Diet is now considered a major factor in prevention and treatment of cancer. According to the American National Cancer Institute, about one-third of all types of cancers are linked to diet. Thus, right choice of foods can help prevent a majority of new cancer cases and deaths from cancer. Cancer usually develops over a long period.
Latest researches show that what one eats may interfere with cancer development process at various stages, from conception to growth and spread of the cancer. Foods can block the chemical activation, which normally initiates cancer. Antioxidants, including vitamins, can eradicate carcinogens and can even repair some of the cellular damage caused by them. Cancers that are in the process of growth can also be prevented from further spreading by judicial selection of foods. Even in advanced cases, the right foods can prolong the patient’s life.
FOODS THAT CONTROL AND PREVENT CANCER
Beet Juice, Cabbage And Other Cruciferous Vegetables, Carrot, Citrus Fruits, Curd, Fiber-Rich Foods, Fruits And Vegetables, Garlic And Onion, Grapes, Green Vegetables, Indian Gooseberry, Liquorice, Margosa, Milk, Olive Oil, Papaya Leaves, Raw Foods, Soyabeans, Tomato, Vitamin C and A-Rich Foods, Wheat Bran and Wheat Grass Juice.
Beet Juice
The juice of red beet possesses anticancer property and is thus considered beneficial in the prevention and treatment of cancer. It is one of the best vegetable juices and a rich source of natural sugar. It contains sodium, potassium, phosphorus, calcium, sulphur, chlorine, iodine, iron, copper, vitamin B,, B2, niacin, B6, C and P. This juice stimulates the liver and its detoxifying activity is of great value in treating cancer.
Half a glass of this juice can be taken three times daily. Lactic acid fermented and a well balance beet juice will markedly increase the oxygenation of the body cells. It would be advisable to extract juice both from roots and tops.
Cabbage and Other Cruciferous Vegetables
Cabbage and other cruciferous vegetables like broccoli, cauliflower and brussels sprouts are some of the most important foods, which may help immunize against breast cancer by managing oestrogen, a known promoter of this type of cancer. These vegetables hasten the removal of oestrogen from the body. It also speeds up the metabolism of oestrogen, that is, burning up the hormone so that less of it is available to feed cancer. This has been revealed by the research studies conducted by Dr. Jon Michnovicz and colleagues at the Institute of Hormone Research in New York City.
These studies indicate that specific indoles in these cruciferous vegetables accelerate a process in which the body deactivates or disposes off the type of oestrogen that can promote breast cancer. In tests on women and men, the cabbage compound “turned up” the oestrogen-deactivation process by about 50 per cent, says Dr. Michnovicz.
The test dose, as usual, exceeded what people would ordinarily eat: a daily 500 mg of indole-3-carbinol, the amount in about 400gm of raw cabbage, but eating less would also burn up oestrogen to a lesser degree. It is known that women with elevated oestrogen metabolism have lower risks of hormone-dependant cancers, such as breast, uterine and endometrial cancer says Dr. Michnovicz.
The use of cabbage in its raw form has also been found valuable in preventing colon cancer, according to Dr. Jim Duke at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, who has a family history of colon cancer. Dr. Duke says his colon polyps decreased dramatically after he ate raw cabbage every other day.
Carrot
This vegetable, as a super food source of beta-carotene, has been found valuable in preventing lung cancer. Beta-carotene is an orange pigment isolated from carrots more than 150 years ago. It acts as an antidote to lung cancer. A recent study at the State University of New York at Buffalo shows that eating beta-carotene-rich vegetables more than once a week dramatically decreased lung cancer odds when compared with non-eaters of this vegetable. Munching a single raw carrot at least twice a week reduces lung cancer by 60 per cent.
The anti cancer power of beta-carotene comes from both its antioxidant capabilities and its ability to enhance immunological defenses, which is important in preventing and controlling cancer. The juice extracted from carrot is considered a miracle juice. It has been found highly beneficial in the prevention and treatment of cancer. Mary C. Hogle, a graduate of the University of Kansas and an experienced student of nutrition and food chemistry, claims to have been cured by a carrot juice regime, in combination with bland foods, when it had been thought that she was incurable.
In her book, Food that Alkalize and Heal, she gives a short history of her case and some very fine suggestions on what to eat and how to prepare certain broths and bland foods. She firmly believes that carrot juice is one of the most potent alkalizers. She says, “The excellence of carrot juice as a source of vitamin A no doubt explains much of its health value.
Vitamin A has been called the anti-infective vitamin and it has as its specific function the resisting and correcting of all infection of the epithelial surfaces, which include the skin covering, the mucous membranes and all the glands. Vitamin A is considered one of the main elements, in a basic way, to protect all infections.”
She further says about carrot, “Carrot juice has established itself as the peer of all as a rapid alkalizer. This is no doubt partly because the contained alkalies are easily appropriated by the body and partly because juice can generally be consumed in large quantities without unpleasant or harmful effects.”