What are some foods that help prevent cancers?
According to the Cancer Statistics Center of the American Cancer Society, a total of 1.74 million new cases of cancer and 0.61 million deaths from cancer occurred in the United States in 2016 (American Cancer Society, 2016). It is an alarming mortality rate, despite the massive global research effort to cure various types of cancers.
The failure of modern medicine to find a satisfactory and cost-effective solution to cancer has led many patients to turn to complementary alternative medicine, superfoods, herbal formulations, even charms for relief. A 2018 survey on Chinese-speaking cancer patients found that 65% of them used alternative or complementary medicine. (Balneaves et al., 2018).
The science of cancer prevention is still evolving. There is no single cause or solution for preventing and treating various cancers that affect humanity. My research on natural solutions for various ailments has helped me gather cancer causes and prevention facts. Let me summarise these here:
Cancer is a lifestyle disease. Genetic causes increase the susceptibility of otherwise healthy individuals is suddenly triggering cancer. However, the trigger is often caused by external stimuli. These could be environmental, physical, physiological, and something else that we have not yet discovered. Scientists have lumped these factors together and called them epigenetic factors.
Food is an important, but not the sole, supporting factor. Fruits and vegetables are rich in phytochemicals—these help build body immunity. Vitamins B and D and calcium found in plant and other foods have cancer-preventive properties. Dietary fiber found in whole grain, seeds, legumes, pulses, vegetables, fruit, and products made from these helps in the easy evacuation of stool. Plant-based phytochemical-rich foods help regulate estrogen, slow cancer cell growth and block inflammation.
Cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, related vegetables, lycopene found in tomato products, pink grapefruit, watermelon, and apricots protect several types of cancers.
On the other hand, red meat is said to increase the risk of colorectal cancer. Processed meats should as far as possible avoided. Obesity also increases the risk of many types of cancer (Prevention and Healthy Living).
No single antioxidant molecule has been found to replace the health benefits generated by a combination of natural phytochemicals found in fruits and vegetables. Consumers need to eat 5–10 servings of a wide variety of fruits and vegetables daily to mitigate the risk of chronic diseases and to meet nutrient requirements essential for optimum health (Liu, 2004).
Dietary phytochemicals act as modulators of cellular signals that trigger proteins that make cells turn cancerous (Lee et al., 2001). In both preclinical animal models and human studies, dietary phytochemicals were cancer-preventive (Lee et al., 2013).
Turmeric (curcumin), red chili (capsaicin), cloves (eugenol), ginger (zerumbone), fennel (anethole), kokum (gambogic acid), fenugreek (diosgenin), black cumin (thymoquinone) contain chemicals—shown in bracket after each herb—that prevent cancer (Aggarwal et al., 2008).
The science of food in preventing cancers is vast, and there is much more to it than what I have outlined above. But, please remember, food is one mode of preventing cancers.
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