We’ve all heard the saying that we are what we eat. While it might not be a literal truth, there is definitely merit to the old adage. Current data shows that there are specific foods to fight cancer. Incorporating some of these foods into your daily (or, at least, weekly) diet may help prevent cancer-related diseases.
My kids and I often go ’round and ’round about the taste of food. Most of us prefer what we eat to please our palates. I, however, vote for good health over personal taste preference, every time. Who cares if you don’t like it if it’s tremendously beneficial to your health? How many times have you choked down awful-tasting medicine to fight illness? Why should we not be willing to do the same with food?
You can grow foods to fight cancer
Prevention is the way to go when it comes to choosing foods to fight cancer. After all, it’s a lot more difficult to treat an existing disease than to prevent it. Many cancers are incurable. The following list includes five foods to fight cancer that you can grow in your own backyard (or somewhere else, if you don’t have a yard):
- Cruciferous vegetables include things like brussel sprouts, broccoli and cauliflower. These crops contain not one but two types of antioxidants that help prevent cancer.
- Most people either hate the smell and taste of garlic or they absolutely love it. (I’m in the latter category.) Mincing or smashing garlic, then waiting 10 minutes to cook or eat it raw is the best way to take advantage of this powerful cancer-fighting food.
- The more an onion makes you cry, the healthier it is! Stronger onions contain phenols, which are sulfur compounds that can detoxify carcinogens before they damage your cells.
- Tomatoes are one of the most common home-garden crops available today. Eaten with broccoli (and a drizzle of olive oil to provide fat to dissolve lycopene) tomatoes are among the best choices for foods to fight cancer.
- If you’re not a big veggie lover, you’ll be glad to know that citrus fruits help lower cancer rates, too! Citrus foods are loaded with vitamin C and fiber. Such fruits also prevent cellular changes that often result in cancer.
Foods to fight cancer should not be processed
If you’re grabbing prepackaged, highly processed foods from the shelves every time you shop, you might want to make some changes. Incorporating some of the foods to fight cancer mentioned earlier can help you improve your health. Think “whole foods” when the goal is to build a strong immune system and ward off disease.
Another old saying encourages apple-eating at least once per day. Apples (especially including the peels) are right up there with berries when it comes to the best choices for foods to fight cancer. This book contains a wealth of information on how to prevent and reverse many illnesses by eating healthier foods.
Along with foods to fight cancer
Adjusting your diet is an easy way to improve your health. Even if you’re already battling disease, choosing cancer-fighting foods (especially garlic) may have positive treatment effects. When the goal is a healthy lifestyle, however, we need to do more than just eat right.
Do you know that people who avoid direct sunlight are at greater risk (than those who don’t) for many cancers? Sunbathing is an easy way to get vitamin D into your body. Researchers from Moores Cancer Center in California estimate that people could prevent at least 600,000 cases of cancer by getting more sunlight. I’ll leave you with this win/win idea: Growing your own foods to fight cancer provides ample opportunity to bask in direct sunlight, as well!
