Nourishing foods provide crucial ammunition in the fight against cancer. However, fuelling up with antioxidant-rich fruits and vegetables doesn't mean having to forgo delectable dinners. If cancer treatment has left you feeling more 'weary' than 'warrior', cancer-fighting foods can be combined into healthy, colourful meals that pack a punch of flavour and nutrition.
Adding nourishing foods full of healthy antioxidants is likely one of the easiest things you can do for yourself, if not the best. An anti-inflammatory diet rich in fruits and vegetables is key to keeping your body strong. Our sidebar below lists some of the most important cancer-fighting foods. There’s often a supposition that for a dish to be healthy and good for you it will be boring or lack flavour. But nothing is further from the truth. When developing a healthy cancer-fighting recipe, as we’ve shown here with our selection, we use three benchmarks:
- visual sex appeal
- tantalising aroma
- taste
If it’s pleasing to the eye and nose, it will definitely make bells ring on the palate. In our collection of recipes, we’ve incorporated as many top ingredients on the cancer-fighting list as possible. And we enhanced their flavours with various herbs and spices to bring it up a notch. Some of the recommended spices can be adjusted depending on your sensitivities—for example, when the taste buds have taken a beating in treatment.
Recipes
- Vegetarian Paella
- Sweet and Spicy Quinoa, Cabbage and Apple
- Poached Salmon with Avocado Chive Cream and Sugar Snaps
- Turkey Meatballs with Tomato Confit
Powerful foods from A to Z
Scientific research recommends a number of key ingredients in your diet to help maintain a disease-free body. We’ve used a few in our cancer-fighting recipes. All of these foods have anti-inflammatory benefits, while many have an additional anticancer punch.
Food |
Cancer-fighting properties |
| almonds (brown-skinned) | fibre, vitamin E |
| apples (skin especially) | polyphenols, fibre, vitamin C |
| avocado | oleic acid and omega-3s, carotenoids, phytosterols, flavonoids |
| beans and lentils | phytochemicals, fibre |
| berries (blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, strawberries) | ellagic acid (richest in strawberries and raspberries), anthocyanosides (richest in blueberries) |
| chocolate (at least 70 per cent dark) | catechins (significantly higher than in tea) |
| cruciferous vegetables (cabbage, collards, kale, cauliflower, broccoli, bok choy) | carotenoids; vitamins C, E and K; folate; fibre; glucosinolates |
| dark green leafy vegetables (romaine and leaf lettuce, spinach, beetroot greens, kale) | carotenoids; vitamins A, C, E, and K; saponins; flavonoids; folate; fibre |
| flaxseeds | lignans, omega-3 fatty acids, isoflavones |
| garlic (including onions, shallot, leeks and chives) | allicin, arginine, oligosaccharides, flavonoids, selenium |
| grapes | resveratrol, proanthocyanidins |
| green tea | catechins (black tea has catechins in lower concentrations) |
| salmon | omega-3 fatty acids, selenium |
| soy beans and soy products (edamame beans, tofu, tempeh) | isoflavones |
| tomatoes | lycopene (more available in tomato products such as tomato paste) |
| turmeric | curcumin |
Irene McGuinness is a writer, recipe developer, food stylist for numerous magazines and corporations, and alumna of the Writer’s Studio at Simon Fraser University
Ishita Wilson
Mia Barnes
Neil Zevnik
Karli Petrovic