Tesco and Asda selling 15p fruit that lowers cancer risk

Tesco and Asda selling 15p fruit that lowers cancer risk Lowering your risk of cancer doesn't have to be expensive. More than 403,000 people are being diagnosed with cancer each year in the UK, according to Cancer Research UK. This means that 1,100 people every day in this country are being given the devastating news — and that’s before you include their families. It is a record high figure and while the number one driving factor is the UK’s growing and ageing population, as well as the fact that doctors are now better at diagnosing cancer, we’ve also seen a rise in preventable cancer risk factors like obesity. There are ways to lower your risk of getting cancer, though you can never eliminate the risk, and these will be familiar and obvious to most of us: eating a healthy and balanced diet, minimising your alcohol intake, exercising regularly and not smoking are among them. But it is perhaps less well-known that specific foods can help protect you against cancer. In particular, fibre-rich foods have been associated with lowering the risk of cancer. The World Cancer Research Fund says there is “strong evidence” that “eating plenty of fibre can lower the risk of bowel cancer. It can also help protect against weight gain, overweight and obesity, which are linked to at least 13 types of cancer.” It adds: “Because of this, we recommend that you make fruit, vegetables, wholegrains (such as brown rice) and pulses (like lentils and beans) a main part of your daily diet.” In a 2018 report , the World Cancer Research Fund said: “For wholegrains and foods containing dietary fibre the evidence shows that, in general, the more people consume, the lower the risk of some cancers.” How can fruit and vegetable lower cancer risk? The simple reason for healthy foods like fruits, vegetables, wholegrains and pulses (or legumes) lowering your risk of cancer is that they provide a range of nutrients, including fibre, vitamins, minerals and natural plant chemicals, which together can help lower the risk of some cancers. They also contain different compounds, chemicals and properties which also have their own cancer-preventing properties. This principle is broadly applicable to virtually all commonly-available fruits and vegetables. But to pick out one example, take a banana. A single banana currently costs around 15p at Asda. Not only do bananas contain fibre (one medium banana contains around 10% of your total daily fibre needs) but an international 20-year study involving the University of Leeds also found that a starch found in bananas can reduce some cancers by more than half. The university said the study showed a “major preventive effect from resistant starch among people with high hereditary risk of cancer”. Resistant starch is found in a wide range of foods including oats, breakfast cereal, pasta, rice, peas, beans and slightly green bananas. Another study found that properties in bananas “have been shown to exhibit cancer preventative and anticancer activities in breast, cervical, colorectal, esophageal, hepatic, oral, prostate, and skin cancers”. The good news is that several fruits contain more fibre than bananas. Among the most fibre-rich fruits are raspberries. And, according to a study in the Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry, “overwhelming evidence suggests that edible small and soft-fleshed berry fruits may have beneficial effects against several types of human cancers”. The study didn't just include raspberries but looked at several widely available berries, including blackberries, blueberries, cranberries and strawberries.