Cancer-Healing Foods: Diets That Can Make a Difference

Research is still evolving on cancer-healing foods, but experts say adding fruits and vegetables to your diet can certainly help. They have powerful cancer-fighting compounds, and they can help keep your diet healthy and balanced. That’s the key.

Think about it like this, eating a rainbow of healthy foods – everything from blueberries to kale to citrus to tomatoes — can not only fight cancer, but it can keep your weight down. And keeping your weight at a healthy level can also decrease your risk of cancer.

While no foods can prevent or treat cancer, your diet can certainly make a difference. The experts at the CyberKnife Center of Miami look at foods that may help patients fighting cancer, as well as cancer survivors, and those at high risk of cancer.

CyberKnife Miami is a free-standing outpatient cancer treatment center that uses state-of-the-art image guided radiosurgery treatments to treat cancer and other medical issues requiring radiation, such as nerve disorders like Trigeminal Neuralgia.

Cancer-Healing Foods

The American Institute for Cancer Research compiled a list of foods that may help fight cancers. Here are just a few of the foods the AICR describes:

• Apples – Not only are apples chocked full of fiber, but they have special compounds that help the gut create an environment that may reduce cancer.
• Whole Grains – There is evidence that whole grains and the fiber they provide can help prevent colorectal cancer.
• Carrots and other non-starchy vegetables – These may decrease mouth, pharynx, larynx, esophageal, lung, stomach, and colorectal cancers.

According to WebMD.com foods rich in vitamin D and folate may protect against colon, rectal and breast cancer.  So, eat fortified breakfast cereals and whole wheat.  Orange juice, melons and strawberries can help. Leafy greens also provide folates.  

Lycopene – found in tomatoes – can also reduce your chance of some cancers. Studies are ongoing about whether teas, specifically green tea, can fight cancer. In studies, it’s been shown to lower the risk of bladder, stomach, and pancreatic cancer.

Don’t forget to drink water. Water dilutes concentrations of cancer-causing chemicals in the bladder. Beans may help prevent cell damage, which can lead to cancer.

How about Brussels Sprouts and Kale? In lab research, they have been shown to fight against colon, breast, cervix, and lung cancer.

Limit fried foods, processed foods, red meats, fatty foods, and sugar. They all add empty calories that can lead to weight gain.

Certain diets are touted to help cancer patients and those who have survived cancer.

A University of Michigan cancer researcher along with a doctor from University of California, San Francisco took a look at five of those diets:

• The Alkaline Diet is based on the idea that acid-forming foods have health benefits.
• The Paleolithic Diet tries to imitate the diet of our ancestors that’s heavy on fruits, veggies, nuts, meats, and eggs but avoids grains, legumes and dairy.
• A Ketogenic Diet emphasizes a high fat, low carbohydrate type of eating.
• A Vegan/Vegetarian diet concentrates on eating veggies, and in the case of Vegan, eliminates dairy and eggs as well.
• A Macrobiotic Diet reinforces a balanced diet that’s mostly comprised of vegetarian, unprocessed and whole foods.

According to the researchers, whose work was published in the Journal of Oncology, all the diets had some benefits and some shortcomings. But only the Alkaline and Macrobiotic Diets were in line with what the American Cancer Society, the World Cancer Fund, and the America Institute for Cancer Research’s recommendations.

Alternative Cancer Treatment

At CyberKnife Miami, our patients constantly ask us about cancer-fighting foods. And we are always happy to talk about their diets. That’s just part of our personalized care.

CyberKnife offers painless radiation treatments, which can be an alternative to surgery. And because of CyberKnife’s precision, we can treat difficult cases, which other doctors may deem not treatable or inoperable.

CyberKnife’s image-guided robotics destroy tumors with pinpoint accuracy while leaving healthy surrounding tissue unharmed. We opened our doors in 2003 and were the first CyberKnife center to open in the Southeast United States. Since that time, we have treated thousands of patients for cancerous and non-cancerous tumors as well as nerve disorders.

We treat spine, brain, breast, lung, kidney, pancreas, liver, prostate and head and neck tumors. We also treat lymphoma and other conditions in the body where radiation treatment is necessary.

If you are interested in learning more about CyberKnife Miami call us at 305-279-2900 or go to our website www.cyberknifemiami.com.