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This month’s issue of the International Journal of Cancer published a report from the Leicester Royal Infirmary in which researchers actually tracked the cancer prevention benefits of certain foods. They were interested in a specific group I’ve mentioned in these Health Tips several times: polyphenols, like those found in green tea.
Yes, they concluded, there do seem to be steps you can take to reduce your lifetime cancer risks.
Rather than just review their findings, here, for future reference, are the four-star cancer prevention foods and supplements:
• Green tea (either as a beverage or capsules of Green Tea Extract)
• Soy isoflavones (soybean products such as soy milk or tofu or Soy Extract)
• Curcumin from turmeric (add turmeric and curry to foods)
• Broccoli
• Tomatoes
• Selenium
• Natural vitamin E (“natural” means a mixture of the three tocopherols as they are used in the body: alpha, gamma, and delta. Synthetic E includes alpha only.)
• Natural tocotrienols (these are a ramped-up antioxidants, cousins of vitamin E)
• Vitamin C (if you’re eating 5 to 7 servings of fruit and veggies every day you are getting your C).
• Alpha lipoic acid
• Co Q 10
You may be wondering if you should take this whole list, every day, and that depends. If you have a worrisome family history of cancer (in some families, an inordinate number of people do get cancer), then I’d try to come as close to the whole list as possible.
On the other hand, if your family risk is not particularly high, and you generally take good care of yourself, try to get at least one or two entries from this list every day.
Important note: food source protection is better than pill source protection, but pill source protection is better than trying to extract a thimbleful of nutrition from a second-rate nutritional lifestyle.