Reduce your cancer risk with the right foods: follow these seven key dietary rules to better your odds against this serious disease - How to Eat Right

Natural Health, March, 2003 by Michael Murray, Tim Birdsall, Joseph E. Pizzorno, Paul Reilly

THE FOUR OF US HAVE PRACTICED as naturopaths for at least 17 years each, and during this time we've studied the role of diet in cancer prevention. Based on our experience and the latest research, we recommend these seven dietary rules to help protect you against cancer.

1. Load Up on Fruits and Vegetables

The most important dietary measure you can take to reduce your cancer risk is to eat a wide variety of fruits and vegetables every day. Produce contains potent cancer-fighting substances, including soluble fiber, vitamins, minerals, plant pigments like carotenes and flavonoids, and enzymes like glutathione peroxidase. These substances protect your cells from the damage that raises your risk of cancer.

Choose at least one food per day from the five key color groups--red, orange, yellow and light green, dark green, and purple--for a total of 10 servings of fruits and vegetables a day. For specific cancer-fighting foods in all these color groups, see "30 Power Foods," page 85.

2. Avoid Pesticides

In the United States, farmers add approximately 4 pounds of pesticides and herbicides per person to crops every year. Some of these chemicals have been linked to cancer. Additionally, some researchers fear that exposure to certain pesticides may impair your body's ability to neutralize cancer-causing chemicals from other sources, thereby increasing your cancer risk. Experts also suspect that some pesticides accumulate in your fat cells, where they act like the hormone estrogen and cause estrogen-related health problems, like breast cancer and other kinds of cancer.

Although it's difficult to completely avoid pesticides, you can reduce your exposure. As much as possible, buy organic fruits and vegetables, which are produced without harmful pesticides. Otherwise, buy local and in-season fruits and vegetables (produce that's shipped long distances or grown out of season is often treated with more pesticides). Remove any surface pesticide residues by soaking the items in a gallon of water and one to two teaspoons of additive-free soap like Ivory or pure Castile for one to two minutes before scrubbing and rinsing. Most natural food stores also carry natural, biodegradable cleansers that can help rinse off pesticide residues.

3. Eat the Right Kind of Fat

Research has linked diets high in fat to numerous kinds of cancers. However, just as important as the amount of fat is the type of fat you consume.

Two fats to avoid are saturated fats (found in foods like meat, dairy products, and coconuts) and trans fats (found in margarine and processed foods that feature "hydrogenated oil" on the ingredients list). Both kinds of fat can damage your cell membranes and interfere with your body's ability to use essential fatty acids, good fats that protect you against disease.

Three noteworthy omega-3 essential fatty acids are alpha-linolenic acid (ALA) from flaxseeds, and docosahexanoic acid (DHA) and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) from cold-water fish. Your body transforms them into compounds, called prostaglandins, that inhibit cancer. In addition, ALA, DHA, and EPA help keep your cell membranes fluid and healthy so your cells can hold in water, vital nutrients, and electrolytes, and can communicate with each other. If your cell membranes don't function well, your cells are more susceptible to injury and death, which in turn increases your cancer risk.

Aim to get less than 30 percent of your calories per day from all kinds of fat and 10 percent from saturated fat. To increase your ALA intake, add one tablespoon of flaxseeds (grind in a clean coffee grinder) to cereal or salads daily. Eat at least two servings per week of omega-3-rich coldwater fish like halibut, herring, mackerel, and salmon. Or you can take fish oil capsules that provide 120 to 360 mg of EPA and 80 to 240 mg of DHA per day.

4. Consume Less Meat

Study after study confirms that the higher your intake of meat and other animal products, the higher your risk of cancer--especially colon, breast, prostate, and lung cancer. In particular, all meat lacks the antioxidants and other nutrients that protect you from cancer, and it contains saturated fat, which damages your cell membranes, and other potentially cancer-causing compounds, like pesticide residues. When you grill, fry, or broil meat, it forms carcinogenic compounds. And cured or smoked meat like bacon, ham, hot dogs, and jerky contain sodium nitrate and sodium nitrites, which react with amino acids in foods in your stomach to form highly carcinogenic compounds.

To reduce your risk for cancer, limit your intake to 3 or 4 ounces or less of red meat daily (about the size of a deck of playing cards). Avoid well-done, charbroiled, cured, or smoked meat. Consider replacing conventionally raised meat with fish, poultry, free-range or grass-fed meat, or even game meats like buffalo or venison. All these foods contain less saturated fat than conventionally raised meats. Soy foods like hot dogs, soy sausage, tempeh, and even soy pastrami are also great substitutes because they contain no saturated fat. You can find them at your local natural food store and in many mainstream grocery stores.