A Balanced Diet is Important
A lifelong diet of nutritious foods will reduce your cancer risk and serve as a form of prevention. Along with other healthy lifestyle factors, choosing healthy foods while avoiding and reducing unhealthy options is a good start.
Avoid smoking and vaping, engage in physical activity on more days of the week than not, and avoid alcohol. Regular exercise, such as brisk walking, cycling or swimming can also significantly reduce your risk of cancer. Drink plenty of water, reduce your stress factors and work toward getting the best night’s sleep possible.
Delicious Natural Food Options
A cancer fighting diet is not a complex regimen that requires you to become a master chef. It's a simple, delicious and affordable way to boost your health. Remember, there isn’t a single magical food that will reduce your risk. A cancer fighting diet requires a wide range of nutritious foods. You can easily incorporate these options into your grocery list and start crossing off the essential items.
Natural foods, not the highly processed ones in the freezer aisle or fast food restaurants, have always been our best choice for a healthy life. Foods such as fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts, seeds and beans contain the necessary vitamins, minerals and phytochemicals that research suggests have cancer-fighting properties. For instance, cruciferous vegetables like broccoli and cauliflower contain compounds that can help prevent cancer. Similarly, berries are rich in antioxidants that can protect your cells from damage.
The American Institute for Cancer Research provides a wealth of information, including the importance of choosing fruits and vegetables with abundant color. Think blueberries, raspberries, all of the squash family, cherries, cranberries and carrots. Cruciferous vegetables such as cauliflower and broccoli are also solid choices. Canned and frozen vegetables are a bit more affordable and will also meet your nutrition needs.
Whole grains, nuts and seeds are fantastic health options and can often be purchased in bulk to save on costs. In addition, these food choices can be prepared in delicious ways that will leave you feeling full and provide much-needed nutrition.
Fight Back by Cutting Back
We can eliminate several food items to reduce our cancer risk. Of these, alcohol is one of the leading risk factors for cancer. Avoid or do your best to reduce your consumption of alcohol. Next on the avoidance list are processed meats, including bacon, sausages and deli-style meats. Unfortunately, while they taste good, processed meats are linked to cancer because of the smoking and curing process.
Like alcohol, even small amounts of processed meats should be avoided to reduce your risk of developing certain cancers, especially colorectal cancer. Sweets and highly sugared products, such as sodas, often have the impact of increasing body weight. Many cancers are linked to obesity. For this reason, cutting back on foods high in sugars should be avoided while maintaining a healthy body composition.
Everything in life requires balance, including consuming the foods we love. Choose red meats only once in a while. Eating red meats too often is linked to an increased risk of cancer, especially colorectal cancer.
Besides sticking to natural whole grains and an abundance of fruits and vegetables, you may wish to follow a more guided diet to decrease your cancer risk. There are many popular, although restrictive, diets that many suggest help reduce the risk of developing cancer.
These diets include: Mediterranean, vegan, flexitarian, pescetarian and lacto ovo vegetarian. As mentioned, these diets can be restrictive and challenging to follow. Further, these diets also require eliminating several foods. Before following a restrictive diet like those mentioned above, discuss your plans with your doctor to ensure your nutritional needs are met.
Treatment Options
Cancer treatment options are as varied as cancer types. Treatment plans also vary by what stage the cancer is currently in and range in their aggressiveness. The American Cancer Society outlines how fighting cancer includes treatments and techniques to beat the disease.
Cancer treatments include chemotherapy, surgery, radiation, stem cell therapy and bone marrow transplants. The approach to treatment may range from standard treatment plans to clinical trials and on to palliative care. The proper treatment is developed based on an individual’s unique set of circumstances, along with the specific cancer type they have and how far it has progressed. Cancer treatment will begin with a deep conversation with your healthcare team.