer screenings in the us as a result of the pandemic. So now more than ever, we really need to get our act together on this and, and have, you know, full attention on it. But Hey, you know, president Biden, give us a little bit money for nutrition education at retail. We need that.