Can­di­da Khan, MSc RD

Breast can­cer is one of the most com­mon can­cers among women. This can dras­ti­cal­ly re­duce the qual­i­ty of life for many di­ag­nosed with this health is­sue. Our bod­ies are made up of nu­tri­ents that we ob­tain from the food we eat. This is why nu­tri­tion is so im­pact­ful when it comes to the health of your body.

Breast can­cer oc­curs when ab­nor­mal cells de­vel­op in the breast tis­sue. Ear­ly de­tec­tion can dras­ti­cal­ly im­prove treat­ment out­comes. It can be in­flu­enced by age, fam­i­ly his­to­ry, hor­mon­al changes, lifestyle changes and di­et. A bal­anced di­et can help to strength­en the im­mune sys­tem, as well as main­tain a healthy weight and sup­port the body.

Foods that in­crease the risk for breast can­cer in­clude high-in­flam­ma­tion foods such as processed meats, fast foods, ex­cess sug­ar con­sump­tion, red meat and over­con­sump­tion of al­co­hol, to name a few.

These nu­tri­tion tips should be the main fo­cus when it comes to pre­ven­tion and as­sist­ing with the heal­ing of the body when un­der­go­ing treat­ment:

1) Stick­ing to lo­cal fruit con­sump­tion dai­ly can boost your me­tab­o­lism and help in the fight against can­cer cells. My favourite way to in­clude fruits as a Reg­is­tered Di­etit­ian Nu­tri­tion­ist is with com­bi­na­tions like ba­nana and dark choco­late, along with some nuts. All fruits are ben­e­fi­cial, but sour­sop has been high­ly rec­om­mend­ed as a fruit high in vi­t­a­min C, which con­tains strong an­tiox­i­dants to fight can­cer cells.

2) When eat­ing main meals, it’s vi­tal to en­sure that your plate is colour­ful. Un­for­tu­nate­ly, when buy­ing food out, this may be a dif­fi­cult task since many food es­tab­lish­ments don’t fo­cus on bal­ance, but in­stead on en­sur­ing that the food is ad­dic­tive. Veg­eta­bles should be con­sumed dai­ly and can be in­clud­ed in var­i­ous ways, such as fresh sal­ads, steamed veg­eta­bles or cooked veg­eta­bles. My favourite is a love­ly chunky veg­etable with cab­bage, bell pep­pers, toma­toes, string beans, christophene, and car­rots. This adds bal­ance to every meal with the di­etary fi­bre con­tent.

3) In­clud­ing healthy fats such as fat­ty fish in main meals can as­sist with Omega-3 fat­ty acids, which are usu­al­ly low when con­sum­ing foods high in Omega-6 fat­ty acids, which in­creas­es in­flam­ma­tion in the body.

4) Herbal tea has been re­searched to be a pow­er­ful drink that is high in an­tiox­i­dants. In­clud­ing herbal tea, es­pe­cial­ly green tea, which con­tains polyphe­nols and an­tiox­i­dants help to pro­tect the cells from dam­age caused by free rad­i­cals. Reg­u­lar herbal tea con­sump­tion can help to low­er in­flam­ma­tion in the body. The rec­om­mend­ed in­take is be­tween two or three cups dai­ly. I love to in­clude iced herbal tea on a hot day. This means that the tea is brewed with hot wa­ter and left to sit be­fore adding ice and cool­ing. But it is im­por­tant to note that adding sug­ar and ar­ti­fi­cial sweet­en­ers may re­duce the ben­e­fits of con­sum­ing herbal tea.

Re­mem­ber, nu­tri­tion is a pow­er­ful tool to sup­port over­all health and the qual­i­ty of life. Al­ways seek med­ical guid­ance on per­son­al health goals to get the best and most suit­able ad­vice for your needs.