Nutrition and cancer are two words that go hand in hand, because the fight against this disease starts right from the table and from a correct cancer fighting diet, which remains the best form of prevention. According to recent estimates, cancer is increasingly taking the form of a “chronic” disease, with which it is possible to live with and from which it is also possible to heal: the curability rate has gone from 40% in 2000 to 61% today (with peaks 90% for breast and prostate cancer).
Table of Contents
The Ten Tips to Follow to avoid Cancer Risks
Here are the recommendations:
- Always keep your weight within normal limits
- Engage in physical activity
- Eat a diet rich in whole grains, fruits, vegetables and legumes
- Limit the consumption of ready-made and processed foods, high in fat and sugar
- Limit the consumption of red and processed meats
- Don’t go overboard with sugary drinks
- Don’t drink alcohol
- Don’t use supplements to prevent cancer
- For women: best to breastfeed your children if possible
- After a cancer diagnosis, follow nutritional recommendations
Diet makes the difference even after a diagnosis
The real news lies in the last advice dispensed, which shifts the focus on the behaviors to adopt after a cancer diagnosis. It is never too late to quit smoking, to give up dangerous exposure to sunlight and to change habits at the table. “Excess abdominal fat increases the likelihood not only of getting cancer, but also of responding less effectively to treatment,” says the expert. “Nutrition alone cannot be the cure for cancer, but treatments are more effective if patients eat properly and, overall, follow adequate lifestyles.”
Proper nutrition helps your body stay healthy and reduces the risk of diseases, even serious ones, such as tumors. In the field of cancer it is not only possible to talk about prevention, but it is necessary. For many cancers it is possible to know the triggering cause. Furthermore, it is known that the wrong diet intervenes as the main cause or as a contributing cause of many cancers, both directly and indirectly, for example through promoting obesity.
Therefore, we understand how choosing the right foods can play a very important role in the fight against cancer and that, probably; most oncological diseases can be partially prevented thanks to a correct diet.
Nutrition and cancer: prevention at the table
The first rule is to eat a portion of fruit and vegetables 4-5 times a day. And then follow a varied diet, which includes foods rich in antioxidant properties, rotating the foods as much as possible, according to the principles of the Mediterranean diet. Also avoid fried frequently, alcohol, grilled meat or extreme heat is a good practice.
What foods help you reduce the onset of cancer?
In the relationship between nutrition and cancer, there are some natural cancer cures that work and are more involved in prevention. For example
- the broccoli and the tomato , for prostate cancer ;
- the soybean, for prostate cancer and breast cancer ;
- garlic, onion and oily fish, for colon cancer;
- berries . They contain anthocyanins which, like all antioxidants, slow down tumor growth;
- lemons, oranges and kiwis. Thanks to vitamin C they act as antioxidants in slowing the growth of cancer cells.
It is not possible to indicate a weekly dose of these products: they should be consumed daily in turn.
In cancer, nutrition is a double-edged sword. While it is true that 38% of cases, according to a recent study, are related to a wrong diet, it is equally true that an adequate diet can do a lot to prevent colorectal cancer, but also to promote well-being of the whole body.
Why Food Can Protect Against Cancer?
There is now no doubt: nutrition is a very effective prevention weapon, especially if started at a young age. Some studies claim that people who eat right, exercise (even just a half-hour walk a day), maintain a healthy weight, and minimize alcohol can lower their chances of disease by more than a third . In the light of the scientific data currently available, it is therefore possible to give some indications on the foods to be preferred and to eat less frequently.
