What can I eat to lower my risk of stomach cancer?
Stomach cancer prevention starts at the kitchen table. Gastroenterologist Robynne Chutkan, MD, reviews foods that taste great and can lower your risk of this potentially deadly cancer.
Transcript
Tomatoes contain lycopene, which is an important cancer prevention compound. Berries contain powerful antioxidants,
and peppers contain something called flavonoids. So these red foods are very important for cancer prevention. [GENTLE MUSIC]
The food you eat is your most important cancer prevention tool when it comes to stomach cancer. We need to eat a wide variety of brightly pigmented food.
Why brightly pigmented food? Because the color of different fruits and vegetables is a sign about the different nutrients
that the foods contain. So if we start with reds, things like sweet peppers, tomatoes, and berries, tomatoes contain
lycopene, which is an important cancer prevention compound. Berries contain powerful antioxidants,
and peppers contain something called flavonoids. So these red foods are very important for cancer prevention. Another important category are yellow citrus, vitamin C,
a powerful antioxidant when it comes to cancer fighting. Another category is orange foods, things like pumpkin,
and carrots, and sweet potato, apricots, and mango, so a wide variety. These foods have a lot of fiber in them,
which is important for moving things through the GI tract so that toxins don't stay and fester in the GI tract and cause cancer.
They also contain beta carotene, which is a very powerful cancer-preventing compound.
Another category of food, and the category that's probably most missing from the typical American diet, are green foods, very, very important.
We can divide the green foods up into the lighter green, what we call cruciferous vegetables, things like cabbage and brussel sprouts, and the darker
green leafy vegetables like spinach, and kale, and chard. They're both really important. The cruciferous vegetables contain lutein, very, very
important anti-cancer compound. The dark green vegetables contain folate, which helps the cells to reproduce well and keep
the genetic material within our cells healthy so that we don't get cancer. Lastly, what we consider the more neutral colored
foods, the sort of brownish, whitish, beige-ish foods, things like onions, and garlics, and chives, and mushrooms,
these are allium vegetables. And they're very important in helping our immune system stay healthy so that we can fight cancer.
Mushrooms contain vitamin D. Low vitamin D levels are an important risk factor for cancer. So these are foods that we can cook with.
We can add a spice instead of salt so that you're killing two birds. You're reducing the salty food, which can cause cancer,
and you're increasing the cancer-preventing foods. [AUDIO LOGO]
cancer
Browse videos by topic categories
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
P
Q
R
S
T
U
V
W
X
Y
Z
ALL