Can we eat to starve cancer?

This TEDTalk video is about looks at angiogenesis (formation of new blood vessels) and its role in diseases, particularly cancer. Notably, the speaker shows a list of foods with known anti-angiogenic properties...
All but one are plant foods. One big take-home message I took from The China Study was the danger of reductionist thinking. So, although I like this talk and a big part of the health-promoting effects of a plant-based diet could have to do with the anti-angiogenic properties of many fruits, veges, nuts and legumes, focusing on angiogenesis alone runs the risk of ignoring the many other health-promoting substances, known and currently unknown, that are also present in plant foods. The bottom line is that population studies clearly shows lower rates of disease the more plant-based a diet, and a large number of mechanisms for this have been discovered. Even if you favoured the most "anti-angiogenic foods", a variety of plant-based foods is no doubt essential for good health and freedom from a variety of diseases. Even the fibre in plant-foods is health-promoting. The problem with animal foods is two-fold: i) they contain very small quantities of health-promoting compounds per calorie, and ii) they contain very large quantities of disease-promoting substances, eg. saturated fat, cholesterol, animal protein, heterocyclic amines (grilled meat), etc.

It is interesting how my personal and professional interests have converged in this area. Some of my research is aimed at trying to understand, particularly at a molecular level, how certain cancers can survive nutrient-deprived conditions. This stems from the fact that there is often a nutrient-starved region within tumours, especially pancreatic, due to the formation of new blood vessels (angiogenesis) being insufficient, yet the starved cells manage to survive. We would like to find compounds that convince these stubborn, starving cells to call it quits. It may never lead to new treatments, but it can be viewed as complementary to an anti-angiogenesis approach.