Food for the Prevention of Cancer
(from the international researches)

Cancer is considered one of the most popular diseases in Thailand especially since it has beaten accident which is the second major cause of death for Thai people next to blood vessel heart disease 2 years ago.

Recently, researches from various countries supported by the World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF) and the American Institute for Cancer Research (AICR) have reviewed that 6 types of cancer that are often found have similar risky factors: environmental factors, habitual consumption, and heredity classified as following

Lung cancer – smoking
Stomach cancer – salty foods
Breast cancer – saturated fat, high fat food, heredity, and alcohol
Colorectal cancer – meat, alcohol, and heredity
Mouth and pharynx cancer – smoking, tobacco or betel palm mastication, food, and alcohol
Liver cancer – hepatitis from virus B, food with aflatoxin, and
alcohol

In addition, more researches from the same sources reported that
A variety of vegetables and fruits in high amount may prevent 20 - 30% of cases of lung cancer in both smokers and non-smokers.

Vegetables and fruits may prevent 66-75% of cases of stomach cancer.
Vegetables and fruits may decrease the incidence of breast cancer by
33-50% but only in the pre-adolescence period while in the adult period the risk can be decreased 10-20%.
Vegetables and fruits may decrease the incidence of colorectal cancer by 66 - 75%.
Vegetables and fruits may prevent 33 - 50 % of the cases of cancer of the mouth and pharynx.
Lastly, vegetables and fruits may prevent 33 - 66% of cases of liver cancer.

The researches from this fund also pointed out that the factors that can decrease the risk of cancer are vegetables, fruits, carotenoid in food, vitamin c, minerals, cereals, starch, fibre, exercise, and the use of freezing and refrigeration to preserve perishable food (Traditional methods of preservation such as salting, smoking, curing and pickling are still used in many parts of the world to preserve common foods.

On the other hand, the factors that increase the risk of cancer are alcohol, salted foods, red meat, egg, grilled or broiled food, total fats and animal fats foods, cholesterol, milk and dairy products, sugar, coffee, food with chemical contaminants, obesity, size of body and smoking etc.