How to Prevent Cancer With Diet: What to Eat and What to Avoid to Lower Your Risk

What you eat on a regular basis, and even how you cook it, can play a big role in protecting your health or even increasing your risk for cancer. However, adopting a healthy and balanced diet may help reduce your risk of developing cancer. Several foods are especially good at keeping cancer away and several can invite it right in. It's up to you to know the difference. Keep reading to find out how to prevent cancer through a healthy diet.

Can You Prevent Cancer With Diet?

How can you prevent cancer with your diet? The simple fact is that there is no specific food or food group that can prevent cancer. You won’t necessarily eliminate your risk of cancer by excluding specific foods either, although you may reduce the risk.

In general though, consuming meals that are composed primarily of healthy foods, such as fruits, beans, vegetables, seeds, nuts, and whole grains, can help to lower your risk of cancer.

Foods to avoid include sugary foods and beverages; food that is heavily processed or burnt; foods high in pesticides, chemicals, or toxins; and foods high in trans fats. This also helps to prevent inflammation, other health problems, and weight gain, which helps to reduce the risk of cancer.

Additionally, following certain basic dietary guidelines can be beneficial as well, such as staying hydrated; being sure to get enough fiber, protein, vitamins, and minerals; and staying within healthy calorie limits. Be sure to make all your meals healthy nutrient-packed, and especially antioxidant-rich.

In addition, just as a healthy balanced diet can help to reduce cancer risk, it’s best if you have cancer as well. However, you should always talk with a trusted doctor before making any dietary changes when you are dealing with serious health issues.

How to Prevent Cancer With Dietary Habits

The food you eat or do not eat impacts your health considerably. Adopting healthy dietary habits is one of the best ways of how to prevent cancer and also helps to fight cancer.

There are several ways that you can create an anti-cancer diet, consume added cancer-fighting foods, and lower your cancer risk. Do note, though, that these guidelines are general, and your individual body may have unique needs. It's always best to talk to a doctor about dietary changes. Some dietary habits that you can consider include the following:

Eating a Traditional Mediterranean Diet

A traditional Mediterranean diet is rich in fruit, vegetables, healthy fats (olive oil, nuts, etc), fish (rich in omega-3 fatty acids), and whole grains (whole-wheat bread, brown rice). It also contains little or no red meat or little or no sugar. Research indicates that this sort of overall eating pattern may help minimize your risk of developing cancers, such as breast cancer and colorectal cancer.

This way of eating also has the potential to reduce your risk of cardiovascular disease, support healthy body weight and healthy blood sugar levels, and lower your risk of metabolic syndrome.

How to Prevent Cancer With Antioxidants

Adopting a plant-based foods diet can help you to fuel your body with antioxidants. These nutrients help to fight off oxidative stress and neutralize the effects of free radicals. Antioxidants can help to keep the cells of your body healthy and help guard against cancer cells. Good sources of antioxidants include fruits and vegetables such as carrots, tomatoes, strawberries, and citrus fruits. Seeds, nuts, and whole grains also have antioxidant properties. Antioxidant foods with specific anti-cancer connections include the following:

• Fruit-rich diets may reduce the risk of lung and stomach cancer.
• A diet high in carotenoids and vegetables like carrots, Brussels sprouts, and squash may reduce the risk of larynx, lung, mouth, and pharynx cancers.
• Diets high in non-starchy vegetables, such as broccoli, spinach, and beans, may help protect against stomach and esophageal cancer.
• Vitamin C-rich foods like berries, bell peppers, oranges, peas, and dark leafy greens may help prevent esophageal cancer.
• Lycopene-rich foods such as guava, tomatoes, and watermelon, may reduce your risk of prostate cancer.

Add More Fiber to Your Diet

Fiber, a form of indigestible carbohydrate, is found in fruits, legumes, vegetables, and whole grains. It’s essential in maintaining a clean and healthy digestive system. Research suggests that fiber plays a role in helping cancer-causing compounds move through the digestive tract before they can pose a threat to your health.

According to an article published in the journal Nutrients, dietary fiber intake has various protective effects on particular cancers, including gastrointestinal, breast, ovarian, endometrial, pancreatic, prostate, and renal cell cancers.

Select Healthy Fats

Learning how to prevent cancer may mean eliminating trans fat from your diet. Packaged and fried foods, such as pie dough, cookies, French fries, and fried chicken are full of trans fat or partially hydrogenated oil. Choosing healthy fats instead could help protect against the development of cancer.

Unsaturated fats from fish, olive oil, avocadoes, and nuts could help boost your anti-cancer diet. Additionally, omega-3 fatty acids in foods like flaxseeds, salmon, and tuna can fight inflammation and also promote brain and heart health.

Reduce Sugar and Refined Carbs Intake

Refined carbs cause rapid spikes in blood sugar, and this has been connected to an increased risk of developing prostate cancer. So cut back on white bread, soft drinks, processed foods, and pasta.

Instead, choose unrefined whole grains, such as multigrain bran cereal, bread, brown rice, barley, oatmeal, and quinoa. These unrefined grains could help lower your risk for colorectal and prostate cancer and also help you achieve and maintain a healthy weight.

Cut Back on Processed and Red Meat

Research suggests that there is a connection between the risk of cancer and the consumption of processed meat. These meats include sausages, bacon, pepperoni, hotdogs, and salami. According to a study published in the European Journal of Epidemiology, red and processed meat consumption was significantly associated with a greater risk of colorectal cancer, colon cancer, rectal cancer, lung cancer, and renal cell cancer.

The risk for cancer could be associated with nitrate preservatives as well as other substances involved in the processing of meat. Yet eating red meat without preservatives also increases your risk factors for cancer. To be on the safe side, it's best to limit the amount of processed and red meats you eat and opt for other sources of protein instead, like fish and legumes.

Chronic Stress, Poor Diet, and Cancer

In addition to a healthy diet, knowing how to prevent cancer also involves knowing how to manage stress. Conditions like Adrenal Fatigue, which are associated with chronic stress, can also lead to a slew of health problems that can worsen your risk for cancer overall. Adrenal Fatigue is a condition where the body is unable to keep up with long-term stress, resulting in various nonspecific symptoms such as weight gain, brain fog, fatigue, weakness, tiredness, and difficulty losing weight.

Research suggests that chronic stress can help cancer not only grow but spread. Additionally, it can cause dysregulation of the hormone circuit of the NeuroEndoMetabolic (NEM) Stress Response. Specifically, it causes cortisol levels to increase, sending the adrenals into overdrive.

Diet is a key element in healing your adrenals when they are overworked from stress or Adrenal Fatigue. If your diet is not adequately nutritious, it can affect adrenal function and lead to worsening symptoms. A balanced and nutrient-rich diet can help to restore the adrenals and also help prevent and fight cancer.

Make Healthy Food Preparation Choices

Along with making healthy food choices, it's also important to consider how you prepare your food. This often means avoiding carcinogens and added toxins in foods or added through the cooking process.

Learning how to prevent cancer through diet can involve the following:

• Steam your vegetables until tender, and do not overcook them, to preserve more of their minerals and vitamins. Also, when you boil your vegetables, keep the cooking water and use it in another dish like soup to ensure that you get all the nutrients.
• Wash all your fruits and vegetables before eating them. If you have a vegetable brush, make use of it when washing. Washing will help to reduce some of the pesticide residues.
• When you flavor your food, use immune-boosting herbs and spices, like garlic, ginger, and curry powder. While they add flavor, they also provide cancer-fighting benefits because of their valuable nutrients. Basil, coriander, turmeric, and rosemary also have several health benefits, like lowering inflammation, which can also help reduce cancer.
• Reduce carcinogens, or cancer-causing substances found in food, when preparing your food. Carcinogens are connected to meat when cooking and preserving it. Foods that have carcinogens include cured, dried, and preserved meats, like bacon, beef jerky, and sausage. Also, burned or charred meats, smoked foods, and moldy foods tend to have carcinogens.
• Minimize your exposure to carcinogens by not cooking oil on high heat to prevent it from becoming carcinogenic. Although oils with a high smoke point, like avocado oil, are not an issue. Stick with healthier cooking options like baking, boiling, broiling, or steaming, instead of deep-frying, pan-frying, barbecuing, and sautéing. When barbecuing, flip frequently to prevent charring.
• Don’t eat food that looks or smells moldy. These foods likely contain the strong carcinogen aflatoxin. It is commonly found on moldy peanuts. Keep your nuts in the freezer or refrigerator to keep them fresh longer.
• Be mindful of the type of container that you put in your microwave. It’s best to use waxed paper to cover your food instead of plastic wrap. Always choose microwave-safe containers to put in your microwave. Also, do not eat food from hot plastic containers since hot plastics can leach toxins into food.

How to Prevent Cancer: Foods to Lower Your Risk

While no one food can prevent cancer, eating more of certain foods may help lower your risk of developing cancer. Research suggests that these foods may be particularly helpful in reducing your risk of cancer. These include:

• Broccoli: contains the plant compound sulforaphane which may have potent anticancer properties.
• Carrots: studies link eating carrots to a reduced risk of certain types of cancer, including stomach cancer, prostate cancer, and lung cancer.
• Beans: these are fiber-rich and research suggests that they can help protect against colorectal cancer by blocking the development of cancer cells.
• Berries: these are packed with the plant pigment anthocyanins that have antioxidant properties. Bilberry, for instance, has been linked to reduced growth of cancer cells in colorectal cancer. Also, research shows that black raspberries may reduce esophageal tumors. In general, berries may help inhibit the development of cancer.
• Cinnamon: a spice that may help prevent the spread of cancer cells, specifically by blocking the growth of head and neck cancer cells, and inducing cell death in tumor cells, according to research.

Other foods that may play a role in preventing cancer:

• Nuts (walnuts e.g.)
• Olive oil
• Fatty fish
• Garlic
• Turmeric
• Citrus Fruits
• Flaxseed
• Tomatoes
• Whole-grains
• Grapes

Cancer-Causing Foods to Avoid

Eating certain foods can increase your risk for cancer. Avoid these foods as part of changing your diet for how to prevent cancer:

• Red meat, like beef, veal, lamb, and processed meats like sausages, pepperoni, hot dogs, salami, and bacon
• Alcohol
• Sugar
• Processed foods
• Trans fats

The Takeaway

Several aspects of nutrition are important to consider to learn how to prevent cancer with diet. Eating a diet high in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, nuts, and seeds can help, along with avoiding sugar, alcohol, and processed meats. It’s also not simply about the food you eat, but also about the way your food is prepared, cooked, and stored, which can help to prevent cancer. This is also important for persons suffering from adrenal fatigue, where a poor diet is a key cause of the condition. A balanced and nutritious diet is crucial to adrenal recovery and cancer prevention.

Reclaim your vitality and well-being with Dr. Lam's Nutritional Adrenal Fatigue Recovery Program. This will equip you with comprehensive knowledge, tools, and strategies to boost your recovery. Consider this transformative program to restore your health. Get on the program today.