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.
It’s an opportunity to talk about something that goes beyond early detection: what can we do every day to take better care of our bodies and potentially reduce our risk?
There are risk factors we cannot control - our age, genetics, family history, for example. But there are many aspects we CAN influence.
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.
So yes, 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)??
Lets start off with 5 important doctor recommendations to lower risk of breast cancer (most of you have probably heard by now!):
Get checked every year and be vigilant about any changes in your breasts such as any lumps. Book an appointment with your 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.
Move your body / stay active regularly.
Keep your weight in check. 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.
In the particular case of breast cancer: BREASTFEED your baby (if it’s an option for you)! Studies show that breastfeeding for a total of one year or more (combined for all children) can lower your risk of breast cancer. Not to mention all of the benefits for your baby!
Lastly I’ll add… be careful with taking hormones. Talk to your doctor about risk/reward and do your research before taking hormonal therapy. It’s important to fullly understand the benefits vs. risks in your particular case, which can vary depending on your age, symptoms, personal and family history, not to mention the type of hormones.
But today I want to go a bit deeper.
I want to talk about the small things we do (or don’t do) every day that can help us in creating a lifestyle that supports our metabolic, hormonal, digestive and overall health… and yes, can help minimize our risk of breast cancer.
Here are my 8 “holistic nutrition”habis that are worth paying attention to (that could help reduce your risk of cancer):
1. Give your body breaks between meals. I’m not advocating for extreme fasting, just some degree of time-restricted eating, which can mean fasting for just 12-14 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 of spacing out your meals, and giving your body periods without food (and breaking the habit of constantly grazing) can support metabolic health AND help you become more aware of your hunger… without any restrictive calorie counting (which I’m not a fan of!).
2. Prioritize REAL foods - whole, minimally processed foods (and organic when possible). Processed foods lead to inflammation in the body, a precursor to most diseases. A diet centered on minimally processed foods reduces our inteake of added sugars, refined carbs, unhealthy fats, excess sodium and many unhealthy additives found in highly processed foods.
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.
Note: While organic foods have not proven to prevent breast cancer, I personally choose organic when possible in order to minimize the unnecessary exposure to pesticide residues and other chemicals. So if you have access to organic foods (and it’s affordable), I think i't’s worth making that choice.
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, which have antioxidants and other biological effects that researchers are studying for their potential rold in cancer prevention. Som studies have shown these EGCGs can 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.
Note: While drinking green tea has not proven to prevent breast cancer, it’s a great way to add more plant compounds and beneficial antioxidants to your day!
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, make the effort to buy organic when possible, and make plants the foundation of your diet.
Higher consumption of red and processed meats have been linked to an increased risk for several cancers. Animal meats can contain exogenous hormones like estrogen (which CAN be harmful), and if the meat is not organic, it often contains additional growth hormones, antibiotics, and pesticides… all things we want to avoid. The same applies to dairy! So choosing organic can help you minimize exposure to certain chemicals, and in some cases, hormones and antibiotics, too.
HERE I talk a bit about the benefits of following a “plant-rich” diet (with limited meat consumption) and HERE I also give you tips on increasing plants in your diet.
6. Don’t fear SOY (just choose non-GMO / organic soy when possible). 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. But it’s not that simple. Soy contains isoflavones, a type of phytoestrogen - but phytoestrogens are not the same as human estrogens and don’t necessarily act like estrogens in the body.
Soy, and other healthy plant-based foods with “phytoestrogen” properties (such as beans, chickpeas, flaxseeds, yams) can help regulate estrogens in the body shifting them to being preventative of cancer.
However, it’s important to know that soy is one of the largest genetically modified (GMO) crops, and it’s often used in highly processed forms. So, if you decide to consume soy, I suggest opting for the more traditional, minimally processed forms (ideally labeled as non-gmo) such as organic edamame, tofu, tempeh and miso.
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.
While we can’t live in fear of all the chemicals surrounding us, I do advocate for switching to “cleaner” alternatives when it’s an option. Why not reduce an unnecessary exposre?
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 a holistic health coach and not a medical 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 lifestyle habits are intended to support overall health and may help reduce some modifiable risk factors for disease (including breast cancer), so I highly suggest you start applying them gradually! However, they do no guarantee prevention and shouln’t replace recommended screening and individualized medical care.
Main sources of my research include: Dr. Jason Fung, Mayo Clinic, https://www.breastcanceruk.org.uk/, Keep A Breast Foundation, PubMed