This Cancer-Prevention Plan Helps Prevent Diabetes, Heart Disease & More!
What if a tasty, healthy diet for cancer prevention also helped prevent diabetes and heart disease? This cancer prevention plan is good for all that and more.
You do not need a different diet plan for every single health concern!
“I’m doomed,” a woman said to me in a low, defeated voice and downcast eyes. “I can’t have those high-fiber foods I’m supposed to eat to cut my risk for colon cancer; they’re bad for my blood sugar.”
Another client said, “I heard whole grains are good to prevent diabetes, but I can’t eat grains. I stay away from carbs.”
Not so fast…
The general framework for healthy eating for one condition tends to work for many conditions.
Happily, I showed these clients and others that a flexible healthy diet is suitable for high cholesterol, cancer prevention, weight management, prediabetes, diabetes, and a lot more.
The biggest challenges are managing kidney or GI diseases with general, healthy living plans. But it can be done. These are not my areas of expertise, so I’ve routinely referred folks with those concerns to more qualified experts.
A healthy eating and living framework
So why does an expert in diabetes, prediabetes, and heart health rely on cancer prevention recommendations? Because …
- they include an abundance of disease-fighting foods that decrease inflammation and insulin resistance.
- prediabetes, diabetes, and excess weight are risk factors for several types of cancer.
- being physically active boosts health and mood, improves sleep, lowers blood sugar, and has so many other positive effects.
- I don’t know anyone who wants to trade one health problem for another. We want to avoid them all!
That’s why I lean on the American Institute for Cancer Research (AICR) recommendations – 10 guidelines based on the joint AICR and the World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF) expert report, Diet, Nutrition, Physical Activity and Cancer: A Global Perspective.
The first 7 recommendations target cancer prevention, as well as the other main concerns I deal with regularly.
Cancer prevention guidelines that do more than prevent cancer
Goal #1: Be a healthy weight (or as close to it as possible)
Excess body fat pumps out hormones and other compounds that can give cancer growth a boost. Carrying extra fat is a cause of at least 12 cancers. And it bumps up the risk of developing prediabetes, type 2 diabetes, fatty liver disease, and heart disease. Plus, it makes managing these problems tougher.
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- What to do: Unless you’re underweight, aim to avoid weight gain throughout adulthood. If you have extra body fat, try to lose a few pounds and maintain the lowest weight you can without dropping too low.
- Get started: Take any first step. Check out the 6 truths you need to know about weight loss and can you lose weight without counting calories.
Goal #2: Be physically active
All types of physical activity lower cancer risk by altering hormones and immune function. Aerobic (aka cardiovascular) exercises, such as jogging and biking, pump up heart function. Both strength training – like lifting weights – and aerobic activity tamp down insulin resistance and help manage blood sugar levels.
And here’s another plus for people with prediabetes and diabetes: your muscles do not require insulin to take sugar out of your blood while you exercise. When you’re active, insulin resistance does not get in the way of feeding sugar to your muscles.
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- What to do: Aim for at least 150 minutes of moderate or 75 minutes of vigorous activity weekly, and limit your sedentary time. Be active throughout the day. An American Cancer Society study finds that too much sitting is linked to early death in 14 diseases including diabetes, heart disease, stroke, kidney disease, cancer, and Alzheimer’s disease. Here’s what the American Diabetes Association recommends.
- Get started: Find a few minutes here and there to move in any way you like. Take a 15-minute walk after lunch, jump on a stationary bike for 10 minutes before starting your dinner prep, rake leaves, or toss a ball with your kids or your dog. Learn more about sitting too much and how to get out of that chair! If you struggle to form an exercise habit, get started with 5 minutes every day or 5 minutes every weekday. Your habit will come faster than if your goal is to exercise 30 minutes twice weekly.
- What to do: Aim for at least 150 minutes of moderate or 75 minutes of vigorous activity weekly, and limit your sedentary time. Be active throughout the day. An American Cancer Society study finds that too much sitting is linked to early death in 14 diseases including diabetes, heart disease, stroke, kidney disease, cancer, and Alzheimer’s disease. Here’s what the American Diabetes Association recommends.
Goal #3: Eat a diet rich in whole grains, vegetables, fruits, and beans
These foods are tops for cancer prevention, as well as for preventing inflammation, insulin resistance, and heart disease. They provide a host of disease-fighting vitamins, minerals, fibers, and phytonutrients (aka phytochemicals aka health-boosters).
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- What to do: Aim for a variety of foods from plants to get at least 30 grams of dietary fiber daily. Include 5 servings of non-starchy vegetables and fruits each day, and at least three servings of legumes weekly.
- Get started: Include plants in every meal and snack. Plant slant your plate by swapping out some animal foods for more plants, or simply reduce your portions of meats and cheeses to make more room for wholesome plants. Rely on canned and frozen vegetables when fresh aren’t convenient. If you have diabetes, you’ll likely need to restrict your carbohydrate intake to some amount at each meal and snack (not to zero or a mere 50 grams per day!). Carb control is important for your blood sugar control, so really focus on making your carb choices wholesome and health-boosting. There’s a big difference between black beans and jelly beans and oranges and orange sherbet. Here’s the 411 on carbohydrate foods.
And here’s the non-starchy vegetables list you’ll want to print out.
Goal #4: Limit consumption of “fast foods” and other processed foods high in fats, starches, and sugars
These foods are associated with weight gain, so they indirectly affect your risk for prediabetes, type 2 diabetes, fatty liver disease, heart disease, and several types of cancer.
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- What to do: Simple: focus on the healthy foods your body craves. When you follow goal #3 above, goal #4 happens automatically.
- Get started: Pack your lunch the night before, so you have no need to rely on fast food. Keep your pantry stocked with staples that can help you put dinner together very quickly. I always have canned beans, tomatoes, tuna, and the like on my shelves. Replace baked goods with a fruit-focused dessert like chocolate-dipped apricots or chocolate peanut butter oat balls. Enjoy a handful of nuts instead of handfuls of potato chips. Have a small baked potato instead of a plate of cheese fries.
Remember that all processed foods are not created equal. Use these 3 steps to answer, “is that food healthy.”
Goal #5: Limit consumption of red and processed meats
Too much red and processed meats are linked to a higher risk of colorectal cancer, type 2 diabetes, and heart disease.
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- What to do: Limit red meat (beef, lamb, and pork) to no more than 12-18 ounces weekly and avoid processed meats – like hot dogs, ham, and sausage.
- Get started: Keep portions of red meats to about the size of a deck of cards. Eat fish a couple times each week. Add your favorite lentil, soy, or bean-based meals – 3-bean salad, lentil chili, black bean soup – to your menu often. Rethink breakfast meats – we really don’t need them.
Goal #6: Limit consumption of sugar-sweetened drinks
Empty calories like these don’t help us. Soda, lemonade, punch, and other beverages with added sugars give us LOTS of calories and very little, if any, nutrition. They’re linked to weight gain, which is associated with at least 12 types of cancer, prediabetes, type 2 diabetes, and heart disease.
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- What to do: Drink mostly water and unsweetened beverages like tea and coffee. Read about taking a sensible approach to cutting back on added sugars.
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- Get started: If you have diabetes, avoid sugary drinks as much as possible and start right now. Otherwise, replace at least one sugary drink daily with water, tea, coffee, or sparkling water with the aim of having sugary beverages only rarely.
Goal #7: Limit alcohol consumption
Alcohol consumption is linked to 6 types of cancer. Large amounts are also linked to more heart disease, diabetes, accidents, and more. Some research suggests that small amounts – in the neighborhood of about ½ to 1 standard drink daily – might lower your risk for type 2 diabetes and heart disease, but neither the American Diabetes Association nor the American Heart Association recommends drinking as a prevention strategy.
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- What to do: Drink sparkling water regularly. Save wine and other alcohol for special occasions.
- Get started: If you drink, do so in moderation. Moderation means no more than one standard drink daily for women and two drinks daily for men. A standard serving is 5 ounces of wine, 12 ounces of beer, or 1 – 1.5 ounces of hard liquor. Use this online Standard Drink Calculator to figure out how many standard drinks are in a bottle, box, or can.
You’ll need only 2 pieces of information for the calculator:
- Volume of the container or glass in ounces or milliliters
- Alcohol by volume (%ABV or ‘proof’), which is listed on bottles, cans, and boxes – sometimes in teeny tiny letters
To find out how alcohol impacts blood sugar, diabetes risk, and your heart, check out this article.
Whew! Isn’t it great to know that you don’t have to follow a different diet for each health worry? A cancer-prevention diet gives you oodles of disease fighters for all types of potential problems.
Cheers to enjoying delicious, balanced meals!
And Cheers to Putting a Halt to Prediabetes
Download Can I Eat That with Prediabetes? It covers 10 foods you’ll want to know about. Get it here.
Filed Under: Diabetes, Heart Health, Prediabetes
Tagged: blood sugar, cancer prevention, carbohydrate, diabetes, exercise, healthy eating, legumes, prediabetes, sugar, whole grains
Jill Weisenberger
I'm Jill, and I believe simple changes in your mindset and health habits can bring life-changing rewards. And I don't believe in willpower. It's waaaay overrated. As a food-loving registered dietitian nutritionist, certified diabetes care and education specialist and certified health and wellness coach, I've helped thousands of people solve their food and nutrition problems. If you're looking for a better way to master this whole healthy eating/healthy living thing or if you're trying to prevent or manage diabetes or heart problems, you'll find plenty of resources right here.
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Welcome to my Blog
Hi there! I'm Jill, a nutrition & diabetes expert and the author of 4 books.
I believe simple changes in health habits can bring you life-changing rewards.
And I believe willpower is way overrated.
Right here is where you can discover the mindset and habits to stick with healthy lifestyle choices most of the time - and drop the guilt when you don't.
Thanks! Makes good sense!
Hi Jill: Good info. Thx