Cancer Prevention: Recommendations for a Better Diet

Cancer prevention is possible. Almost one cancer out of two can be prevented with a better diet. In addition, early tumor detection enables to suppress most tumors (colon, breast, prostate, cervix). Best world experts worked for several years and published the WCRF/AICR expert report "Food, Nutrition, Physical Activity and the Prevention of Cancer", November 2007. This great expert report is available at Diet-Cancer-Report (also through AICR and WCRF websites). In France recently (2009), the National Institute for Cancer (French INCa) updated these Recommandantions de Prévention du Cancer (in French), with the support of NACRe network.

The eight recommendations for cancer prevention reported below are drawn from this WCRF/AICR Second Expert Report (Nov. 2007).

• Be as lean as possible without becoming underweight.
• Be physically active for at least 30 minutes every day.
• Avoid sugary drinks. Limit consumption of energy-dense foods (particularly processed foods high in added sugar, or low in fiber, or high in fat).
• Eat more of a variety of vegetables, fruits, whole grains and legumes such as beans.
• Limit consumption of red meats (such as beef, pork and lamb) and avoid processed meats.
• If consumed at all, limit alcoholic drinks to 2 for men and 1 for women a day.
• Limit consumption of salty foods and foods processed with salt (sodium).
• Don't use supplements to protect against cancer.

Special Population Recommendations
• It is best for mothers to breastfeed exclusively for up to 6 months and then add other liquids and foods.
• After treatment, cancer survivors should follow the recommendations for cancer prevention.

And always remember : DO NOT SMOKE tobacco!

Additionnal Information

- Against colorectal cancer , main conclusions from the Chemoprevention Database are summarized in a Simple Summary page
- The author of this Database is a nutrition professor in Toulouse University. His lessons, including a Powerpoint presentation "Dietary Prevention of Cancer" (in English), are available on Corpet's teaching page
- Several websites give good advices in line e.g., ColonCancer.About.com (updated daily).


Photo: Ligue contre le Cancer, INSIDE/Premium gift