I was visiting my Oncologist the other day and noticed in her file of reports a new report out from the American Institute for Cancer Research and thought today I would give you the low down from their most up to date information. If you want to prevent cancer these items will give you the best case scenario for doing that. Not that they are a guarantee but research has found that people without cancer are most likely to do all of the following:
1. Be as lean as possible with becoming underweight. I guess it's best to first find out what your healthy weight is for your age and sex and then go from there. It means about 15 more pounds of me has to go.
2. Be physically active for at least 30 minutes every day. My dog drags me around the block every day for 20 minutes (actually she drags me the first half of the walk and then I drag her the second half - she old too). Being physically active holds a lot of options - not just normal exercise. Another point for me to ponder how can I up my activity each day.
3. Avoid sugary drinks. Limit consumption of energy-dense foods (particularly processed foods high in added sugar, or low in fiber, or high in fat). Yah, pretty much eliminates all the fun stuff from my diet, no soda, no ice cream, no goodies . . oh! No Donuts :(
4. Eat more of a variety of vegetables, fruits, whole grains and legumes, such as beans. Makes sense to me but I do struggle with cooking beans. The rest of the items are regulars in my diet but cooking beans, especially from scratch, I just have trouble with and canned beans usually have so much salt. I guess I've just added a new skill to learn to my list :)
5. Limit consumption of red meats (such as beef, pork and lamb) and avoid processed meats. This means no more hot dogs, salami, and bologna (I guess my bologna doesn't have a first name unless it's 'No'). Oddly enough I don't included Pork on my usual red meat list. Does anyone else?
6. If alcohol is consumed at all, limit alcoholic drinks to 2 for men and 1 for women daily. Being LDS (Mormon) pretty much puts the ca bosh on any drinking for me so this isn't an issue but since I don't know who might be reading this I thought I should included it anyway.
7. Limit consumption of salty foods and foods processed with salt (sodium). My Son has issues with salt so we are pretty low salt focused in our diet. Although I do eat canned soups and chili sometimes and the labels on those items scare me. Oh, and always remember to check the serving size sometimes you think it's one and it's really two - makes for twice the salt that you may not have anticipated.
8. Don't use supplements to protect against cancer. I learned this first thing - supplements, magic juice, heavy doses of anything that is way over your recommended daily dose is bad for you and if you have cancer it may play havoc with your treatments. Eat healthy and get your vitamins as naturally as possible and never take supplements without letting your doctor know you are doing it.
Oddly enough smoking wasn't on the list. It would have been tops on mine. I'm pretty sure that's a 'Duh' item, a no brainer.
No comments:
Post a Comment