Reduce Your Cancer Risk ONE BITE AT A TIME

Certain foods can help you lower your risk for cancer or cancer recurrence.

WHILE several other factors can affect your risk for cancer, such as family history and genetics, eating right can make a profound difference. There’s no magic food to erase your risk. However, a combination of a plant-focused eating pattern and healthy lifestyle behaviors can help reduce your risk. Patricia Guay-Berry, registered dietitian at the Shady Grove Adventist Aquilino Cancer Center, emphasizes the importance of eating the rainbow of colorful fruits and vegetables. “Every plant has different phytonutrients that help protect them in nature from bugs and insects. When we eat plants, these same phytonutrients are passed onto you.” Each color of a fruit or vegetable provides different phytonutrients. Consuming a variety of colorful fruits and vegetables assures a diversity of nutrients that benefit your health in the following ways:

• Improving your immune system

• Reducing inflammation

• Helping repair DNA

• Slowing cancer cell growth

• Regulating hormones

The Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommends five servings of fruits and vegetables per day. By eating at least five different fruits and vegetables each day, your body can benefit from these plant compounds. In addition to eating the rainbow, here are other steps you can take that may help reduce your cancer risk:

• Read food labels and be aware of any added sugars you are consuming.

• Have a blood test that checks your vitamin D level. If it’s low, ask your doctor about taking a vitamin D supplement. Spend 15 minutes a day in the sun.

• Eat more fibrous foods like whole grains, beans, lentils, blueberries and apples.

• Limit salty foods.

• Avoid cured, smoked and nitritepreserved foods like hot dogs, bologna, salami and sausage.

• Eat healthy fats like almonds, nut butters (peanut, almond) and avocados.

Breakfast Smoothie

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup low-fat or fat-free milk

1 medium sliced banana

1 cup frozen fruit (such as blueberries)

2 tablespoons peanut butter or sunflower seed butter

1 handful loose spinach leaves

DIRECTIONS:

1. Rinse the spinach under cold running water.

2. Add ingredients to blender.

3. Blend until smooth and serve.

Prep time: 5 minutes

Servings: 2

Recipe from Patricia Guay-Berry via Nutrition.gov

Making dietary changes can seem overwhelming, but it doesn’t have to be. Patricia recommends implementing these tips over time to create lifestyle habits. At each meal, aim to fill two-thirds of your plate with vegetables, fruits, whole grains and beans. The remaining third of your plate can be a lean protein such as chicken, fish, tempeh or tofu.

“A plant-focused diet does not mean you can’t eat meat,” Patricia said. “The idea is to limit the amount of inflammatory foods you consume and increase the amount of anti-inflammatory foods. Together, they work synergistically to provide your body the nourishment it needs to thrive.”

If you’re currently in treatment or a survivor, check out cooking demonstrations at the Aquilino Cancer Center at AHCYou.com/SU23Cooking .

ADVENTIST HEALTHCARE, INC.

820 W. DIAMOND AVE, SUITE 600

GAITHERSBURG, MD 20878