How to Use Diet to Help Heal Cancer

The purple kernels help fight colon cancer.

Receiving the diagnosis of cancer scares even the strongest of people. While alternative medicine such as nutritional therapies isn't a replacement for traditional medicine and a doctor's advice, you can improve your chances of conquering the disease by adjusting your diet. Not only does improving your diet make your body healthier and more able to fight the disease, some foods show remarkable qualities of stopping and killing the cell division of cancer cells.

Things You'll Need

• Fresh fruits and vegetables
• Herbs
• Green tea
• Healthy fats, proteins and fiber-containing foods
• Unprocessed food

Instructions

1. Eat brightly colored fresh fruits and vegetables. Brightly colored fruits and vegetables contain phytonutrients, which give the plant their color. Several universities, including Ohio State, are now looking into the anthocyanins contained in purple and deeply colored fruits and vegetables as a form of cancer treatment. The anthocyanins give the fruits and vegetables their color but they are also powerful colon cancer fighters. The universities tested extract from several fruits and vegetables but found the extract from purple corn was the best with bilberry and chokeberry extract closely behind. Purple, orange and blue foods slowed the cancer growth, but these three actually helped kill 20 percent of the cancer cells without causing damage to healthy cells.

2. Increase antioxidants in your diet. Antioxidants help fight free radicals that cause damage to the DNA and can create cancer cells. There are numerous antioxidants and about as many different studies to find one that works. Not every antioxidant works for every type of cancer. Two of the better-known ones are beta-carotenes from orange colored fruits and vegetables such as carrots, apricots and pumpkin and green leafy vegetables. Lycopene is another and is found in tomatoes.

3. Reduce the sugar in your diet. Even if you've lost weight from chemotherapy, a high intake of processed sugar feeds the cancer cells as well as healthy cells but doesn't provide the body with additional nutrients. It also increases insulin in the blood stream and insulin increases cell growth, both cancerous and non-cancerous. Eat some healthy fat, fiber or protein with the sugar to level out the insulin. Fresh fruit does not increase the insulin as fast as fruit juice.

4. Remember that not every food or nutrient attacks or prevents every type of cancer. Look for information on your specific cancer type. Crucifers such as broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower contain indole-3-carbinol that helps block breast cancer and sulforaphane that can help prevent colon and rectal cancer. Beta-carotene in carrots has broad cancer fighting properties and can help those with throat, lung, prostate, intestine, breast, mouth or bladder cancer.

5. Add spices and tea to your foods to help fight your cancer. Green tea contains powerful antioxidants that also help your body fight cancer. Herbs and spices such as turmeric have cancer-fighting properties and slow the tumor growth. These herbs and spices also add extra nutrients to your diet to improve your body's strength.

6. Avoid highly processed foods. No matter what type of cancer you have, processed foods in general are not beneficial. Additives in processed foods can increase the potential for cancer. The nutrients depleted in the processing of foods give you no extra ammunition against cancer cells and free radicals.

References

• Science Daily; Compounds That Color Fruits and Veggies May Protect Against Colon Cancer; August 2007
• National Cancer Institute; Antioxidants and Cancer Prevention: Fact Sheet; July 2004
• Caring4Cancer: Sugar and Cancer: Is There a Connection?
• The Cancer Cure Foundation: Cancer Fighting Foods/Spices
• American Cancer Society: Turmeric