More fruit and veg can reduce your cancer risk

Your Gran’s favourite adage can actually help prevent cancer: in a recent report by the Cancer Council, eating more veggies and fewer lollies can help reduce your risk of bowel, liver, oesophagus (food pipe), lung and stomach cancer.

According to the report, unhealthy diets, as well as lack of activity and obesity, can account for at least 30 percent of all cancers.

While they stress that no one food can prevent cancer, they do recommend learning what your daily servings should be, and incorporating more veg into your daily intake.

Here are some quick and easy ways to eat healthier and help reduce your cancer risk:

Double your serving of vegetables: it is recommended to have five servings of vegetables per day. One serving of veg is the equivalent of one medium potato, ½ cup of cooked legumes like beans, or 1 cup of green salad. So, to get a double dose of cancer-fighting veg, simply ramp up your lunch salad with more veg, or pour some peas over those mashed potatoes. If you want more ideas for your vegies, check out our vegetarian recipe index, here. http://aww.ninemsn.com.au/recipes/vegetarian/
Try a new fruit each week: Kumquat. Lychees. Durian. With so many fresh, exotic fruits at our disposal in nearly every green grocers, you’ve got a heap of options to help incorporate a new fruit every week. You’ll expand your tastebuds, and perhaps find a new favourite.
Use frozen vegies for convenience: let’s be honest. Sometimes you just don’t feel like peeling potatoes or cobbing corn, which is why we’re so thankful for the freezer section. Ping some frozen veg in the microwave, and voila! A healthy addition to any meal.
Include vegies in your lunch: adding a bit of veg to your lunch is both healthy and energy-boosting during busy days. Chop up some carrots for a crunchy snack, add a side salad to your sandwich, or choose a vegetable-based soup. For more great lunch recipes, check out our index, here – http://aww.ninemsn.com.au/recipes/lunch/
Add extra vegies to all your recipes: in the book Deceptively Delicious, author Jessica Seinfeld shares some sneaky ways to add vegetable to dishes of even the pickiest littlest eaters. Some of her tricks include adding pureed carrot and spinach into chocolate brownies and cauliflower to macaroni and cheese. For those of us who like (or at least tolerate) veg in its real form, however, it can be as simple as filling out your pasta salad with zucchini, or throwing some mushrooms into your spaghetti Bolognese.
Have fruit instead of sweets: ah, fruit. Nature’s most perfect sweet. Next time you’re headed towards the biscuit tin with a mid-afternoon sweet tooth, why not re-route towards the fruit bowl? Fruit is full of vitamins, fiber and cancer-fighting antioxidants, and is the evolutionary reason for our sugar cravings. So it’s good news that you don’t have to fight the temptation – just redirect it.

Support the Cancer Council for Daffodil Day: Sorbent will make a donation on behalf of all the top 3 arcade challengers! Click here to take the Sorbent Arcade Challenge.