How food can help prevent cancer?

            Although there's no magic diet to prevent or cure cancer, doctors now believe there is a healthy way of eating that may help prevent some types of the disease. It's thought that about one in three cancers may somehow be affected by what we eat.

In recent years there has been a lot of research into food and cancer and one of the main messages has been that people who eat plenty of vegetables and fruit are less likely to get certain cancers such as cancer of the lung, colon, breast, cervix, (the lower end of the womb), windpipe, mouth, stomach, bladder, pancreas and ovary. Australian scientists, for instance, have found that women who eat plenty of fibre in their diet (fibre is a substance found in vegetables and fruit, as well as bread, pasta, noodles, rice and other grains), are less likely to develop breast cancer that women who eat very little fibre.

People who eat a vegetarian diet also tend to have less cancer that other people. This doesn't mean we should avoid meat - small amounts of lean meat can be part of a healthy diet. But it could be that vegetarians' high intake of vegetables and fruit helps protect them from disease.

Keeping to a healthy weight may also help too, because being overweight may increase the risk of some cancers such as cancer of the breast, cancer of the lining of the womb, as well as bowel cancer. Eating a lot of fatty foods may also contribute to bowel cancer, as well as prostate cancer in men.

We still have a lot to learn about how food affects our health. But, in the meantime the Australian Nutrition Foundation has come up with these tips on how we can eat to reduce our cancer risk:

Eat a variety of nutritious foods. The reason for this is that nutritionists believe that our bodies may need many different substances from different foods to help us fight cancer.

Eat at least five servings of vegetables and fruit each day.
Eat plenty of starchy foods which are low in fat and high in fibre (eg, bread, pasta, breakfast cereals, rice and other grains, potatoes, dried peas and beans).
Avoid being overweight by combining a low fat, high fibre diet with regular exercise.
Reduce fat in the diet by eating fish, as well as chicken without skin and lean meat. Use less fried foods, fatty takeaways, sausages, salamis, pies, pastries. Keep fatty snacks such as potato crisps, sweet biscuits, rich cakes and fatty deserts for special treats only - not as everyday snacks.

Use small amounts of mono-unsaturated and polyunsaturated spreads (made from canola or sunflower oil, for instance) and mono-unsaturated and polyunsaturated oils (such as olive, canola, peanut or safflower oil) for cooking.
Use reduced fat and low fat milk, yoghurt and cheese for adults and children from school age onwards. Give regular milk and yoghurt to pre-school children.
Try and avoid too many highly salted foods such as pickled and smoked foods - these may increase the risk of some types of cancer.

Drink alcohol moderately (no more than four standard drinks a day for men, no more than two standard drinks a day for women, and have at least two alcohol-free days each week). Alcohol may increase the risk of cancers of the mouth, windpipe, throat and liver. Smoking and drinking together can increase the risk of cancer.

           Doing these things is no guarantee that we won't get cancer, of course, but they can improve our chances of staying healthy - following the same advice may also help prevent other diseases such as heart disease and diabetes too.