“By anti Cancer, one should not understand curative of cancer but preventive, by reducing the risk of the appearance and the development of hidden cancers or the progression of diagnosed tumors ”, indicates from the outset Professor Michel Crépin. If our diet does contain protective substances, there is however no food, drink, or miracle spice that would surely and permanently protect us from cancer, and even less would make it disappear once declared. And if there are foods to favor, there are also some to avoid; the anti cancer diet is considered both in the avoidance and in the promotion of certain foods. “Cancer preventive nutrition is in short finding the right balance between what the diet provides of pro-carcinogenic and anti-carcinogenic, and that this balance is in favor of the anti-carcinogenic”, summarizes the oncologist. By changing our diet, increasing our level of physical activity and maintaining an optimal weight, it is estimated that about a third of cancers could be prevented.
Are there protective foods?
If some substances in our food have a pro-carcinogenic action, others, on the contrary, have anti-carcinogenic properties. This preventive role plays according to different mechanisms of action. Certain compounds in food will help strengthen our immune system and thus prevent the development of the tumor or slow down its evolution. Others will detoxify our body and release it from harmful substances which, in the long term, can become carcinogenic, while still others will help us fight against the famous free radicals, which are also mutagenic. Certain bioactive compounds will slow down the process of carcinogenesis, for example by reducing the vascularization mechanisms of the micro-tumor, by causing the natural death of cancer cells or by slowing their process of anarchic division. Finally, certain food substances will reduce the inflammatory mechanisms that activate the growth of micro-tumors.
