What is cancer fighting food? November 1, 2009

Food that prevent, fight, and cure cancer.. It just sounds too good to be true. Can something as simple as apples and advocados have such a big impact on our body and health? Well the scientists are not yet a hundred procent sure, but all tests and reseach so far point to it.

Phytochemicals and Antioxidants

But how is it that food - and specially fruit and vegetables - fight cancer? It is not only because of the many types of vitamins you can get from eating them. Many fruits and vegetables contain a plant chemical called Phytochemical. Phytochemicals help fight cancer by reducing the growht of malignant cells, that are the bad cells causing cancer.

Antioxidant is another keyword. Antioxidants can be found in fruits and vegetables, and other plants. An Antioxidant, as perfectly described on Wikipedia, is a molecule that prevent oxidation of other molocules. Oxidation is a chemical reaction, that produce free radicals. (Oh god I know, it sounds complicated!) Now free radicals can be described as small wild and bad molecules that start chain reactions that damage cells, and so can cause cancer.

An example of an antioxidant is carotenoid, which is the stuff that gives fruit and vegetabels their colours yellow, red and orange. Also Vitamin C and E are strong antioxidants. 

 

 

It works!

Though the general scientific opinion is only that a diet may help fight cancer, many have already been convinced. A frim believer is scientist and docter David Servan-Schreiber. When he was diagnosed with brain cancer, he started doing a lot of research on the healing powers of food. He has keept cancer at bay for a long time, largely thanks to the changes he has made in his diet and lifestyle.

David Servan-Schreiber has written the book “Anti cancer – a new way to life“. In the book he describes how you can fight cancer by making a few changes in your diet and your overall lifestyle. His book is said to be a survival manual for patients and a prevention guide for everyone else. To find out more please visit David Servan-Schreiber’s blog: http://www.anticancerbook.com/

 

Your life in your hand

Thanks to Katie and her comment on my earlier post, I was introduced to professor Jane Plant and her book “Your life in your hand“. Professor Plant is a british scientists that got breast cancer. The cancer spread to her lymph system, and she was told she had only three months to live. But, as Dr. David Servan-Schreiber, she began to research.  She came to the conclusion that your diet could be the trigger for the deciese. As she continued her investigations, she also became convinced that there was a  link between consumption of dairy products and breast cancer. Jane Plant defeated her cancer by avoiding cancer-causing food and increasing her consumption of cancer fighting food.

 

Food to avoid

Now there is not just cancer fighting food, there are also certain food groups that increase the risk of cancer, like above mentioned dairy products. Cancer-causing food can be bad for us because they contain specific toxins or chemicals. Below you can see a list of food that increase the risk of cancer:

• All charred food increase the risk of cancer, because it contains carcinogen. The same dangerous substance found in asbestos and tobacco smoke.
• Red meat should be avoided. Especially well-done meat.
• All processed meat increase the risk of cancer.  “A chemical added to processed meat products is responsible for a 67% increased risk in pancreatic cancer”, says nutritionist Mike Adams. Read more
• Sugary, heavily salted, smoked, and pickled foods
• Soft drinks and sodas, because of the high content of sugar and additives.
• French fries, chips and snack foods that contain trans fats
• Baked food should be avoided because of acrylamide, which is a bad chemical.
• Farmed fish (fish that are raised by human hand on farms) are bad because of a higher level of toxins.

Cancer fighting food October 24, 2009

The fruit detox has been very challeging and time consuming for me, so for next week I have chosen a less extreme diet. The following weeks I will focus on eating cancer fighting food.  I will not be eating only cancer fighting food, because that would be a wierd mix – see list of food beneath. But I will be eating as much food from the list as possible.

There have been many studies on cancer fighting food and a lot of knowledge has already been gathered, but scientists are still not completely sure how and why certain fruits and vegetables help prevent cancer. But one thing is for sure, many studies have already shown that eating the right combination of these fruit and vegetables will increase you chances of a cancer-free life.

Here are some examples of cancer fighting food:  Advocado, beans, berries, cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, carrots, chili peppers, jalapeños, brussels sprouts, figs, garlic, grapefruit, grapes, nuts, mushrooms, papayas, oranges, lemons, red wine, rosemary, sea vegetables, soy products, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, and whole grain. For further information and more cancer fighting food please follow this link.

Cancer is unfortuneately extremely common in my family, so it is a topic of great interest to me. I really look forward to trying this out and researching further on this topic.