Think colorful when eating for prevention

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By Kelly Mori, Staff Writer Updated 3:24 AM Sunday, October 4, 2009

When clinical dietician Kathryn Hines describes a cancer prevention diet, it sounds more like she’s describing a beautiful work of art.

“Think colorful. Think deep blues, purples,” she said. “The vitamins and minerals provided in those colorful foods are really going to do some things to help protect the body.”

Add some deep green and yellow vegetables and you’ll have what studies have shown is a good step toward cancer prevention.

A plant-heavy diet is good for a couple of reasons, said Hines, Springfield Regional Medical Center dietician: it provides the above mentioned vitamins and anti-oxidants and it helps maintain a healthy weight.

Processed and fatty foods have the opposite effect and should be eliminated as much as possible, she said. Alcohol consumption also is discouraged.

“There is a connection between excess fat and cancer,” she said. “Specifically with breast cancer, studies have shown a link (between breast cancer) and women with a high BMI (body mass index).”

Adding exercise to that healthy diet provides even more benefits.

First, it helps maintain a health weight, and it has been shown to independently reduce cancer risk. In fact, a study conducted by the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, suggested that inactivity could be considered a risk factor.

The study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, stated that increased physical activity reduces breast cancer risk for women by 20 percent. The benefits were the same for those who started exercising later in life.

The activity does not have to be strenuous — 30-minutes of walking a day can provide the desired results, the study said.

To see the American Cancer Society’s Guidelines on nutrition and physical activity for cancer prevention, visit cancer.org.

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