Having a well-balanced diet boosts your immunity and helps to protect against cancer and other diseases. Here’s what to eat
What we eat impacts our health. Making smart food choices may help reduce our risk of developing cancer, especially foods with beneficial compounds that can fight the disease. Here are some superfoods to add to your grocery list:
Garlic
Garlic is a potent superfood you want to add to your list. Not only does it help to reduce blood pressure and cholesterol levels, but it also contains sulphur compounds that can shore up your immune system to fight against cancer, as well as potentially reduce tumour growth.
Berries
Antioxidant-filled berries of any kind are one of nature’s best superfoods. They contain polyphenols, a group of phytochemicals, and two active cancer-fighting compounds – anthocyanins and ellagitannins – which work together to help reduce the risk of colon cancer.
Tea
Specifically, green or black tea. Black tea and green tea are derived from the same plant, but black tea is made from the fermented leaves of the plant. Green and black tea contain polyphenols, antioxidative plant compounds that help to fight and inhibit the growth of cancer cells.
Nuts
According to the American Institute for Cancer Research, all types of nuts have cancerfighting properties, but none more so than walnuts. In one animal study, mice that were fed whole walnuts and walnut oil showed higher levels of tumoursuppressing genes than those that were fed vegetable oil.
Fatty fish
Fatty, oily fish like salmon, mackerel and anchovies are rich in essential nutrients like omega-3 fatty acids, vitamin B and potassium, which may
help guard against heart disease and cancer. A diet high in freshwater fish can reduce the risk of colorectal cancer by 53 per cent, while another study showed that eating fish oil and fish oil supplements can significantly lower the risk of prostate and colon cancer.
Milk ‘increases risk of prostate cancer’
DRINKING milk can raise the risk of prostate cancer, a study shows.
It found those who downed around three-quarters of a pint a day were 25 per cent more likely to develop the disease than men who drank less than a quarter of a pint a week.
Scientists believe milk contains hormones and proteins that stimulate fuel cell division which can lead to cancer. In the latest, large-scale study, more than 28,000 men in the US were monitored for nearly eight years.
Results showed the connection to prostrate cancer applied to all milk – full-fat, semi-skimmed and skimmed.
But no link was found in other dairy products, such as yoghurt and cheese, potentially because hormones and proteins are lost during fermentation.
As studies continue, lead author Prof Gary Fraser, of Loma Linda University, California, said men with a family history of prostate cancer should be cautious and consider non-dairy milks like “soy, oat or cashew”. The same team previously found a link between traditional milk and breast cancer.
