7 Cancer Fighting Warriors
The Great News is That They All Taste Good and Are Heart Healthy, Too!
A cancer free life could be as close as your local grocery store.
I have made a list here of the 7 best foods for prevention of cancer. Studies have been done to show that time after time these foods are our best friends. They are also delicious, easy to find, easy to use and have other health benefits such as cutting down heart disease.
I have brought in a supporting lens for each food; lenses that provide more information and/or recipes and ways to use the food.
I have also supplied my own recipes as well as substitutions that work almost as well.
Enjoy, go to the featured lenses and get healthy keep cancer and heart disease as far away as you can.
Fight Cancer:
1. Cabbage: 1/2 cup three times weekly
2. Flaxseeds: 1 to 2 tablespoons daily
3. Mushrooms: 1/2 cup three or four times weekly
4. Olives: 8 daily
5. Onions: 1/2 cup three times weekly
6. Pumpkin: 1/2 cup three times weekly
7. Raspberries: 1 1/2 cups two to three times weekly
Cabbage and Cruciferous Vegetables
From Wikipedia"
"The cabbage (Brassica oleracea var. capitata), is a leafy garden plant of the Family Brassicaceae (or Cruciferae), used as a vegetable. It is a herbaceous, biennial, dicotyledonous flowering plant distinguished by a short stem upon which is crowded a mass of leaves, usually green but in some varieties red or purplish, forming a characteristic compact, globular cluster
The anticatcinogenic compounds in cabbage are called glucosinolates. Studies in Poland have shown that people who ate a lot of cabbage in their youth were 40% less likely to get breast or prostate cancer.
Some of the most common cabbage dishes are cole slaw, a salad; cabbage soup, stuffed cabbage and sauerkraut. Sauerkraut, a fermented dish, has been tested to be highly successful in preventing cancer in populations.
Cabbage comes in green and purple. When you choose remember that the darker colors are the healthiest both for cancer and heart disease prevention.
My Cole Slaw Recipe
1 8 1/2 oz broccoli slaw
1 8 1/2 oz cabbage slaw.
1/4 head red/purple cabbage shredded
1 cup dry roasted sunflower seeds
1 bunch chopped green onions
1/2 cup sugar or substitute (avoid anything made with corn syrup
3/4 cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup cider vinegar
Mix.
Note: You can change the arrangement of broccoli or colored cabbage, but remember, the purple adds anthocyanins, which also help your brain and your heart. A triple threat to disease!
Alternatives to cabbage: any cruciferous vegetables: Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, kale, broccoli.
Flax Seeds and/or Fish Oil
From Wikipedia:
"Flax (also known as common flax or linseed) (binomial name: Linum usitatissimum) is a member of the genus Linum in the family Linaceae. It is native to the region extending from the eastern Mediterranean to India and was probably first domesticated in the Fertile Crescent.[1] Flax was extensively cultivated in ancient Egypt. (New Zealand flax is not related to flax, but was named after it as both plants are used to produce fibres.)"
It is the lignans in flax that act like a weak estrogen, which can result in a 58% less risk of breast cancer.
I am going to bet that this is the food on the list that you are sticking up your nose at...that is if you haven't tried it yet.
These nutty flavored little seeds are used to add to other dishes. Sprinkle on cereal, add to yogurt.
My recipe: I almost fill an empty Snapple bottle (its glass, not reused plastic) with cold I!water (ask me about that) add some pure cranberry concentrate to taste with a tablespoon of finely ground flax seeds. Put the cap on and shake. Shake periodically while drinking to keep the seeds mixed. I drink this yummy treat before bed.
Alternatives Flax oil (goes great on oatmeal, in salad or in protein drinks) or cold water fish such as salmon or mackerel.
Raspberries and Anything Ending in "Erries"
Wikipedia on Raspberries:
"The raspberry (plural, raspberries) is the edible fruit of a multitude of plant species in the subgenus Idaeobatus of the genus Rubus; the name also applies to these plants themselves. The name originally referred to the European species Rubus idaeus, with red fruit, and is still used for that species as its standard English name in its native area.[1] Several other species, mostly closely related in the same subgenus Idaeobatus, are now also called raspberries."
The ellagic acid and selenium in the berries protects from a variety of cancers.
Raspberries are listed specifically, because they have the most fiber of all berries, but they are more seasonal and more expensive. The truth is that any berry will do. The more colorful the better.
Smoothie recipe:
1 cup of cold water
2 scoops of Whey protein powder
1 tablespoon flax oil (another way to use that)
Berries, lots, raspberries, strawberries, cherry juice, cranberry concentrate (don't use the juice almost all of it has corn syrup)
Add some ice and put through blender until smooth...
Alternatives: Any colored berry, but raspberries have the most fiber.
White Button Mushrooms
"From Wikipedia: Agaricus bisporus, known as table mushroom, cultivated mushroom or button mushroom, is an edible basidiomycete fungus which naturally occurs in grasslands, fields and meadows across Europe and North America, though has spread much more widely and is one of the most widely cultivated mushrooms in the world. The original wild form bore a brownish cap and dark brown gills but more familiar is the current variant with a white form with white cap, stalk and flesh and brown gills."
The mushrooms block aromatase, an enzyme that promotes breast cancer. The mushrooms also suppress prostate cancer.
Like berries and flax seeds, mushrooms can be used almost on anything, well, not ice cream, but you can mix them in soups, salads, omelets, just about anything you can think of.
Omelet recipe:
Olive oil in pan
Finely chopped onions
Chopped Asparagus
1/2 cup of whole or chopped mushrooms
Sauté all in olive oil
Add beaten whole eggs or egg whites (one whole, one extra white is a great combination if the eggs have omega 3 oil)
Cook until eggs are done.
Alternatives: Other mushrooms. But if you really don't like mushrooms, then chop them up finely or put them through a processor so you won't know they are there.
If you are being treated for a yeast or candida condition, ask your doctor if you should hold off on the mushrooms until you are finished.
Olives!
From Wikipedia: "The Olive (Olea europaea) is a species of small tree in the family Oleaceae, native to the coastal areas of the eastern Mediterranean region, from Lebanon, Syria and the maritime parts of Asia Minor and northern Iran at the south end of the Caspian Sea. Its fruit, the olive, is of major agricultural importance in the Mediterranean region as the source of olive oil.
The maslinic acid and oleanolic acid in olives inhibits the proliferation of cancer cells and promotes apoptosis, the death of cancer cells. Remember, olives are also very good for the heart.
Olives and olive oil are also especially good for your cholesterol, it gets rid of the bad kind and promotes the good kind.
I love to put olives in my salad, which I dress with olive oil. I sauté with olive oil, I do everything with olive oil. Have you ever put olive oil on your bread instead of butter or (gasp!) margarine? It is so good, it is a reason to eat bread.
Alternatives: If you don't want to eat olives use olive oil.
Onions
Wikipedia on Onions: Onion is a term used for many plants in the genus Allium. They are known by the common name "onion" but, used without qualifiers, it usually refers to Allium cepa. Allium cepa is also known as the 'garden onion' or 'bulb' onion and 'shallot'.
Onions have one of the highest levels of phenolic compounds which are thought to be the strongest anticancer substances found in food. Onions and garlic are also very potent in preventing the absorbing of bad cholesterol. I never eat eggs without onions and/or garlic.
Years ago I heard a Catskills comic talking about his grandmother's recipe for pound cake. "You start by sauteing an onion." Onions in pound cake? "Oh no, you don't put it in the cake, it just makes the house smell so good while you are baking."
Enough said. Onions ad flavor to almost any dinner dish. Soups, roasts, eggs, vegetable, you name it. However, onions can also be roasted themselves. Just sprinkle with some olive oil and pop in the oven or on the grill.
But onion soup is the wonder place where onions really shine on their own. See the lens below.
Alternatives: Apples, capers and green and black tea are all high in quercetin. And then, of course, there is garlic!
Pumpkins or Squash
Pumpkin is a gourd-like squash of the genus Cucurbita and the family Cucurbitaceae (which also includes gourds).[1] It can refer to either species Cucurbita pepo or Cucurbita mixta, and sometimes to a specific variety of either the species Cucurbita maxima or Cucurbita moschata.
Pumpkin is high in carotennoids and lowers the rates of gastric, breast, lung and colorectal cancers.
Pumpkin Soup (This one also uses mushrooms)
Mushroom Pumpkin Soup
1/2 lb. mushrooms, sliced
1/2 cup chopped onion
2 tbsp. butter or oil
2 tbsp. flour
1 tbsp. curry powder
3 cups chicken broth
1 can (1 lb.) pumpkin
1 tbsp. honey
dash nutmeg
salt to taste
pepper to taste
1 cup evaporated milk
optional sour cream or yogurt, topping
Sautée mushrooms and onion in butter or oil. Add flour and curry and
stir. gradually adding broth. Add all but milk and cook, stirring,
for 10 - 15 minutes. Add milk and heat through without boiling.
May top with sour cream or yogurt.
Alternatives: Carrots, broccoli, and winter squashes including acorn, butternut and spaghetti squash.
Oh, and pumpkin seeds are good and easy to carry as an "always with you snack" to keep you away from the junk.
Weekly Shopping List
1. Purple Cabbage
2. Red Onions
3. Black Olives
4. Flax Seeds
5. Canned Pumpkin
6. Berries
7. Mushrooms
How Many Cancer Fighters Do You Eat?
What Is Your Daily Consumption of Cancer Fighters?
Any Purchase Here Will Contribute to Heifer International: The Pay It Forward Entrepreneurial Charity
Luscious
Sources For Your Health
Healthy Stuff
All comments and stars are welcome!