Role Of Nutrition In Cancer Prevention

As human beings, we all love to grow and prosper, but what happens when every cell of our body tends to grow more than necessary? Yes, this is what medical science defines as cancer. Cancer cells start in one body part and have the ability to grow abnormally, causing damage to other healthy parts of our body. Being the second leading cause of death globally, it is better to be safe than to be sorry with our everyday habits, including food and nutrition.

Consumers of packaged food need to be aware of what clearly goes inside their food and in turn their bodies. To stabilize a packaged food over shelf life, transport and storage, additional ingredients may be needed to maintain quality and taste. While these ingredients are regulated in most cases, the issue begins when consumed over a long period of time, or in higher frequency - we do not know if and how they leave our bodies. As they accumulate, they tend to damage our health in the long term. Do watch out for synthetic colors, synthetic additives, stabilizers, gums, artificial flavors and preservatives. If the ingredient listing is unclear, please remember to seek technical help or reach out to the manufacturer to understand more on how each ingredient entered the package.

Coming to specific foods that could be a part of our daily diet, we could look at making subtle inclusions in our everyday nutrition, to be less susceptible to the onset of cancer. Foods such as oats (rich in fiber), quinoa (rich in polyphenols), sunflower seeds (rich in selenium), chia seeds and flax seeds (rich in Omega 3 Fatty Acids, fiber and lignan) are suggested to slow down/prevent the growth of cancerous cells. Pumpkin seeds are associated with prevention of breast cancer and reduced risk of stomach, lung and prostate cancer. Some products that you could look to include in your diet are rolled oats, steel cut oats, quinoa, sunflower, pumpkin and flax seeds etc. 

When choosing to purchase any of these nutritious foods, please make sure that they are 100 per cent clean label, chemical-free and do not have any synthetic ingredients. Some of these chemicals and synthetic ingredients enter the food chain at several steps such as washing, cleaning and sorting of agricultural produce. Again, these are potential carcinogens and could accumulate in our bodies over time, leading to long term side effects. While some of these seeds and grains may not be a regular part of our daily diets, we could explore fun recipes to make with these ingredients.

While food is of prime focus, let's not forget to take deep breaths, give ourselves good sleep, accompanied by active rest and exercise sessions. Above all, the nutrition we feed our bodies will not do their work well, as long we continue to stress it out physically or mentally.

As we make purchases of packaged food, let it not be just a matter of a click on your favorite app. Let it be a conscious, well-informed choice, not decided merely by taste, but by health and truth. 

Dr Pavitra K

Guest Author The author is Lead - New Product Development, True Elements