5 Cancer Fighting Foods to Add to Your Diet

Foundational nutrition coupled with an active lifestyle and intentional stress management is the key to a long, healthy life.

When it comes to maintaining your health, wellness, and vitality over your lifetime, prevention will always be the best first line of defense, and supporting the body with fundamental nutrition, critical vitamins, minerals, and rich nutrients is the next.

How Does Nutrition Impact Your Health?

In order to best prevent, fight and recover from disease, illness, or cancer, the body must be provided with the tools it needs to constantly repair and rebuild from the inside out.

Every cell, tissue, and organ in your body thrives from different variations of vital vitamins, minerals, fats, and proteins. Deficiencies in any foundational nutrients quickly lead to imbalances and a decreased ability for the body to heal and regenerate.

The Role of Free Radicals

Part of this nutritional defense works to prevent and repair the constant cellular damage we face caused by free radicals in the body.

Free radicals are produced through normal, essential metabolic processes in the body, and are also influenced by pollutants, exposure to chemicals, smoking, alcohol, and processed foods. When free radical damage isn’t neutralized with antioxidants and nutrients, it can lead to oxidative stress, inflammation, aging, and some cancers.

Nutrition, Cancer + the Whole Foods Diet

In order to reduce the risk of cancer or fight and recover from cancer, a focus on cancer-fighting foods, antioxidants, and anti-inflammatory phytonutrients is critical.

A recent review of research published in May 2021 looked at 12 studies with 500,000 closely studied participants for 25 years. The study found that individuals eating an abundance of plant-based foods over a long period were less likely to develop or succumb to disease compared to those who didn’t.

Avoiding packaged and processed foods, chemicals, and preservatives will help lower exposure to harmful chemicals and toxins, and reducing your intake of red meat with a focus on grass-fed, organic, pasture-raised animal products, will further lighten the load.

Focus on building a plant-focused diet inclusive of rich, whole foods, including:

• Leafy vegetables
• Whole grains
• Nuts
• Fruits
• Beans + legumes
• Plant-based proteins

The Top Five Superfoods for Lowering Risk of Cancer

Certain foods act as superfoods along the way to lower your risk of cancer and support the body in healing from cancer treatment.

1. Leafy Greens: for critical minerals

Leafy greens are exceptionally rich in vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and enzymes, yet low in calories, fats, sodium, and toxins, fighting free-radical damage.

They also contain antibacterial and antiviral properties, inactivate carcinogens, which reprogram cancer cells to die off, and prevent tumor formation and metastasis.

What are leafy greens?

• Kale, spinach, collard greens, arugula, silverbeet, watercress, chard

2. Cruciferous Vegetables: the master antioxidant

Cruciferous vegetables are a great base for any meal and are known for their naturally high antioxidant and glutathione content, the ‘master antioxidant.’ With high Vitamin C and antioxidant availability, these veggies are known as cancer killers and a nutrient-dense source of phytochemicals.

What are Cruciferous Vegetables?

• broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, kale, bok choy, brussels sprouts, radishes

3. Berries: antioxidants

Berries are high in antioxidants, making them one of the best superfoods available. Berries contain high concentrations of vitamin C and vitamin A.

Which Berries are best?

• Blueberries, raspberries, cherries, goji, and blackberries

4. Salmon: Omega 3

Healthy fats and rich omega 3’s play a critical part in brain, heart, and tissue health. Omega 3 fatty acids are shown to reduce inflammation and control inflammatory responses. Controlling free radicals and inflammation is crucial at reducing the risk of disease and is key in prevention and recovery from a range of diseases and cancers.

Good Sources of Omega 3:

• Salmon, herring, mackerel, ghee, olives, and olive oils

5. Mushrooms: antimicrobial, antiviral

Medicinal Mushrooms are considered a medical source of antioxidants, anti-inflammatory, anti-tumor, anticancer and antimicrobial agents. These types of medical mushrooms have been used for centuries in Eastern medicine to treat illness and infection and are still used in the present day to help fight inflammation and cancer.

Mushrooms can be added to nearly any meal and are a good source of plant-based proteins.

What are Medicinal Mushrooms?

• Reishi, Shiitake, Lions Mane, Turkey Tail, Tremella

Support your healthiest body and lower your risk of cancer by eating the rainbow as often and as joyfully as possible every single day. At SWWO, we know that maintaining good nutrition is a vital component of your health and wellbeing. We are here to support and answer all your women’s health questions. If you’ve received a cancer diagnosis and are looking for a caring, expert cancer care team, get in touch today.