Be thin to cut cancer

January 31, 2008

New recommendations to limit the risk of cancer was unveiled late last year.

THESE RECOMMENDATIONS INCLUDE:

 

Limit red meat

Limit alcohol

Avoid bacon, ham, and other processed meats

No sugary drinks

No weight gain after 21

Exercise every day

Breastfeed children

Do not take dietary supplements to cut cancer

But a low recommendation of 500g of red meat weekly and totally cutting bacon and ham from your diet go further than before. Normally these would be allowed in moderation but the World Cancer Research Fund now believe you should cut anything that may lead to excessive weight gain as they now link obesity strongly to cancer.

So make sure plan your meals ahead as much as possible to avoid these bad food choices.

Read the full article from the BBC

Salt-rich diets could be the key to why some children battle with obesity, University of London researchers say.

In a study of data on 1,600 children, they found that children eating a salty diet tended to drink more, including more fattening, sugary soft drinks.

They reported in journal Hypertension that halving the average daily salt intake of six grams a day could cut 250 calories a week from a child’s diet.

They called for further work by the food industry on reducing salt content.

The UK has one of the highest rates of death from heart disease in the world – one British adult dies from the disease every three minutes – and stroke is the country’s third biggest killer, claiming 70,000 lives each year.
Heart attacks occur when blood flow is blocked, often by a blood clot, while strokes are caused either by blocked or burst blood vessels in the brain. A range of other conditions, including heart failure, when blood is not pumped properly around the body, and congenital heart defects can also cause long term problems, and even death, for sufferers.

View the full article

Phytochemicals

January 10, 2008

What are phytochemicals?

Phytochemicals are non-nutritive plant chemicals that have protective or disease preventive properties. There are more than thousand known phytochemicals. It is well-known that plant produce these chemicals to protect itself but recent research demonstrate that they can protect humans against diseases. Some of the well-known phytochemicals are lycopene in tomatoes, isoflavones in soy and flavanoids in fruits. They are not essential nutrients and are not required by the human body for sustaining life.Foods containing phytochemicals are already part of our daily diet. In fact, most foods contain phytochemicals except for some refined foods such as sugar or alcohol. Some foods, such as whole grains, vegetables, beans, fruits and herbs, contain many phytochemicals. The easiest way to get more phytochemicals is to eat more fruit (blueberries, cranberries, cherries, apple,…) and vegetables (cauliflower, cabbage, carrots, broccoli,…). It is recommended take daily at least 5 to 9 servings of fruits or vegetable. Fruits and vegetables are also rich in minerals, vitamins and fibre and low in saturated fat.

List of plants containing phytochemicals

Vegetables

Fruits and Nuts

Medicinal Plants

Common Herbs

Beans

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