Eat These Fruits And Veggies To Prevent Cancer

My last post was asking if you are getting enough fruits and veggies to prevent cancer. The question should be are you getting enough of the right ones to prevent cancer. The National Cancer Institute says about one third of all cancers are linked to diet. Here's the first post about cancer and foods.

Let's look at how food can help save you from cancer. Full-fledged cancer is a long time happening. That means you have years in which to literally starve or feed potential cancer. Two to three decades are typical and four to five decades not unusual from the time a single cell suffers genetic changes until a tumor appears.

What you eat may interfere with that cancer process at many stages. Wandering cancer cells need the right conditions in which to attach and grow. Food agents can foster a hostile or a favorable environment. The right foods eaten after cancer is diagnosed may help prolong your life.

Ever since scientist started probing a cancer-diet connection in the 1970's, the antidote to cancer has been coming up "fruits and vegetables," consistently and relentlessly. "The more fruits and vegetables people eat, the less likely they are to get cancer," states Dr. Peter Greenwald, Director of the Division of Cancer Prevention and Control at the National Cancer Institute.

Choose the darkest green veggies because they have many different antioxidants, including beta carotene and folic acid as well as lutein. The darker green they are the more cancer-inhibiting carotenoids they have. Also the deeper orange colored fruits are higher in beta carotene.

The tomato has lycopene which is twice as powerful as beta carotene at "quenching singlet oxygen," a toxic oxygen that can trigger cancer in cells.
Lycopene is also highly concentrated in watermelon and there's a smidgen in apricots.

Best fruit and vegetable bets against various cancers:
Lung cancer: carrots and green leafy vegetables
Colon cancer: carrots and cruciferous veggies; Spinach - Kale - Dark Green Lettuce - Broccoli - Brussels Sprouts - Cauliflower - more here
Esophageal, oral and pharyngeal cancers: All fruits
Laryngeal cancer: All fruits and veggies
Stomach cancer: Fruit in general, lettuce, onions, tomatoes, celery, squash - especially raw vegetables.
Pancreatic cancer: Fruits and veggies
Bladder cancer: Vegetables, specifically carrots and fruits
Thyroid cancer: Cruciferous veggies

Really all fruits and veggies can build the beta carotene in your blood along with making sure you have high levels of folic acid (found in green veggies) and lycopene (a tomato compound.) Research has shown people with high levels of all these are much less likely to get cancer, in particular of the lung, cervix and pancreas.

Let me say there are not many fruits or veggies that don't help prevent cancer except maybe oranges and pears.

Here's a list of fruits and veggies known to prevent, slow or reduce tumor growth:
Asparagus - Avocado - Apples - Berries of all kind - Broccoli - Celery - Cabbage - Cauliflower - Cranberries - Garlic - Ginger - Gigi berries (wolf berries) Grapefruit - Grapes - Eggplant - Kale - Kiwi - Lemons - Limes - Mango - Honey - Olives (oil) - Onion - Passion Fruit - Pineapple - Plums - Pomegranate - Potatoes - Pumpkin - Sweet Potato - Tomato - Horseradish - Mint - Parsley - Bell Peppers - Rosemary - Soybeans - Spinach - Watermelon - Corn - Carrots - Turmeric (curcumin)- Banana

These fruits and veggies have unique compounds such as, antioxidants, beta carotene, cartenoid, and phytochemicals. Scientist don't even know all the things in plants that help to block cancer.

Today's possibility may be tomorrow's probability and there's certainly no downside to eating healthy foods. Amazingly, research suggests that eating only an extra single carrot, a half cup of dark yellow-orange or dark green vegetables, a piece of fruit daily, or even more than once a week, could mean the difference between getting and not getting lung cancer. In fact, such a tiny amount appears to cut your odds of lung cancer by half or even more. Study after study on all continents show that people who have diets deficient in fruits and vegetables are at increased risk of lung cancer, even if you have never smoked.

Nobody really knows the best anticancer dose of fruits and vegetable, but at least two fruits and three vegetables a day of various kinds are a goal to aim for. Adding more fruits and vegetables to a typical diet is likely to cut your chances of cancer.

So try to add more fruits and veggies to your diet everyday. Use fruits in a breakfast drink and add a variety of veggies to salads, like I do. I love to make a salad and see how colorful it ends up. Cranberries are one of my favorite things to top on my salad. Experiment with fruits and veggies to see which ones agree with you the most.

Resources:
Food your miracle medicine, Jean Carper pages 203-267,
101 Foods that could save your life, David Grotto, RD,LDN

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