Healthy eating can reduce overall cancer risk

"The research continues to show that we can make a difference in our risk for cancer," said Michelle Eckhart, a Louisville dietitian who manages Jewish Diabetes Care, a service of KentuckyOne Health.

The cancer society's guidelines call for limiting some foods and beverages, such as red meat and alcohol, and greenlight others.

Lemon Detox Diet

"There's no evidence that coffee causes cancer," said Colleen Doyle, director of nutrition and physical activity for the American Cancer Society. Also, "there's no evidence that artificial sweeteners increase cancer risk" in the amounts people typically consume.

But the society recommends no more than one alcoholic drink a day for women and no more than two a day for men, said Doyle, a registered dietitian who co-authored the society's guidelines.

"When consumption increases above those levels, you start to see a variety of cancer risks go up," Doyle said. And it appears that breast-cancer risk "can increase even at less than that one drink per day."

To reduce the risk of a variety of cancers, Doyle suggests paying attention to your "overall dietary pattern."

For example, "eating more fruits and vegetables, especially the colorful ones; eating more whole grains; eating less red and processed meat -- we know those combination of things can really make a big difference," she said.

Exercise and not overeating also are important when it comes to cancer prevention, Doyle said, noting that "if you don't smoke, the biggest risk factor is overweight and obesity."

"Physical activity is certainly important from a weight-control perspective," she said, but there's also evidence that it "directly reduces the risk of breast cancer and directly reduces the risk of colon cancer -- separate and apart from its impact on weight control."

Eckhart encourages the public to strive for a normal BMI (body mass index), adding, "Trying to reduce your body weight by 7 to 10 percent, I think, is a realistic goal to start with," she said.

Lemon Detox Diet

She also suggests "aiming to increase your physical activity as much as possible," noting even "15 minutes a day is a start in the right direction" if you're inactive now.

In terms of diet, the guidelines encourage the public to cut back on sugary foods and beverages.

"Foods and beverages that are high in sugar tend to not be high in €1/8 nutrients that we think are important, certainly from an overall health perspective, but a cancer-risk perspective, too," Doyle said.

"If we've got people loading up on cakes and cookies and pies and sodas €1/8 that means they're probably not eating as many fruits and vegetables or whole grains as certainly we would like to see people eating to help reduce their risk."

There are a number of possible ways in which fruits and vegetables might cut cancer risks, from reducing inflammation to protecting cell membranes. In some types of cancer, it's cell-membrane damage "that has the potential to spur a cell to grow on and develop and eventually turn into cancer," Doyle said.