The Meal Garden community is now not only filled with Meal Pals, but also trusted Meal Experts, to help provide customized guidance for your dietary needs. This week, Lisa Hernandez, Certified Nutritionist, CNHP, and blogger at Learning to Be Healthy with Lisa, has joined us - spreading her holistic approach to helping you lead a healthier lifestyle to help prevent disease and enjoy life - physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, and socially.
In this guest post, Lisa shares her expertise on "anti-cancer nutrition":
When you cut an apple, oxygen turns it brown, but if you cover it with lemon juice, it will retain its natural colour. The antioxidants in lemon juice protect the apple from damage. Antioxidants help protect our bodies from damage by cancer-causing agents.
Lemons contain vitamin C, the antioxidant that keeps the apple from turning brown. Simply adding fresh lemon to your water can give you an antioxidant boost.
Nutrient-dense plant foods, like fruits, vegetables, beans, nuts, and seeds, are rich in antioxidants, including beta-carotene, vitamins C and E, selenium, lutein, alpha-lipoid acid, lycopene, and glutathione.
Glutathione is a powerful antioxidant that the body can manufacture on its own, but it needs the mineral selenium for its construction. Eating just one or two Brazil nuts a day will provide more than the daily recommended amount of selenium. Cruciferous vegetables also stimulate the production of glutathione. These include broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, bok choy, and watercress.
Eating more potassium-rich foods can help regulate the ability of cells to receive nutrients and eliminate toxins. Packaged and processed foods are usually high in sodium and low in potassium. Fresh produce, beans, nuts, and seeds naturally contain more potassium than sodium.
Cancer feeds on glucose in the blood, and high levels of blood glucose can also compromise the immune system. Eliminating refined sugar and refined grains in the diet can help balance blood sugar and strengthen the immune system. A strong immune system helps to fight cancer.
Toxic fats, like hydrogenated oils, shortening, margarine, and refined vegetable oils, can cause cell membranes to become rigid, making it difficult for them to absorb nutrients and release toxins. Eating healthy fats, like avocados, coconut oil, extra-virgin olive oil, seeds, nuts, coconut, wild-caught fish, and olives, helps restore fluidity to cells. This reduces inflammation.
Reducing toxic chemicals in food is important to help combat cancer. Nitrites and nitrates are known carcinogens used to cure hot dogs, bacon, sausage, jerky, and deli meats. Antioxidants are helpful for neutralizing these damaging chemicals in the stomach, so add some antioxidant-rich foods to your meal if you consume these foods.
Garlic and onion both act as chelators, which means that they latch onto toxins to carry them away from the body before they can do damage. Garlic has also been shown to stimulate the white blood cells that attack cancer.
Bottom line:
Eat twice as many colourful fruits and vegetables as you do other foods.
Add fresh garlic and onion often to your diet.
Add one or two handfuls of raw nuts and seeds to your daily diet.
Replace refined, toxic fats with healthy ones.
Reduce cancer’s food source by eliminating refined sugar and refined grains to help keep blood sugar balanced. You may also need to reduce your intake of whole grains, starches, and high-glycemic fruits.
I am so excited to now be joining Meal Garden as an Expert to help you find healthy recipes and plan healthy meals. I look forward to you checking out my page and the possibility of us working together...
Keep learning to be healthy!
