Discover How a Healthy Diet Can Help Lower The Risk of Cancer This World Cancer Day

Cancer is a serious health condition resulting due to the uncontrollable growth of some of the cells in the body forming tumours. If this condition is left untreated, the uncontrolled growth of the cells and tumours can destroy the body tissues and spread to the other body parts hampering normal body functions. It is known to be the second-leading cause of death globally. Every year, about 10 million individuals die due to this fatal disease. However, 40% of these mortalities can be prevented due to their link to modifiable risk factors, such as poor, unhealthy dietary habits, a lack of physical activity, smoking, and alcohol use. It is important to note that millions of lives can be saved annually by the implementation of appropriate resource strategies for the prevention of cancer, early detection, and the right line of treatment. For this purpose, every year, the 4^th of February is recognized as World Cancer Day to raise awareness about cancer among the masses and educate and encourage people globally for prevention, detection, and treatment of this concerning condition.

World Cancer Day 2023 theme is ‘Close the Care Gap’, which is in continuation with the previous year’s theme and will continue further till 2024, as it’s an integral part of a 3-year campaign having well-framed objectives for each of the three years. The objective of this year’s theme is ‘Uniting Our Voices and Taking Action.’ It emphasizes building stronger connections and new innovative collaborations to unite like-minded individuals and mobilise these united people to spread the word about the condition and make their possible contribution to help the ailing individuals in receiving the right care and treatment. Fortunately, the risk of this serious disease can be lowered or prevented by making simple yet highly effective dietary and lifestyle modifications. So, you might be wondering what role diet has in reducing the risk of cancer and what dietary modifications can help you avoid falling prey to this serious condition, aren’t you? Get to know all about it.

Dietary Modifications That Can Help Lower or Prevent the Risk of Cancer

What you eat and adopting a healthy diet and lifestyle play a crucial role in avoiding falling prey to cancer. For instance, eating a nutritious diet comprising fresh fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and healthy fats can lower your risk of or prevent common cancers. On the contrary, daily consumption of processed meat can raise your risk of developing colorectal cancer. If you have a family medical history of cancer, adopting healthy dietary habits can be highly beneficial for long-term good health. If you are already diagnosed with cancer, consuming a nutritious diet can help strengthen your body and support to improve your positive mindset and health during the challenging phase.

5 Easy Tips to Follow a Cancer-Prevention Diet

Here are some simple yet effective tips that can help minimize your risk of developing cancer.

1. Enrich Your Diet with Antioxidants

Having antioxidant abundant food sources and fresh fruits, vegetables, whole grains, beans, nuts, and healthy fats in your daily diet and minimizing your intake of processed meat, unhealthy fats, refined carbs, sugar, and processed foods help lower your risk of developing cancer.

Plant-based foods are packed with antioxidants that boost your immunity and safeguard you against cancer cells.

• The intake of berries, dark leafy vegetables, oranges, peas, and more vitamin C-rich sources safeguard you against esophageal cancer. Also, consuming non-starchy vegetables, such as beans, broccoli, and spinach helps minimize your risk of developing esophageal and stomach cancer.
• A diet rich in fruits helps reduce the risk of lung and stomach cancer.
• Having a diet rich in Brussels sprouts, carrots, squash, and other nutritious vegetables can help lower your risk of mouth, larynx, pharynx, and lung cancer.
• Adding lycopene-rich food sources to your diet can help reduce the risk of prostate cancer. So, include tomatoes, watermelon, and guava in your diet for cancer prevention.

Focussing on adding whole foods, such as unpeeled apples instead of apple juice, can help incredibly. Prefer to have a minimum of five servings of fruits and vegetables daily.

2. Increase Your Intake of Fibre

Fibre plays a key role in maintaining your digestive system healthy and clean. It is effective in moving cancer-causing compounds through your digestive tract before they can cause any harm. A good intake of fibre can help in preventing colorectal cancer and other cancers related to the digestive system, such as mouth, pharynx, and mouth cancer. So, include fruits, whole grains, seeds, and vegetables, such as leafy greens, in your daily diet.

3. Have Healthy Fats

It is a common perception that consuming a diet high in fats elevates your risk of developing cancer. However, eating healthy fats protects you against various cancer. So, while choosing fats, make sure you include healthy fats in your diet and keep unhealthy fats at bay. Avoid saturated fats and trans fat. Here’s a quick rundown of various fats that you should differentiate while adding to your diet.

• Avoid Trans Fats

Trans fat is quite harmful to our health. So, avoid fried foods, such as fried chicken and hard taco shells. Also, avoid partially hydrogenated oil present in fried or packaged foods, such as cakes, cookies, pizza dough, crackers, and pie crusts, among others.

• Restrict Saturated Fats

Make sure that your intake of dairy and red meat is not more than 10% of your daily intake of calories.

• Include More Unsaturated Fats

Adding avocadoes, fish, nuts, and olive oil to your diet helps you have unsaturated fats which help in cancer prevention. Omega-3 fatty acids present in flaxseeds, salmon, and tuna are effective in fighting inflammation and supporting heart and brain health.

4. Cut Down on Refined Carbs and Sugar

The intake of refined carbohydrates can cause rapid spikes in your blood glucose levels. This increases your risk of developing prostate cancer and other concerning health issues. So, avoid foods having refined carbohydrates. Avoid eating sweetened cereals, white pasta, white bread, sugary drinks, and processed foods, such as pizza. Instead, prefer eating unprocessed/unrefined whole grains, such as whole wheat, whole millet, or multigrain bread, oatmeal, quinoa, barley, brown rice, and non-starchy vegetables. Eliminating refined carbs and adding whole foods to your diet help reduce your risk of developing prostate and colorectal cancer. Also, it helps maintain a healthy weight.

5. Avoid Red Meat and Processed Meat

Several medical studies reveal a link between the risk of developing cancer and the consumption of processed meat. It contains nitrate preservatives and other harmful substances that put you at risk of cancer. Avoiding red meat and processed meat in your diet can be a safe and healthy option to keep cancer at bay. Instead, add protein food sources, such as nuts, fish, soy, and eggs, to your diet in place of red meat.

How to Boost the Cancer-Fighting Effect of Food?

• Go for Raw Fruits and Vegetables

Fresh raw fruits and vegetables have a high content of minerals and vitamins. So, whenever possible, prefer eating apples, bananas, cucumber, and carrots, among others, raw vegetables and fruits. Wash all these before eating them raw, as it helps minimize the residue of pesticides present on them.

• When Cooking, Steam Vegetables only till Tender

Avoid overcooking vegetables as it removes many minerals and vitamins from them. Steaming veggies just till they turn tender preserves more vitamins. When you boil vegetables, do not discard the cooking water. Instead, use the cooking water in preparing soup or any other fluid, as it ensures you receive vitamins in it.

• Use Herbs & Spices to Flavour Foods

Ginger, garlic, turmeric, and other spices not just flavour your culinary delights but also add a healthy dose of cancer-fighting nutrients. So, flavour your soups, salads, and other food preparations with Basil, coriander, and curry leaves.

8 Simple Diet and Lifestyle Measures for Cancer Prevention

Here’s a list of easy yet effective diet and lifestyle tips for cancer prevention.

1. Maintain a Healthy Weight, and Avoid being Overweight or Obese

Excess weight gain that makes you obese or overweight increases the risk of various cancer. So, follow a diet and exercise routine to stay in shape and healthy.

2. Stay Active

Include simple exercises for a minimum of 30 minutes in your daily routine. A brisk walk of 40 minutes is one of the simple yet effective exercises to practice. Regular exercise helps minimize the risk of various cancers.

3. Avoid or Restrict Alcohol Intake

Heavy drinking increases your two-fold risk of developing liver cancer. So, prefer to avoid alcohol or limit it to a minimum.

4. Have Nutritional Supplements if Needed

Consulting certified dieticians and nutritionists can help you have all the necessary nutritional supplements besides diet to protect you against cancer.

5. Quit Smoking

Abstain from using any tobacco products.

6. Avoid exposure to harmful toxins and chemicals in the environment.
7. Put on protective clothing and use sunscreen for protection against UV rays.
8. Have Adequate, Sound Sleep Daily.

So, let’s pledge this World Cancer Day to incorporate these healthy dietary and lifestyle modifications in our routine, safeguard ourselves and our loved ones from the deadly ailment, and spread the word to minimize the potential risk of cancer globally. Consulting certified dieticians and nutritionists, such as health experts at Health Total, can help you receive a personalized diet comprising all nutritious foods and guide you to eliminate all potentially harmful foods and beverages from your diet. Thus, it can help lower the risk of the fatal disease and help you receive protection against cancer with anti-oxidants rich and nutrient-dense foods. Our diet plan also helps eliminate all nutritional deficiencies, boosts your immunity, promotes weight loss to help you have a healthy weight, and improves your overall health. So, waste no time, get in touch with us at Health Total and step up to enjoy a healthy life with our nutrient-dense diet plan.

Sign up for a FREE consultation with Health Total experts to get more tips on lowering the risk of cancer with diet or for managing any other health condition. Call toll-free at  1-800-843-0206 and book an appointment!

 

The post 5 Easy Tips to Follow a Cancer-Prevention Diet | World Cancer Day appeared first on Health Total.

Frequently Asked Questions

What natural product works best for weight loss?

You can lose weight by eating less and exercising more often. But, exercising alone will not help you reach your goal. This is because food plays a vital role in our bodies functioning properly. It’s possible to gain weight if you eat too much food. Eating enough food can also lead to weight loss.

When choosing the best foods for weight loss, make sure you choose foods with low calories and high nutritional value. These foods include fruits, vegetables whole grains, lean and fish meats, seafood, nuts, seeds, and legumes.

How to Get African Mango Extract

It’s easy to take mango extract. Simply cut open a fresh mango and scoop the flesh into a blender. Blend until smooth.

If you desire a more fine pulp, you can strain it. Store in a cool dark place.

You can freeze the pulp to be used again later. The pulp can be frozen so that you don’t have a second batch to purchase when mango season returns.

Do smoothie cleanses work?

The key question here is whether you are getting rid of toxins from your body. If you’re not getting rid of toxins, there might be another problem.

For a cleanse to work, it must remove all the toxins from your system.

If you don’t see this, it’s likely that you’re not drinking enough water or aren’t eating well.

You may also need to reduce your intake of caffeine and salt.

You could also be experiencing other reasons why you are not seeing results.

• Your digestive system isn’t functioning correctly. Your body isn’t getting the nutrients it needs.
• You don’t eat enough protein. Protein helps build muscle tissue.
• Too many carbs are being consumed. Carbs can be used to store energy.
• You’re consuming too many sugars. Sugar causes insulin spikes in your bloodstream. This slows down your metabolism.
• Your diet is not adequate in fats. You need to ingest certain vitamins.
• Your intake of essential fatty acids (EFAs), is too low. EFAs are known to reduce inflammation.
• Your fiber intake is too low. Fiber absorbs excess cholesterol. Fiber speeds up digestion.
• Your diet is not adequate in vitamin C. Vitamin C is necessary for proper collagen production. Collagen is what keeps your skin elastic and firm.
• You are eating too little. Portions should be measured using a standard cup measurer.
• Consuming too much alcohol is a problem. Alcohol is very dehydrating.
• You are consuming too high levels of caffeine. Too much caffeine can damage the liver.
• Low magnesium levels are a problem. Magnesium helps maintain healthy bones and muscles.
• You’re consuming too little potassium. Potassium is necessary to maintain fluid balance.

How can I reduce my appetite?

Eat small, frequent meals throughout your day to reduce hunger pangs. This will help you keep your blood sugar levels stable and decrease hunger pangs.

You may find that drinking plenty of water or taking an herbal supplement such as bitter melon or ginseng works better than relying on food alone.

Avoid carbohydrates like bread, pasta and rice. These foods can give you an instant boost, followed by a crash.

You should instead choose protein-rich foods, such as lean meats (fish, eggs), nuts and legumes. These foods will provide you with sustained energy and help maintain your blood sugar level.

Avoid sugary snacks such as cakes, chocolate bars, cookies, juice, and doughnuts. These can stimulate cravings and cause you to feel bloated.

Instead, opt for healthier options like fresh fruits, veggies, salads and whole-grain cereals.

So if you’re trying to lose weight, then don’t rely on fad diets or miracle supplements.

What is African Mango Extract?

Vitamin C in this product is high, which boosts immunity. This makes it ideal to those who are more susceptible to the flu and colds.

The antioxidants found in African mango extract help to reduce free radicals. This reduces the likelihood of developing heart disease and cancer.

African mango also contains vitamins A and B6, which support healthy skin and hair growth.

African Mango active ingredients provide an effective supplement that will keep you looking young and feeling great!

How can I slim down naturally?

Healthy foods should be eaten as often as possible. Healthy snacks should be low-calorie. Avoid eating too much processed food. Instead, choose whole grains such oatmeal, barley or brown rice for breakfast. Sugary drinks are high in calories, and can cause weight gain. If you want to lose weight, then watch what you’re drinking by choosing water over soda pop or juice. Try to drink at least eight glasses of water each day.

Another tip is to rise early. Studies show that people who wake up earlier tend to consume fewer calories throughout the day. Set an alarm clock to ensure you don’t snooze through the day.

Also, exercising is essential. Aerobic exercises include running, walking and biking. Burn fat faster than strength-training. Consider adding aerobic activity to your life.

What happens if you have a green smoothie for breakfast every day?

It’s more than just for breakfast. Green Smoothies are healthy, delicious drinks made from fresh fruit and vegetables blended into an incredibly satisfying beverage. They are rich in vitamins and minerals, antioxidants as well as fiber and protein. They are also delicious!

Green Smoothies are low in calories, high in nutrients and low in calories. This amazing drink could help you shed those extra pounds.

Green smoothies make it easy to prepare. You simply combine fresh fruits with some ice cubes. There are many combinations that can be made, but we have listed the top ten.

1. Banana + Blueberries Banana Berry Blast
2. Spinach + Pineapple Healthy Superfood
3. Strawberry + Yogurt Strawberry Delight
4. Smoothie Apple + Orange Fruity Green
5. Lemonade + Peach Melon Madness
6. Pear + Kale Packed with Fiber
7. Grapefruit + Kiwi the Ultimate Detox
8. Mango + Avocado Tropical Paradise
9. Watermelon + Lime Delicious Hydration
10. Coconut + Cucumber Refresher

Statistics

• In a total of 54 randomized controlled trials in healthy adults with overweight or obesity, the authors found no difference in weight or body fat percentage between the Garcinia Cambogia group and the placebo group (3Trusted Source (healthline.com)
• On average, they experienced 28 pounds (12.8 kg) of weight loss, a 6.4-inch (16.2-cm) reduction in waist circumference, and a 6.3% dip in body fat (5Trusted Source (healthline.com)
• A 2008 survey noted that 33.9% of American adults trying to lose weight took dietary supplements (1Trusted (healthline.com)
• Nature’s Health Goji Berry – Lycium Berries – Maintain Vision Health – Jam-Packed with Vitamins A & C – 580 mg per Serving – 60 Veggie Capsules – Non-GMO Emerald Labs Goji Berry – 40% Polysaccharides – 60 Vegetable Capsules (amazon.com)
• Vitamin C:62% of the Daily Value (DV) (healthline.com)

External Links

healthline.com

• Glucomannan – Is It a Good Weight Loss Supplement
  

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

• Efficacy and tolerability of a novel herbal formulation for weight management – Stern – 2013 – Obesity – Wiley Online Library
  
• Forskolin Consumption is Associated With Body Composition, Hormonal Adaptations and Obesity in Obese Men – Godard – 2005 Obesity Research – Wiley Online Library
  

cdc.gov

• Products – Data Briefs – Number 376-7 September 2020
  
• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
  

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

• Results of a national survey on the use of diet supplements to weight loss in the United States – PubMed
  
• African mango (IGOB131). A proprietary extract of Irvingia Gabonensis seeds is shown to be effective in reducing body fat and improving metabolic conditions in overweight individuals – PubMed
  

How To

The Best Natural Appetite Repressants to Control Weight

Natural appetite suppressant to weight loss is any substance that can be used to reduce food intake without side effects, such as vomiting or constipation, diarrhea and dizziness.

There are many natural ways to lose weight. One way is through dieting. It is about reducing the amount of calories you consume, compared to what your usual eating habits are. This could mean eating less calories than usual, skipping meals or eating smaller portions. Exercising is another natural way to lose weight. Exercise is about increasing your physical activity. This can be achieved by walking fast and aerobics, running, dancing, swimming or cycling, walking fast, exercising at the gym, strength training, yoga, Tai Chi, or any other activity.

Natural appetite suppressants don’t cause side effects such nausea, constipation heartburn, stomach cramps or headaches. They are safer than prescription medication with many side effects. If you are interested in trying them, go ahead. However, you should consult your doctor before using these products.