The Mel Robbins Podcast
Let Food Be Thy Medicine: 5 Cancer-Fighting Foods That Heal the Body & Starve Disease
23 Oct 2025
Chapter 1: What is discussed at the start of this section?
Hey, it's your friend Mel, and welcome to the Mel Robbins Podcast. My jaw is on the floor. I cannot wait for you to hear this conversation. It's with a double board certified physician from the Mayo Clinic, who is the first ever cancer doctor that we have had here on the Mel Robbins podcast.
Now she's going to teach you how to heal the body, starve cancer, and prevent disease with the food you eat. The results she's been getting for decades with her patients using traditional medicine combined with lifestyle changes has earned her the nickname, the magic bullet at the Mayo Clinic. This conversation is gonna change the way you think about food, exercise, sleep, stress, and disease.
What you will learn today will add years to your life and life to your years. You're gonna learn why food can be your medicine, the top five cancer-fighting foods to add to your plate, why the modern diet is making you sick, and how to make healthy eating unbelievably easy.
So if you want more energy, if you want to protect your health, if you want to know exactly what to eat and what to avoid so you can live your most vibrant life, this episode is for you. Hey, it's your friend Mel, and welcome to the Mel Robbins Podcast. I am so excited for today's conversation. I'm so excited for our guest. I just want to say it's an honor to be together.
It's an honor to spend this time with you. I also want to take a moment and say if you're a new listener or if you're here because someone shared this with you, I'm not surprised. This episode is incredible, and so lots of people have been sharing this all over the world. I just want to personally welcome you to the Mel Robbins Podcast family. Now let's get into this. I cannot wait for you to meet
the unbelievable Dr. Dawn Musalem and learn all about the five cancer-fighting foods that heal the body and starve disease. Dr. Dawn Musalem is a double board certified physician who has been treating cancer patients for over two decades at Mayo Clinic, the number one hospital system in the world.
By the way, she has such incredible results with her patients based on the research she's about to share with you today that her colleagues there, you know what they call her? They call her the magic bullet. That's also where she did her residency and her fellowship training.
Now, she sees patients at the Mayo Clinic Comprehensive Cancer Center, where she's also the founder of Mayo's Integrative Medicine and Breast Health Program. In addition to all this, she trains doctors at Mayo Clinic in lifestyle medicine. which is using food, sleep, movement, and stress management as tools alongside all of the amazing medical interventions to fight disease.
She's internationally recognized for her work in cancer prevention and integrative oncology. And check this out. On top of all of that, she is a fourth stage cancer survivor and a heart transplant recipient. Today, she's gonna take all of that wisdom and knowledge and life experience, and she's gonna teach you how you can use simple lifestyle changes to heal your body and prevent disease.
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Chapter 2: What are the key lifestyle changes that can help prevent cancer?
But you did the opposite. And I have two questions around this. When the doctor said you have three months to live, how did that change your aperture in your mind in terms of what a typical 26-year-old thinks about versus what you then thought about when somebody said you have three months to live?
Yeah. So when I heard it, I kind of tucked it away. Like it was tucked deep into my soul. It was still with me, but it wasn't controlling my choices or my actions. I wasn't living in fear by any means. I was living through the lens of let's be fully alive. What I would say is hearing that elevated my existence to the degree that every single thing that I would experience was elevated.
The grass wasn't just green. It was magnificently green. The clouds were just always more voluminous than they probably ever were. The warmth of the sun just felt so warm and encompassing. And just like it is today, but I just loved people. You know, I could, I remember one situation. It was, I was at a McDonald's actually, which it doesn't sound very healthy, right?
Like it's probably a really good example for people to hear. But I went to McDonald's and I got a coffee. I love coffee. It's actually very good for you. We can talk about that. And there was a homeless gentleman sitting outside. I've actually never shared this story. And he was young. And he was about 19 years old.
And I sat down and I had my coffee, went and bought him breakfast, and we just talked. And what I learned in my experience of being diagnosed with cancer, if I wasn't diagnosed with cancer, you know what I would do? Went and got my coffee and rushed off to go study, selfishly, right? But instead, I had this knowing like, hey, pause, let's spend time with this human being.
And he just taught me so much about life, like so much about being present. And he was so still. He had this beautiful energy. And, you know, that's something that I think describes my existence is this energized stillness where I'm like a live wire. But inside, there's like this ultimate stillness and harmony that is just so important.
So I just wanna make sure that as you're listening or watching, you kind of get the magic of what Dr. Musalem just shared, which is in getting that three-month, how would you even say it? Like in being told that you had three months to live,
It brought what mattered into focus and made the things right in front of you about life that give you energy and that's beautiful and that are worth living for way more magnified. And you leaned into that. And what I want to know is what are the healthy things that you focused on when you got that stage four cancer diagnosis?
Exercise, number one. You know, even during chemotherapy, oh my gosh, I started feeling so much better, you know, because the tumor started shrinking. So it was like, holy cow, I can breathe again. So yes, I still exercise. The exercise research centered around cancer is incredibly exciting.
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Chapter 3: How does Dr. Mussalem's personal story influence her medical practice?
You know, there's this super famous quote from, I can never say this word, it's like hypocrites or, how do you say this word? Hippocrates. Thank you. It's perfect. Thank you. Mark Twain said, it takes a simple mind to spell a word one way. I say, it takes a simple mind to say a word one way. So Hippocrates, thank you. The ancient Greek physician said, let food be thy medicine.
And I hear you say this all the time. Is there data to back up the assertion that food can prevent or heal diseases? Absolutely.
There's overwhelming evidence that food is a big problem in our country today with the levels of chronic disease we have. And in fact, in the Journal of the American Medical Association in 2022, what they published is that food is the leading cause of death in our country.
Wait a minute. Food? food. Is the leading cause of death in the United States? Yes. What does that mean, Dr. Musala?
It's a massive driver. With the consumption of ultra-processed foods, 60% of our diet is ultra-processed foods. 67% of our children's diet is ultra-processed foods. And so what's happening with that? You know, there's additives in those foods that just aren't good for our body. Those foods aren't good for our gut microbiome.
And then when we eat that much food that's fake, there's no room for the healthy stuff. So you're weeding out the opportunity to get the stuff that matters. Every time you put food in your mouth, you have an opportunity to be a healthier version of yourself or an unhealthier version of yourself. So you really want to pay attention to that. And it doesn't have to be perfect.
This is never about perfection, but it's in an effort to be more consistent about doing better is what I would say. And have joy over that. You know, sometimes they have women come in and they are what some would consider eating the perfect diet, but they feel like they're hostage to that diet and they're not loving it and they're not having joy over it.
So it's really trying to find the healthy foods that you enjoy the taste of.
You know, I often wonder, I mean, that's a startling statistic. that the leading cause of death in the United States is food because it's ultra processed. You know, there's all this obsession with labeling things organic. I've often wondered, wait a minute, don't we have this backwards? Shouldn't we be labeling things chemical and everything else is just food? I know.
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Chapter 4: What are the benefits of healthy living on life expectancy?
You can add eight years life expectancy. Wait, what? Wait, it gets better. Okay, here's the goal. Ready? Drum roll. You ready? Yes. If you're 80, I have causes and they're 80. They're like, why am I seeing you?
Chapter 5: How can diet changes impact cancer outcomes?
I'm 80. Granted, she's outlived the life expectancy of most women in our country. Can you really help me? I say, I absolutely can. And here's a study that proves it. you can add 3.4 years of life expectancy. It's so cool. Just through the changes in food? Yes, by eating healthier. It's truly amazing.
Chapter 6: What role does exercise play in cancer treatment?
So healthy living, you know, really comes with its own benefits. And we see in this, you know, science, this is longevity central now, everywhere on social media, every big city you go to, it's anti-aging clinics everywhere you go.
And these programs must be built on healthy living because there's no magic bullet that's going to help you age healthy and feel wonderful in that time like healthy living will. And we know that about 75% of that healthy aging equation is modifiable. It comes from our lifestyle. So it's so important to really lean in, show up for ourselves. It's never too late.
Even if you have this cancer diagnosis, and we know if you are diagnosed with cancer, you know, that can be a hard time for some people. They're busy with their treatment. They don't feel good.
Chapter 7: What is the importance of acceptance in facing a cancer diagnosis?
And they're processing a lot. And the cancer research really says, you know... It really kind of starts in these studies about a year after the diagnosis. I want my gals to get as busy as they can at the time of diagnosis, because we know that if we can get as busy as we can during treatment, that they just feel better. They have improved quality of life.
There were two recent studies that explored this, and they were very fascinating small studies, but they give us a snapshot of how cancer patients do during treatment. And one actually did a whole food plant only diet, like a vegan diet. They supplemented them with some protein powder. And what they showed is, yes, these patients during chemo had less fatigue. That's what I see in my patients.
I, as you're listening, want you to think of every 20-year-old in your life. I want you to think of anybody in your life that has gotten a cancer diagnosis. I want you to think of anybody in your life in your 60s and your 80s that may or may not have taken good care of themselves. And I want you to share this episode with them because it's an act of love.
It is a generous gift to give the gift of Dr. Musalem to the people that you care about. And as much as I don't want to do this, we got to hit the pause button. I need to give our amazing sponsors a chance to share a few words. And when we return, we'll have even more life-changing information from Dr. Dawn Musalem. Stay with me. Welcome back. It's your friend Mel Robbins.
Today, you and I have the honor of getting to learn so much from the extraordinary, the unstoppable Dr. Dawn Musalem. We're talking about the incredible power of the food you eat, the way you move, and how you can take care of yourself to not only prevent disease, but to also cure cancer.
So we've talked so much about the foods that you can eat that activate the natural intelligence in your body to prevent or cure cancer. Let's talk about the top five foods that we should avoid that cause cancer.
Yeah. You know where I'm going to start, right? No. Ultra processed foods. Okay. So anything in a box. No, not necessarily. Because we are in a busy, fast-paced life. So we need easy solutions, me included, right? So what I do is I spend a lot of time in the grocery store. And I tell my patients, listen, you're going to too. This takes time. Okay.
What am I looking for when I'm in a grocery store? You're going to look at that ingredient list on the box, on the package, whatever it is you're buying that's not in the produce aisle. So as soon as you go in the aisle, you know, when you're on the perimeter, it's kind of like Whole Foods. As soon as you're in the aisle, let's look at those labels and see what's in the ingredient list.
If there's words in there that you're like, what the heck is that? Put it back on the shelf. Okay, you just don't need it. You know, so look for those ultra processed foods on the ingredient list with words that we have no clue what they are. You know, there was a study that was really, really fascinating. It was done out of the UK and it showed that, you know, almost 30% of the food by weight
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