Nutrition, Healthy Eating and Cancer

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March 01, 2010

Lifelong healthy eating can help play a role in cancer prevention. Follow these basic guidelines to help you stay cancer free.

• Achieve and maintain a healthy weight. Know your Body Mass Index and keep yours in the healthy range.
• Follow Eating Well with Canada’s Food Guide and:
• be sure to get the recommended amounts of Vegetables and Fruit for your age and gender
• include no more than one serving of red meat per day
• use processed meats only occasionally 
• limit foods and beverages high in calories, fat or sugar to help maintain a healthy weight
• Drink alcoholic beverages only occasionally; if alcohol is consumed it should be limited to no more than two drinks per day for men and one drink per day for women
• Include physical activity every day such as brisk walking for at least 30 minutes every day. As your fitness improves, increase your activity to 60 or more minutes of moderate activity or 30 or more minutes of vigorous physical activity every day.
• Note that supplements with antioxidants such as beta-carotene, vitamin E, selenium or others have not been shown to protect against developing cancer.

If you are affected by cancer, nutrition and healthy eating become an important part of your treatment and well being; a dietitian will be a key member of your health care team.

The Canadian Cancer Society   (http://www.cancer.ca/) provides patients and their families with current and credible information on a wide variety of topics relating to cancer. You can find guidelines for healthy eating to help prevent cancer along with nutrition tips for living with cancer.

Dietitians are your source of trusted advice on food and nutrition. To find a dietitian in your area, visit www.dietitians.ca/find.