Are there any foods that will prevent my cancer returning?

While there is no guarantee that your cancer won’t return, the best dietary advice for cancer prevention is to eat a balanced diet with an emphasis on fresh vegetables and fruit, wholegrain breads and cereals, and replace some of the meat with fish, beans and legumes. It is also advisable to avoid charred and processed meats as well as processed foods that contain trans fats. By following these principles you’ll also be achieving a healthy diet that also has benefits in terms of reducing the risk of obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

The advice for people who are recovering from cancer is similar to healthy eating advice for the general population. Eating a nutritious diet and maintaining your weight within the healthy weight range can help improve your overall health and well being, as well as reduce the risk of cancer returning. Although the scientific study of the nutritional needs of cancer survivors is still in its early stages, the research has been building for years suggests that healthy diets can actually help you body prevent or even stop the development of many cancers. Although there are no guarantees, making the dietary changes recommended for cancer prevention may help you fend of both recurrence and secondary cancers.

The following information gives advice specifically for cancer survivors. While there are literally hundreds of components in food that may either be protective or cancer causing, the following chapter discusses several of the food components where there is sufficient evidence to draw a firm conclusion in relation to it’s role in cancer. In the first section protective food components are discussed, followed in the second section by those that the effect of a nutrient differs depending on what type of cancer is investigated, and in the third section, components that are known to be cancer causing or carcinogenic.