There are many benefits to a healthy, balanced diet, and yes, one of them is helping to reduce the risk of cancer. Some of the protective effects come from the diet itself, but another part is that a balanced, healthy diet helps you maintain a healthy weight or lose weight. When it comes to cancer, your overall diet is more important than individual foods.
How can a healthy diet reduce cancer risk?
There are many questions and myths when it comes to nutrition and cancer, but the fact remains that a healthy and balanced diet can help reduce the risk of cancer.
Most people go about their days eating and drinking as much as they want, whenever they want, without caring about what they put into their bodies.
However, what we do or don’t put into our bodies can greatly impact our health in a variety of ways. For example, too much sugary food/drink or high-calorie choices like fast food can make it easier to gain weight.
Overweight and obesity
This extra weight can lead to obesity, which is the cause of 13 different types of cancer, including meningioma, pancreatic cancer, colorectal cancer, and gallbladder cancer. Being overweight or obese is the second leading cause of cancer.
The American Cancer Society states that excess body weight is responsible for 11% of cancer cases in women, 5% of cancer cases in men, and 5% of all cancer deaths in the United States.
Being overweight or obese increases the risk of developing cancer, and the risk increases with the amount of excess weight and the length of time a person is overweight.
Eating a balanced, healthy diet can help you maintain a healthy weight or lose weight, which can help reduce your risk of cancer.
Malnutrition
Poor diet can increase the risk of cancer, especially in the digestive system. Diet-related cancers are most often found in the digestive system, such as the intestines, esophagus, and stomach.
Eating a healthy, balanced diet that includes fruits, vegetables, and whole grains means you’re consuming fiber. This will aid your digestion and help you poop more often, which will reduce cell damage in the gut. Additionally, eating a varied diet that includes less processed meat will also help reduce cell damage in the gut.
Drinking too much alcohol can also be seen as part of a poor diet. Reducing alcohol intake reduces cell damage throughout the body. Alcohol can cause 7 different types of cancer, including breast, colon, lung, kidney and liver cancer.
What is healthy nutrition?
While there is no magic diet that will guarantee that you will not get cancer, healthy eating habits can help reduce your chances of getting cancer.
Generally speaking, a healthy, balanced diet means eating plenty of fruits, vegetables, whole grains and healthier sources of protein, such as fish, chicken, lean unprocessed meats and legumes such as beans and lentils.
A healthy diet means you should reduce or eliminate processed meats like hot dogs, bacon, and sausages, high-calorie foods like fast food and takeout, sugary drinks like energy drinks and soda, and alcohol.
Top Tips
Making healthy changes isn’t always easy, and the world of convenience around us can make it even harder. But eating healthy, delicious foods doesn’t have to be expensive or take up a lot of time.
Eat the rainbow, which means eating a different colored fruit or vegetable every day to consume the variety of phytochemicals each contains.
Double your vegetable portions and try fruit instead of sweets. Avoid eating too much fat and try to reduce your salt intake.
There are many food options, as well as herbs and spices, available in the grocery store that will appeal to your taste buds and help reduce your risk of cancer.
As with everything you read on the internet, this article should not be construed as medical advice; please consult with your physician or primary care provider before changing your health routine. WHN does not endorse or agree with any of the materials published. This article is not intended to provide a medical diagnosis, recommendation, treatment or endorsement. Nor is it intended to disparage any religion, ethnic group, club, organization, company, individual or anyone or anything. These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration.
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References/Sources/Materials provided by:
TW on WHN
https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/causes-prevention/risk/diet
https://www.cdc.gov/cancer/risk-factors/obesity.
https://www.cancer.org/cancer/risk-prevention/diet-physical-activity/body-weight-and-cancer-risk
https://www.cancerresearchuk.org/about-cancer/causes-of-cancer/diet-and-cancer/does-having-a-healthy-diet-reduce-my-risk-of-cancer#keyrefsdiet0
https://www.cancerresearchuk.org/about-cancer/causes-of-cancer/obesity-weight-and-cancer
https://cancer.org.au/cancer-information/causes-and-prevention/diet-and-exercise/food-and-nutrition
https://www.health.ny.gov/statistics/cancer/docs/obesity_dependent_cancer_2006-2020.pdf
Enjoy the Healthy Rainbow – WorldHealth.net
Add Spice to Your Life – WorldHealth.net