0 The better nutritional practices for prevention of cancer

Cancer is one of the leading non communicable disease which affects most of the people worldwide. Although cancer is not a major problem for Sri Lankan people, it can cause major problems in near future due to our present bad habits on our behaviors as well as our food habits. Worldwide, the burden of disease impinges on the lives of tens of millions annually. In Sri Lanka males are highly affected by cancer of oral cavity, leukemia, and malignant neoplasm of lymphoid, hematopoietic and related tissue. In female’s breast cancer, cancer of female genital organs and cervix are the most common types (National Cancer Institute of Maharagama). In Sri Lanka the incidence of breast cancer is 16 per 100,000, cervix is 13, ovary 10and uterus 7.

Cancer is characterized by uncontrolled cellular growth as a result of changes in the genetic information of cells. Normally cell division, differentiation, and death of cells are carefully regulated. All cancers start as single cell that has lost control of its normal growth and replication processes. Food, nutrition and physical activity are important environmental factors in the development of cancer. Cancer can be classified into different types based on their target organs such as liver cancer, breast cancer, lung cancer, stomach cancer etc.

Causes of cancer

Although there are several factors which cause cancer, here main focus is on our behavioral and dietary habits.

Tobacco use- cigarette smoke contains at least 80 known mutagenic carcinogens including arsenic, cadmium, and ammonia. It can cause lung cancer which is the most common type of cancer and most common cause of death in the world.

Bad food habits- food may be contaminated with natural or manmade toxicants. For example aflatoxin B which is a product of Aspergillus fungus and common contaminant of cereals and peanuts which causes liver cancer. In the busy world no one is concerning about their food and nutrient intake. People tend to go for whatever the things which are easily accessible and available other than the traditional nutritious food. Our ancestors ate a wide variety of cereals and legumes include kurakkan, oat, rice, wheat, corn, maize, gram green gram, black gram and lot of fruits and vegetables. But nowadays we are not considering the variety of food items and most of the time avoid fruits and vegetables and choose processed foods like pizzas, hamburgers, bacons, sausages, instant noodles and soft drinks for our easiness. These foods are rich in energy and fat and less in nutrients like vitamins and minerals. Our ancestors did whatever their work by themselves by spending lot of energy, but now in the technologically developed world most of them do their work by using machines rather than doing by themselves.

How to reduce cancer?

Control your body weight- being overweight or obese increases the risk of most type of cancers. Therefore try to maintain your body mass index to between21-23 from age 21. Avoid weight gain and increases in waist circumference through adulthood.

Eat healthy foods- choose a variety of foods from each food groups such as cereals, pulses and legumes, vegetables, fruits, milk and dairy products, fat, meat and meat products daily. Try to include more fruits and vegetables rather than animal origins. Every day try to eat 3 types of vegetables and 2 types of fruits which are rich in fiber and anti oxidants. Limit consumption of energy densed foods such as fatty foods, fast foods and try to use natural fruit juices with low sugar instead of soft drinks.

Try to eat more plant origin foods like whole cereals, pulses and limit refined starchy foods. Limit the intake of red meat and avoid processed meat. Control your intake of beef, mutton to be no more than 300g a week (World Health Organization recommendation). Limit consumption of salt to less than 5g per day and limit the intake of salt preserved, salted foods such as potato chips, French fries, dried fish, canned fish, meat, sausages etc. Avoid consumption of moldy cereals, and pulses.

Get plenty of physical activity- be moderately physically active, do brisk walking for at least 30 minutes every day. Try to use stair cases instead of elevator, try to wash your clothes by yourself rather than using washing machines. Do some extra physical activities in your leisure time as individual or with your family members such as swimming, running, dancing, cycling, hill climbing, or team games such as foot ball and badminton.

Quit smoking- smoking cigarettes increases your risk of developing many cancers. Smoking in public places not only affects your health but also others in the surrounding through passive smoking effect.

Breast feeding- breast feeding may play a role in the prevention of breast cancer. The younger you feed, the greater the protective effect.

If you follow the above practices you can prevent suffering from most type of cancers. Therefore prevention of cancer is better than the management of it once after getting it.