October is breast cancer awareness month; a month to raise awareness about our need for Cancer prevention education, something I’m passionate about especially since we’ve discovered how much we can do - with food and lifestyle - to lower our risk.
While a component of cancer is genetic, research shows that our environment and lifestyle play a HUGE role in driving this evolutionary increase in cancer. As much as 90-95% of cancer diagnoses are contributed primarily to environment/lifestyle (vs. only 5-10% genetics)!
In particular, our DIET is a big driver of cancer (the 2nd most contributing factor after tobacco!). Other factors that can impact our risk (after cigarettes and nutrition) include: air quality, water quality, stress, exercise, exposure to toxins, UV-radiation and much more.
Although there are some things we can’t control, WE CAN CONTROL WHAT WE PUT INTO (AND ONTO) OUR BODIES. About three times a day we can choose what we put on our forks, and those choices can help FEED or FIGHT disease.
First off, WHAT IS CANCER? Put simply, it’s a disease where a normal cell in your body breaks off and becomes like a foreign species invading your body, growing to the point where (depending on many factors) it can even kill you.
So what can we do to help prevent breast cancer (and most disease)??
First let me mention 6 important doctor recommendations to lower risk of breast cancer:
Get checked every year and be vigilant about any changes in your breasts such as any lumps. Book an appointment with you gynecologist at least 1/year and any time you suspect a change even if it’s just a hormonal change. Also, yearly mammograms are recommended if you’re over 40 years old. Remember, breast cancer screenings save lives!
Reduce exposure to tobacco/cigarettes AND limit alcohol consumption.
Avoid eating a diet high in refined carbohydrates and sugar (to help prevent diabetes and obesity). Also avoid fast food, fried foods, trans fats and limit red meat.
Move your body / stay active regularly.
In the particular case of breast cancer: BREASTFEED! Studies show that Breastfeeding for a total of one year or more (combined for all children) lowers the risk of breast cancer.
Be careful with taking hormones. Talk to your doctor about risk/reward and do your research before taking hormonal therapy.
Additionally, here are my 8 “holistic nutrition” tips that can help reduce your risk of cancer:
1. Reduce your eating window (often called time-restricted eating), fasting for at least 12 hours between dinner and breakfast, and leaving at least 3 hours between meals. Basically, we have to stop eating all the time! This simple practice can aslo help you control the amount you eat without calorie counting (which i’m not a fan of!).
2. Focus on eating whole unprocessed foods (and organic when possible). Processed foods lead to inflammation in the body, a precursor to most diseases, including breast cancer, and can cause DNA damage. Stick to primarily eating foods with ONE INGREDIENT ideally coming from nature. All the added chemicals in processed foods are harder to digest, can be stored as fat in the liver, and ultimately can contribute to disrupting our health and hormones. Additionally, when we consume NON-organic foods, they have more chemicals and often added hormones that can further increase our risk of disease.
3. Eat more plant-based COLORFUL foods rich in antioxidants. I tell all my health coaching clients to “eat the rainbow” every day if possible. Vegetables, fruits and other plant-based foods (such as nuts/seeds and teas) have flavonoids, which are anticancer properties. READ MORE HERE ON FOLLOWING A PLANT-RICH DIET.
I suggest filling each plate with 75%+ plant-based foods, especially vegetables. Regularly eat lots of: dark leafy greens (kale, spinach, arugula, etc), allium vegetables (onions, garlic, leeks), cruciferous veggies (like broccoli, brussels sprouts, cabbage and cauliflower), celery, mushrooms, red/purple veggies (like beets, eggplant, red bell peppers, purple cabbage, tomatoes, berries and red apples), citrus fruits (such as lemons/limes, grapefruits, oranges), as well as a wide variety of herbs/spices (like ginger, turmeric, cayenne pepper, cumin, rosemary, thyme, basil, oregano, parsley and cilantro). Beans, whole grains, nuts/seeds are great, too!
Following a Mediterranean type diet / lifestyle is said to be extremely beneficial.
4. Drink green tea! Green tea has Catechins, EGCG for short, that have been shown to help protect DNA from damage, block cancer cell signaling, prevent cancer cells from getting the blood supply they need to grow, and induce cell death of cancer cells! I LOVE starting my day with a matcha latte and even if you’re not a green tea fan or find matcha bitter, I highly recommend you try my recipe; it’s delicious.
5. Simultaneously, reduce your consumption of animal protein and cow’s milk, especially if not organic. There’s no need to eliminate meat/dairy all together, JUST BE CONSCIOUS OF YOUR CONSUMPTION and make the effort to buy organic when possible. Red and processed meats have been linked to an increased breast cancer risk. Animal meat contains exogenous hormones like estrogen (which CAN be harmful), and if the meat is not organic, it usually contains additional growth hormones, antibiotics, and pesticides… all things we want to avoid. The same applies to dairy! HERE I talk a bit about the benefits of following a “plant-rich” diet (with limited meat consumption).
6. Along these same lines, I’ll just add: don’t fear SOY (just make sure its non-GMO / organic soy). Soy has a bad rep as it’s said to contain estrogen properties, and as mentioned before, you want to be careful of consuming hormones in your food. And yes, while some forms of estrogens can help promote cancer, others can help prevent cancer. Soy, and other healthy plant-based foods have “phytoestrogen” properties (such as beans, chickpeas, flaxseeds, yams and even red wine) which can help regulate estrogens in the body shifting them to being preventative of cancer. BUT soy also has the big issue that it’s one of the largest genetically modified (GMO) crop, AND its often used in highly processed forms. So, if and when you decide to consume soy, make sure its organic and non-GMO and stick to soy in more of a whole form, such as organic soy beans/edamame, tofu and fermented soy such as tempeh and miso. Consuming these can actually be beneficial (especially combined with the above mentioned variety of plant-based foods like colorful veggies/fruits)! But AVOID soy byproducts in processed foods (such as soy protein powders, soy lecithin and vegan soy “meats” which are all highly processed)
7. CLEAN your home and beauty closet; Be mindful of chemicals in your environment and chemicals you place on your skin. You’re your labels! Many of our daily products (including our cleaning products, cookware, packaging, fabrics, perfumes, cosmetics, skin care products and more) contain “Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals” (EDCs) that have been shown to potentially impact our hormonal systems and can increase our risk of cancers. While research is still ongoing, it’s best to be proactive here, especially considering women use an average of 12 products daily, exposing ourselves to an average of 168 chemicals daily! Beyond EDCs, some products still contain known carcinogens. Start switching to “non-toxic” versions. I highly suggest visiting the Environmental Working Group webpage (I love their Healthy Living APP ) and all the EWG guides for “cleaner” products (that don’t contain harmful chemicals) for cleaning your home, for cooking, for skincare, makeup and all beauty products, etc. READ MORE HERE on “cleaning” your beauty closet.
8. Rest and DESTRESS everyday. Long-term stress can open the door for breast cancer by increasing blood flow to tumors, feeding hormones that encourage tumor growth, and keeping your body in a constant state of inflammation. My TIPS: 1) make sure to SLEEP 7-9 hours daily (working on sleep hygiene is important), 2) implement a regular meditation or prayer or deep breathing practice; the idea is to take some minutes out of your busy day to just BE STILL and not think of your to-do’s, and 3) regularly do things that bring you JOY (dancing, hanging our with friends, reading a good book or watching something you love, get a massage, etc).
IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER: I’m not a doctor (please see a doctor if you or a loved one is sick!) but I enjoy doing research on all health topics that are based on doctors’ research, as I find it is so important to understand what are the biggest (well-researched) drivers of our health and well-being (as well as the drivers of ageing and disease). My holistic tips are overall lifestyle habits that CAN reduce your risk of disease (and breast cancer) so I highly suggest you take them seriously and start applying them, but it is very important to see an oncologist for a deeper dive and to get professional, individual support.
Main sources of my research include: Dr. Jason Fung, Mayo Clinic, https://www.breastcanceruk.org.uk/, Keep A Breast Foundation, PubMed