Much is written about super foods, but today I am looking at super foods specifically related to helping your body to fight cancer. In my research I have found a website called Canceractive (www.canceractive.com), which is a mine of information for anyone wanting to ask questions about cancer but having nowhere to go to get unbiased, informative answers.
The website includes the latest available research with easy-to-read articles. Essentially it is the cancer magazine on the web. There are some excellent testimonials. Here is one taken from the website:
“As a GP with breast cancer, I would like to pass on my thanks for the excellent resources you are providing at Canceractive. I discovered your website and icon magazine six months into my diagnosis, and wish I had known about it sooner. Your magazine and website are the only reliable resource of its kind in the UK, and so badly needed. I would highly recommend you to anyone with cancer.” (Letter of the month, May 2013)
The contributors include over a hundred cancer experts, oncologists and doctors. There is also a medical board including professors and doctors specialising in oncology to be able to handle questions and comments by the readers. The website is a charity and all the money it raises goes to providing information to help people beat cancer. The trustees and management do not receive any remuneration.
Many people wonder why they haven’t been informed about this website. The organisers believe that people aren’t so much dying of cancer as dying of ignorance, because the mass of information on helping people to avoid or cope with cancer is neither well known nor easily accessible.
Today, however, is about super foods. Hippocrates famously wrote: ‘Let food be your medicine’. Other comments have been made about how food affects our overall general health, including that more people commit suicide with a knife and fork than with any other implement. Essentially the message we need to get through is that the food you eat can kill or cure you – the decision rests with the individual.
The food you eat can kill or cure you
The super foods include advice from the Mayo Clinic, who suggest up to five cups of green tea every day will maintain good health. Canceractive also says that eating wholefoods and taking a probiotic helps the stomach to process all the foods.
Oily fish is a well-known healthy food. The fish includes tuna, salmon, mackerel and sardines. They all deliver long chain omega-3 fats, which combat inflammation in the body. Inflammation is increasingly recognised as a factor in many diseases, including heart disease and cancer. The fish are also rich in vitamin A.
Egg yolk is a good source of folic acid, and that is apparently good for the healthy replication of DNA. Six Brazil nuts each day will provide your daily selenium requirement of 100-200mg. Other sources of selenium include wholemeal bread, an organic egg or a chicken breast.
Lentils, chickpeas and beans (pulses) are great sources of fibre and protein. They also deliver isoflavones and phytoestrogens, or plant oestrogens. You should eat pulses at least once every other day.
Sunflower seeds make a great snack between meals. They are high in zinc and vitamin E, and the zinc allows vitamin C to do its good work in the immune system. You need to eat quite a few, though – a healthy intake is anything between 15 and 25mg every day, and five tablespoons of seeds equates to around 10mg. Pumpkin seeds can also be added to the mix and scattered over your breakfast muesli. Five tablespoons give you 25mg of vitamin E.
Moving on to vegetables, broccoli is probably the most famous one. It is the king of vegetables and broccoli’s health benefits are never-ending. It helps to eliminate toxins, it is rich in galactose, which binds to damaging agents in the intestines; its sulphoraphane helps the liver detoxify. It also contains fibre, as do other sprouting vegetables like cabbage, kale and Brussels sprouts.
Beetroot is not everyone’s favourite vegetable. In fact many have never eaten it raw or freshly cooked. Most only eat it marinated, from a jar. Beetroot contains anthocyanins and resveratrol, which have cancer-fighting qualities.
Seven to 10 servings of cooked tomatoes every week are optimal, especially if you’re worried about cancer. This fruit’s main active ingredient is lycopene, a powerful antioxidant. To stay well you need 25 to 40mg every day. Strawberries, peppers, carrots and peaches are other sources of lycopene.
Red and yellow peppers are a richer source of vitamin C than oranges. The vitamin strengthens the immune system cells and neutralises toxins. A large red pepper contains 250mg of vitamin C, whereas an orange has only 65mg.
Garlic, like broccoli, is a wonder food. It contains selenium, tryptophan and sulphur. Canceractive says two or three cloves of garlic will ward off more than just vampires!
Finally, mushrooms boost the immune system. The best are the Shiitake, Maiitake and Cordyceps varieties. Even the common button mushroom is a healthy option.
kathryn@maltanet.net