Healthy Choices to Fight Cancer: What Should You Include in Your Diet?

The cells in our body are governed by very strictly regulated processes which need large amounts of energy to run efficiently. One of the most crucial yet poorly understood aspects is the life expectancy of a cell and how it does NOT change, ever.Specific cells are expected to live for a specified amount of time and then die or are killed off by other patrolling cells. But when this does not happen, you may have cancer. Cancer is characterised by uncontrolled cell division and cells just don’t die because they are wired differently when compared to normal cells.  This has been attributed to a variety of causes, but one super important one is DNA mutation and repair mechanisms not working like they should. The risk of cancer changes with age, family history, exposure to carcinogens and other related factors. Let us see how diet is one such factor that we all really need to concentrate on.

Dietary Changes To Prevent Cancer

We mentioned earlier that cancer is idiopathic for a majority of cases. Since there is no concrete or well known cause to point to, you could say that poor dietary choices may be a possible indicator of cancer risk. Eating a diet that is rich in highly processed, salty and sugary foods is bad for your body and can alter many mechanisms systemically. These foods do not have a lot of nutritional value and fill you up with ‘empty calories’. They can cause diabetes, hypertension, hormonal disorders and other issues which cannot be cured. Ultra processed foods are rich in bad additives like acrylamide and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, nitrates, potassium bromate, etc. – all of which are bad for you. They also have too much salt, sugar or saturated fats in them, which can increase your risk of heart disease. THere are thousands of such additives that we may encounter on a daily basis. They can all help accelerate DNA damage and increase cancer risk, while also adversely affecting the metabolic prowess of your body.

Foods Rich In Antioxidants For Cancer Prevention

Cancer cases remain high in India and have been increasing steadily over the last few decades. This may also be linked to a massive shift in dietary choices and lifestyle changes in general. We are more sedentary than before, we have the ways and means to get food delivered at any time at all and we use bad eating habits as coping mechanisms to help us fell better about our lives, many studies show that there has been a sharp increase in disease incidence due to the increased usage of processed foods and snacks and seed oils. We do eat a lot of vegetables as India has a high number of practicing vegetarians and there is some data to show that plant based diets are the best to stay cancer-free in the long run. This is mainly because these foods have lots of antioxidants in them, which help cell age better.

Conclusion

When we try to look at ways to reduce cancer risk through diet, a plant based diet is given as a sure fire answer. Yes, it does work wonders. Fresh produce can give you lots of vitamins, minerals and phytochemicals. These can help your cells stay healthier for a longer while. The benefits of a plant-based diet for cancer. Cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli and the cruciferous family in general have been hailed for their anti-cancer properties. They contain sulforaphane which was seen to help reduce tumour size by a large percentage in lab based studies. Many other vegetables and fruits have good active compounds in them. So, eat your veggies and fruits- they may seem boring but do it! Spice them up with kitchen essentials like pepper, turmeric, jeera, saunf, cardamom, cloves and what not, but eat them up!