Fruits and vegetables reduce the risk of cancer

If you want to reduce your risk of several common types of cancer, help may be no farther away than your kitchen (Yahoo News).

A trio of new studies presented at the annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research on Sunday found that vegetables and fruits help lower your chances of getting head and neck, breast, ovarian and pancreatic cancers.

One of the studies even found that just one additional serving of vegetables or fruits could help lower the risk of head and neck cancer. Still, the more fruits and vegetables you can consume, the better.

Lifestyle change that helps to avoid cancer

Fruits and vegetables can help us in fighting against cancer along with making us healthy but this can be done effectively if we are serving these “5 a day”. Black raspberry is helpful in inhabiting throat cancer. In recent it is also discovered that Black raspberry, blueberry and cloudy apple juice are helpful in inhabiting colon cancer. But irrespective of all this there is a list of 5 lifestyle guidelines to counterpart the risk of cancer, which are as following –

1. Five serving of produce every day
   

   Polynutrients are natural chemical compounds, which are helpful; in maintaining health, their number is up to thousands and many of them are helpful in protection against cancer. Fruits and vegetables are main sources of phytonutrients. These fruits and vegetables are having different combination of phytonutrients. A man is suggested to have nine serving of these fruits and vegetables but need to eat at least five of them daily so that they got a variety.

   
   

   VITAMIN C rich produce like strawberries, peppers and citrus fruits are helpful in reducing the risk of colon, breast, stomach, esophagus and bladder cancers. CRUCIFEROUS VEGETABLES like Brussels sprouts, cauliflower and cabbage contain glucosinolates phytonutrients, these will retard metabolism of carcinogens and allow the body to generate detoxification enzymes. Leafy green and orange colored vegetables like spinach and carrots can reduce the risk of stomach, lung and colon cancer.

   
   


2. Avoiding more pickled, salty and smoked foods
   

   Through salt Helicobacter pylori bacteria can flourish which increases the risk of cancer. Salt can also damage the lining of throat and stomach and can cause esophageal cancer. This category includes the salts, pickles, salted fish and meats and also the pickled vegetables; but all these are brand based i.e. if these are processed well then they are less harmful. Smoked meats like smoked lox and whitefish can also increase the risk of stomach cancer.

   
   


3. Avoiding more saturated and trans fat
   

   Studies show that saturated and trans fats increase the risk of prostate and breast cancer, but their role is entirely clear whether they cause cancer or not but everyone need to avoid these fats as these are bad for health. These unhealthy fats can cause the inflammation in whole body, which will in turn cause damage of cells.

   
   

   Animal based foods like beef, butter, milk dairy products, lard; fried foods are the sources of saturated fats. On the other hand trans fats are found in some packed baked goods and snack foods, fried foods and fast food dishes.

   
   


4. Taking good dose of Vitamin D
   

   Colon, prostate, ovaries and breast cancer are some how linked with vitamin D deficiency. Vitamin D stops the proliferation of cancerous and pre-cancerous cells and also blocks the development of blood vessels, which feed the tumors. So everyone is suggested to take enough amount of vitamin D rich foods like fatty fish, non-fat yogurt and reduced fat cheese and sunlight, which is a great source of vitamin D.

   
   


5. Avoiding high temperatures cooked meats
   

   Heterocyclic amines (HCAs), which increase the risk of stomach, colon, breast and pancreatic cancer, are produced when meat is cooked at high temperatures. HCAs are mostly found in fried, broiled meats, which are prepared at high temperatures. Boiling and stewing of meat produce the least, while Roasting and baking produce fewer HCAs.