Each day we read reports about new causes of cancer such as cell telephones, and chemicals in our foods and water. According to experts at a conference partially sponsored by the National Institute of Environmental Sciences (NIEHS), the real culprit may be a lack of the vitamins and phytochemicals found in fruits and vegetables.

Experts at the conference suggested that the diets of Americans, especially those in the lower income bracket, are not eating an adequate amount of fruits and vegetables and this could be damaging people's DNA, causing the damage associated with cancer.

Researchers told the conference, held at the Children's Hospital Oakland Research Institute, Americans are failing to eat the minimum recommended five servings a day of fruits and vegetables.

"Wherever you turn around ... the poor are eating such poor diets I think they are battering their DNA, causing cancer and maybe damaging their brains," Bruce Ames of the University of California, Berkeley, said in a telephone interview at the close of last week's conference.

Katherine Tucker of Tufts University in Boston cited U.S. Department of Agriculture studies that showed Americans with the lowest incomes ate as much as richer people, but their diets were lower in vitamins. She told the conference a study of Hispanic elders in Massachusetts found "blood measurements confirmed the high prevalence of poor vitamin B status."

A California study found that only one in three residents of the state reported eating five or more servings of fruits and vegetables a day -- the minimum recommended amount. This translates into vitamin deficiencies which, in turn, mean altered DNA, Ames said. "What is becoming clear is that there is a tremendous amount of DNA damage in people from not having their vitamins and minerals," said Ames, a professor of biochemistry and director of the NIEHS center.

According to Russell L. Blaylock, MD, board certified neurosurgeon, clinical assistant professor at the Medical University of Mississippi and member of the ANA Medical Advisory Council, many vitamins act as antioxidants, preventing the damage, known as oxidation, that changes DNA and allows cells to become cancerous. "If you don't get your vitamins C and E, it is like irradiating yourself," Blaylock said. According to Blaylock, folic acid, a B vitamin, may be particularly important.

Christine Skibola and Martyn Smith of Berkeley found one gene involved in a person's susceptibility to leukemia helps process folate. "Our results suggest that folate metabolism may play a key role in the development of acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL)," they wrote.

Ames's team has shown in past studies that cells from people deficient in folic acid contained specific genetic mistakes. "Now we have shown that B6 deficiency does the same thing," Ames said. Australian researchers told the conference they found vitamin B12 deficiency can damage chromosomes, and other research suggested that people deficient in zinc and iron may also suffer genetic damage.

According to Bernd Wollschlaeger, MD, a board certified family physician and Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine and Family Medicine at the University of Miami, "you cannot solve all these problems with a multivitamin pill." Regardless of their economic status, it's very hard to get people to change their diets and they are just not doing it. I am persistently telling my patients that they should eat five portions of fruit and vegetables a day and complement their vitamin intake with supplements."

According to Wollschlaeger, associate editor of the Journal of the American Nutraceutical Association (JANA), "people should try to get their vitamins from food, but unfortunately we are a society that relies to heavily on "fast food" and this simply does not provide us with the nutrients that could be protecting our bodies from diseases such as cancer. This problem is compounded by the fact that people who are poor simply don't have access to the proper number of servings of fruits and vegetables on a daily basis," observed Dr. Wollschlaeger. "A vitamin and mineral tablet should not be viewed as a replacement to good nutrition, but rather a supplement."

The Institute of Medicine recommended for the first time in 1997 and 1998 that people take supplements -- of calcium, to prevent osteoporosis, and of folic acid, shown to reduce the risk of birth defects.