Top Foods that Prevent Cancer from Coming, Staying & Returning

If you are living with cancer, currently undergoing cancer treatments, recovering from cancer, in remission, or taking care of someone with cancer, research suggests that the following foods are appropriate, and perhaps helpful to eat in optimizing the body’s maximum functionality and wellness. People with cancer often need to follow diets that are different from what they think of as healthy.

For most people, a healthy diet includes:

1.       Lots of fruits and vegetables, and whole grain bread and cereals
2.       Good amounts of lean protein-meat and milk products
3.       Small amounts of fat, sugar, alcohol, salt, preservatives, processed foods, additives, food coloring

When people have cancer, they need to eat to keep up the strength to deal with the side effects of different treatments. When people are healthy, eating enough food is often not a problem. But someone is living with cancer and treatment; this can be a real challenge.

Perhaps it is extra protein and calories that is needed. At times, someone living with cancer’s diet may need to include extra milk, cheese, and eggs. If you have trouble chewing and swallowing, you may need to add sauces and gravies. Sometimes, you may need to eat low-fiber foods instead of those with high fiber. Do check with your healthcare provider and have appropriate blood work done before following any of the research suggestions from this or other sources.

Some foods to consider eating more often include:

✪ Pumpkin, canned or cooked

Highest beta carotene of any food I have listed here. Natural sources of beta carotene have shown some ability to reverse pre-cancers in the cervix, mouth, throat, and skin. They also may help prevent new tumors in people who have already been treated for these forms of cancer.

✪ Carrots, lightly cooked

Better than raw because light cooking releases the carotenoids

✪ Sweet potatoes
✪ Squash
✪ Dark leafy Greens and Vegetables, or escarole

Contains a host of healthy plant chemicals that exert anti-oxidizing and powerfully health-promoting effects on the body. Vitamins A, C and K are extremely high in the nutrient profile of dark leafy greens. In just one cup of cooked dark leafy greens, there are over 600 percent of the daily value of vitamin K, over 150 percent of the daily value of vitamin A, and 65 percent of the daily value of vitamin C. These antioxidant-packed greens are essential for optimum health and cancer prevention.

A special note on Vitamin A and Folate: Vitamin A is a nutrient that is vital to growth and development.

Vitamin A is obtained in two ways:

1. As vitamin A from animal sources such as liver, fish oils, egg yolks, and dairy products
2. As beta-carotene from many fruits and vegetables (such as carrots, broccoli, spinach, squash, peaches, and apricots) which the body converts to retinol (a type of vitamin A) in the small intestine.

Several studies have indicated that diets rich in fruits and vegetables, as well as those rich in the nutrient folate, protect against colorectal polyps and colorectal cancer. The daily requirement for folate is 400 micrograms per day. This level of intake can easily be reached by eating about 4 cups of fruits and vegetables each day--focusing on dark leafy greens along with fresh fruits, such as papayas and raspberries, and a selection of beans.

✪ Broccoli, Cabbage, Cauliflower

Eat with foods that have a little canola or olive oil, it helps your body absorb the carotenoids
Broccoli sprouts (20 more times by weight of the chemical sulforaphane, which may reduce the growth of tumors.)

✪ Mustard greens

✪ Chick peas, Kidney beans, Lentils, Soybeans

Stimulates cancer preventing enzymes, can help lower harmful estrogen levels)

✪ Tomatoes

Especially cooked tomatoes may help protect men against prostate cancer, especially aggressive forms of it. One of the pigments that give tomatoes their red hue—lycopene—could be involved in this protective effect. Lycopene is one of several carotenoids (compounds that the body can turn into vitamin A) found in brightly colored fruits and vegetables, and research also suggests that foods containing carotenoids may protect against lung, mouth, and throat cancer.

✪ Garlic, Onions

Stimulates enzymes that suppress tumor growth

✪ Defatted soy flour

At least 1/3 cup per day recommended

✪ Turkey

At least 97% or greater fat-free chicken or turkey breast (I look for 99% fat free.)

✪ Pasta with meat sauces using 99% fat-free chicken

✪ Salmon and other fish

Such as mackerel, sardines, herring including the skin and fat (Research suggests this fat (EPA fat) has the ability to raise HDLs and potentially fight cancer cell development 1-5 servings per week recommended). Some studies in animals have found that fish oils rich in omega-3 fatty acids suppress the formation and growth of some types of cancer. Studies have also shown that the fatty acids in fish oil help protect against heart disease and reduce risk factors such as triglycerides.

✪  Olive oil or canola oil substituted for other oils

✪  Walnuts (for the omega 3)

✪  Brown and wild rice

✪  Whole grain bread, ideally with defatted soy flour

✪  Oatmeal, shredded wheat, low-no sugar added cereals

✪ Fresh fruits especially blueberries

40% more antioxidants than the next best, strawberries

✪ Green tea-Green Tea Polyphenols (GTP)

Particularly EGCG or EGCg (epigallocatechin gallate) not only inhibit an enzyme required for cancer cell growth, but also kills cancer cells with no ill effect on healthy cells. Green Tea is also a key element of cancer prevention, especially prostate cancer. Green tea contains more polyphenols — chemicals that act as powerful antioxidants and nontoxic, cancer preventive agents — than black tea. It has been speculated that the low lung cancer rate in Japan — despite the high rate of smoking — is due to green tea consumption."

✪ Red or black grapes

Grapes contain natural chemicals that have the potential to stop the spread of cancer cells, but eat real whole grapes, not supplements. By eating the fruit, the bioactive component involved goes into the bloodstream and relocates to other regions. Supplements will not offer the same rewards, since they might not have all the key chemicals needed. Grapes may have protective potential against cancer that is independent of its antioxidant properties. Plus, reams of other research encourage eating plenty of produce -- at least five fruits and veggies a day for maximum benefits.

✪ Unsweetened Grape juice

✪ Grapefruit

Especially pink which has 40% more beta carotene than white

✪ Dried unsweetened fruits

Especially apricots, dates, prunes

✪ Homemade fat-free yogurt

With extra dry milk added (2 cups per day recommended)

✪ Tupelo honey

This can be used as a substitute for sugar in cakes, cookies, breads, etc.

Foods to Consider Avoiding

⚠ 1%, 2% and whole milk
⚠ Meats with 96% fat or less, or Deli Meats
⚠ Red meats
⚠ Hydrogenated oils such as stick margarine. Or foods that list hydrogenated oils in their ingredients
⚠ Foods with high butter fat and other animal fats such as whole milk or creams such as cheese, full fat yogurt, butter, sauces. They feed the cancers and can interfere with carotenoids absorption
⚠ Deep-fried foods

Cancer treatments are designed to kill cancer cells. But these treatments can also damage healthy cells. Damage to healthy cells can cause side effects. Some of these side effects can lead to eating problems.

Common eating problems during cancer treatment include:

⚬ Appetite loss
⚬ Changes in sense of taste or smell
⚬ Constipation
⚬ Diarrhea
⚬ Dry mouth
⚬ Lactose intolerance
⚬ Nausea
⚬ Sore mouth
⚬ Sore throat and trouble swallowing
⚬ Vomiting
⚬ Weight gain
⚬ Weight loss

Resources: NaturalNews.com, Ted.com, Dr.Oz.com, Livestrong.com, MayoClinic.com