By Mary Kay Holloway RDN, CSO, LDN, Community Cancer Center
In the beginning of each year, many of us make resolutions to add habits or activities to our lifestyles to improve our health. The usual resolutions include exercise and weight loss. Adding exercise often includes memberships to gyms or a basement full of equipment. When we add weight-loss goals, we often get confused about what “diet” to follow. As February arrives, the commitment to the resolution seems to collide with our busy lifestyles. Somewhere along the way, something has to give and, unfortunately, it usually is the New Year resolutions.
That’s not the way it has to be. Exercise and better eating habits have many benefits, one of which is the possibility of reducing your risk of certain cancers. According to several case-controlled studies, lower rates of several common cancers have been observed in people who eat vegetables. These cancers include colon, breast, prostate, and lung. So, instead of throwing away your resolutions, start with small steps, and add color — especially color from vegetables and fruits. Most of all, don’t think of the change as a dreaded diet. Instead, think of adding all the color from vegetables and fruit as something good you are doing for yourself.
What’s color have to do with it? Each of the different colors of the vegetables and fruits mean that there are different phyto-nutrients, or plant nutrients, which are different than the vitamins and mineral that we usually think of. These nutrients give plants their different colors, tastes, and smells and have been identified with protecting us against certain cancers. For instance, lycopene from red-colored produce such as tomato, watermelon, and red grapefruit may be helpful in decreasing risk of prostate cancer. The green cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli, brussel sprouts, bok choy, kale, spinach, and cauliflower may be beneficial for reducing the risks of breast cancer. When you add these to the blue/purple foods (berries) and the orange/yellow varieties of oranges, squash, and carrots, you get a rainbow of color that starts you on the road to weight loss as well as improving your nutrition.
Small steps to better eating habits would include the following actions:
- Making your day as colorful as you can by adding vegetables and fruit. Work your way up to 1 ½ to 2 cups per day of a variety of vegetable and 1 to 1 ½ cups worth of fruit each day.
- As you add color to your day, you can begin decreasing the foods that have little color, such as the white breads, pastas, and highly sugared or prepared foods.
- Add a vegetarian dish to your menu at least once a week.
- Add fiber from whole grains and beans. Fiber helps you feel less hungry and better prepared to fight cravings. Fiber would include grains such as oatmeal, whole wheat, quinoa, barley, and brown rice or beans, such as kidney, black, great northern, white, chickpeas, and lentils. Aim to slowly increase your fiber to 20 to 35 grams each day.
- Slow down when you eat so you can tell when you are full. Try putting your fork down between bites to help you slow down.
- Use spices and herbs to flavor up the foods. Just as the color of the vegetables and fruits are powerful, the spices and herbs are full of nutrients that will enhance the benefits of the colors.
The Community Cancer Center offers a variety of supportive and educational groups and programs, free of charge, to help patients and families cope with cancer and its effects. For more information go to their website at www.cancercenter.org.