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Dr. Servan-Schreiber does NOT encourage cancer patients to reject their doctors' advice concerning surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation treatments.

To clarify, that commenter is misrepresenting my statement. My concern is not with Servan-Schreiber but with our friendly zealot Don (FZD), who seems to be saying that raw foods cure cancer while conventional medicine does not. As someone who knows many cancer survivors of many years (even decades), I would respectfully disagree.

If you read the linked review, you will see that I explicitly say that Dr. Servan-Schreiber knows he owes his life to conventional "evidence-based" medicine. After making sure readers know that radiation, chemo, and surgery are the major lines of defense against cancer once it occurs, he then spends much of his book discussing the science behind his complementary nutritional and other health-related recommendations. Those approaches may prevent cancer in the first place or keep it at bay. He calls that approach "integrative medicine."

If FZD wants to recommend raw food as a complement to conventional cancer treatment, I am not concerned (unless specific foods interfere with the conventional treatment). But if he recommends it as an alternative to replace conventional treatment--and his language suggests that he may--he is telling his patients to risk their lives. It is those people who need to hear my warning about Don's zealotry.

Fred Bortz