By Elliot Yudenfriend and Pamela Yudenfriend

It may be surprising that something as simple as breathing fresh, outdoor air daily can help prevent cancer. But clean, fresh air is more immediately vital to our bodies than is food or water. We can go without food for many days, without water for 48 hours, but without air for mere minutes.

Cancer occurs in a low oxygen environment, so it's particularly beneficial to breathe in such a way as to enrich the blood with as much oxygen as possible. Because people who are seriously depressed tend to breathe shallowly, an astute doctor may check them for cancer while treating the depression.

Because breathing is an automatic, continual process, very few of us pay attention to the breathing process. But those who practice yoga, the martial arts and other bodily disciplines have long been aware of how important proper breathing is. Though many of us do not involve ourselves in those practices, we all need to know that not only does deep breathing enrich the oxygen content of the blood, but that the process of exhalation is vitally important for expelling bodily waste such as carbon dioxide and other toxins. The exhalation of these substances is, in fact, one of the body's major means of detoxification. A few minutes of focused, deep breathing daily is a very good way to lower your chances of developing cancer.

An appropriate amount of sunlight daily is another important but often overlooked component of good health. When weather permits, try to expose a large area of your skin to direct sunlight for 15 to 20 minutes a day. Those with light skin, in particular, as well as everyone else, need to be careful not to burn themselves.

The best time to get sunlight is in the morning, before the sun gets hot, and later in the afternoon, when the sun has lost some of its intense noonday heat. This exposure to sunlight causes the body to manufacture Vitamin D, a vital nutrient for the prevention of cancer of many different kinds, as well as a vitamin that is helpful for preventing many other illnesses.

According to the Vitamin D council, (www.vitamindcouncil.org) an excellent website compiled and maintained by the world's foremost Vitamin D researchers in the world, current research has implicated vitamin D deficiency as a major factor in the pathology of at least 17 varieties of cancer as well as heart disease, stroke, hypertension, autoimmune diseases, diabetes, depression, chronic pain, osteoarthritis, osteoporosis, muscle weakness, muscle wasting, birth defects, periodontal disease, and more. The importance of getting sufficient Vitamin D for maintaining good health and disease prevention can neither be over-emphasized or ignored.

By Rangga Teguh Pratama

Vitamin C is a great team player in the antioxidant defense system. It protects against free radical damage and keeps the linings of our lungs, stomach, and reproductive organs in good repair. In grade school we learned that orange juice is a potent source of vitamin C, but that's just the beginning.

To illustrate vitamin C's importance, let's look at lung cancer. Needless to say, smoking is a big part of the problem. Compared to a nonsmoker, a lifetime smoker has twenty to thirty times the risk of getting lung cancer. Secondhand smoke is dangerous, too, increasing lung cancer risk by 30 to 50 percent. But just as tobacco increases the risk of cancer, foods rich in vitamin C reduce the likelihood that lung cancer will start. In other words, you can protect the delicate linings of your lungs against pollutants with vitamin C-rich fruits and vegetables at every meal.

Both non-smokers and smokers benefit from these foods. Let's compare two fifty-five-year-old smokers, Veggie Vic and Pretzel Pete. Veggie's typical menu on any given day looks something like this: oatmeal with fresh berries, a slice of cantaloupe, and a cup of tea for breakfast, a banana and orange juice smoothie for a snack and a veggie sub on wheat bread for lunch and hearty pasta with tomatoes, eggplant, and basil for dinner. With his preference for these healthy and delicious foods, Vic has just one-quarter the risk of dying from lung cancer during the next four years, compared with Pete, who munches on pretzels and other highly refined foods, hardly thinking of eating a vegetable or a fruit.

By Rangga Teguh Pratama

Vitamin E is a popular seller in the vitamin aisle, but let's not forgets where it comes from originally. Vitamin E is naturally present in plant oils. Its specialty is protecting cell membranes. The delicate membranes covering each of your cells are vulnerable to attack by free radicals, leaving you wide open to DNA damage. Vitamin E can stop that chain reaction in its tracks.

Vitamin E also supports your immune system, guards against heart disease, and may even protect against cataracts. Where do we find this powerful vitamin? It's in green vegetables, orange-colored fruits, and blueberries. You'll get even more from whole grains, legumes, nuts, and seeds. Note that the natural form of vitamin E, present in all these foods, is more potent, more available, and lasts longer in the body, compared with the synthetic vitamin E in supplements.

Selenium

The fourth member of this antioxidant team is the mineral selenium. It is a silvery-colored mineral that was named for Selene, the ancient Greek goddess of the moon. It works together with vitamin E to protect cells against damage from free radicals and other carcinogens.

Studies done at Harvard and Cornell Universities and in China have shown selenium levels to be 30 to 40 percent lower in cancer patients than in healthy people. Low selenium levels have been linked to cancers of the digestive system and the prostate. A surprising number of foods provide this powerful antioxidant.

Take garlic as an example. A clove here and there adds up. When you learn to flavor recipes with garlic, you'll wonder why you ever used so much salt. Over the course of a day, a diet rich in vegetables and fruits provides some selenium, and you'll get even higher amounts from whole grains (barley, brown rice, and oatmeal), legumes, seeds, and nuts. Mushrooms are good sources; tofu and Brazil nuts are excellent sources.

By Rangga Teguh Pratama

Beta-carotene is part of a family of more than six hundred different carotenoids. They give vibrant color to carrots, red peppers, sweet potatoes, yams, apricots, cantaloupes, mangoes, pumpkins, and many other foods with similar hues. Kale and spinach are rich in beta-carotene, too, although the green of chlorophyll hides its pale orange color. Beta-carotene knocks out free radicals and strengthens special white blood cells called natural killer cells, which seek out and destroy cancer cells.

How much of these protective foods do we need? With five servings a day of vegetables and fruits, you'll get a supply of about 800 to 1,000 micrograms of beta-carotene. You'll want to get at least this much each day. To see whether your diet meets this lower limit, jot down the vegetables and fruits you ate yesterday. Then look at the table on pages 50-53 and add up your intake of beta-carotene. It's smart to boost your intake even higher, to 30,000 micrograms or more of beta-carotene, by regularly including the richest sources in your diet.

Here are three different ways to get 30,000 micrograms of beta-carotene:

- Two large carrots

- one cup of baked yam or sweet potato, one cup of kale, and a peach

- A wedge of cantaloupe, 8 ounces of carrot juice, plus a half cup of cooked pumpkin.

Research has shown that a daily intake of five servings of vegetables and fruit would eliminate at least one in five cases of cancer, even if the rest of the diet was not changed at all. A typical serving means 1 cup of fruit or vegetables, a single medium-sized vegetable (carrot, apple, and tomato), 1 cup of salad, or 1 cup of juice. If your day's intake doesn't include five of these foods, here are examples to get you started.

By Alice White Green

Nowadays, more and more people are troubled by various kinds of cancer, such as lung cancer, breast cancer and colon cancer. The medical experts have been studying the newest techniques of treating cancer. In fact, the cancer can be effectively prevented if people maintain the balanced diet in everyday life. In order to help people prevent and treat cancer, the reasonable recipe has been published in America.

Generally speaking, people should increase the intake of vegetables and grains and decrease the intake of animal meat. Even the intake of the animal protein should be reduced moderately. 5 kinds of vegetables and fruits should be taken every day. The overweight can increase the risks of getting colon cancer, esophageal cancer and kidney cancer. The adequate intake of vegetables and fruits can not only maintain the human body slim, but also reduce the risks of getting cancer. Therefore, the medical experts advise people to at least take 5 kinds of fruits and vegetables every day. When people have breakfast, they should frequently eat the foods containing folic acid. The supplementation of folic acid can prevent the colon cancer, rectal cancer and breast cancer for the human body. The grains and whole-wheat foods for the breakfast contain abundant folic acid. In addition, the foods like orange juice, egg and spinach also contain rich folic acid. At the same time, the smoked meat and sausage should be avoided as far as possible, because such foods contain a large number of carcinogenic substances. The intake of tomatoes can be increased moderately, which can decrease the risks of getting various cancers like prostate cancer.

The lycopene contained in tomatoes plays an important role in preventing the formation of cancer for the human body. When people are free, they can drink green tea. The frequent intake of green tea can effectively decrease the morbidity of cancers, such as bladder cancer, gastric cancer and pancreatic cancer. Except green tea, the boiled water is also suitable for people to drink. The adequate intake of boiled water can improve the urination and dilute the hidden carcinogenic substances in the bladder. What's more, the drinking amount should be strictly controlled. The excessive drinking can seriously increase the intake of getting cancer.

In a word, people should maintain the balanced diet in everyday life so as to prevent the occurrence of cancer and reduce the risks of getting cancer for themselves to the full extent.

By Owen Jones

Most of us are scared stiff of developing cancer. That is quite understandable - who wants to spend a couple of years undergoing chemotherapy only to die a couple of years later? Or even if you recover it is a couple of years out of your life that have been worrying and grueling. And not merely for the patient but for friends and family too.

So, individuals do everything they can to reduce the risks of developing cancer. Most of us do not think we know how to do this, others are not certain, but they have heard or read something that sounds 'about correct' and others are convinced that they know how to avoid developing cancer.

My wife is certain that I may get cancer from eating burnt toast and others are convinced that they can stave off cancer by saturating their body with green tea. It has frequently been pointed out and for decades as well, that countries where green tea is the norm, say the Far East, have a much lower incidence of cancer than we do in the West.

And this is probably a fact at the moment. But why is it true? I live in Asia and diabetes is the number one killer near me. Do Asians not get cancer as much as we do because they drink green tea or for other reasons?

In fact, where I live in Northern Thailand, I have never seen anyone drink tea or coffee or accept a cup off me, except my wife. Villagers here drink water or alcohol, depending on the time of day. Kids love Cola or Sprite or whatever because they watch as well much TV, but drink a lot of water.

It is stated that green tea is an anti-oxidant and it is alleged that anti-oxidants help eliminate free radicals which can cause cancer. If this is true, then the claims for green tea are perhaps more believable.

However, the claims are so all-encompassing that it makes me sceptical. I am reading a report just now that claims that green tea will prevent the growth of cancerous cells in the: "... aesophagus, bladder, on the skin, in the ovaries, the pancreas and the prostate".

That is a very tall order indeed.

The difficulty for me with all these claims is that they are not substantiated - there are no references that you can follow that do not lead to companies selling green tea. This is a difficulty.

Some will say that the government or the pharmaceutical companies are suppressing the knowledge because they want to sell more expensive drugs - and this might be true - grist to the mill for conspiracy theorists and retailers of Chinese tea.

Now that we appear to be entering into a 'new era', a more sceptical and more progressive era (thanks a great deal to the World Wide Web), couldn't someone do some investigation on green tea and Acai berries and all the rest of the stuff you read about in your junk emails and put an end once and for all to the false dreams, if that is what they are, that we are being sold every day by unscrupulous advertisers looking for a quick dollar?

By Rock Sethi

There is no doubt the foods people eat affect their overall health and wellness. So you must weigh the consequences of eating foods that are only good tasting but may adversely affect the health and some others foods that will have disease prevention capabilities, even cancer. There are certain foods, when eaten raw or lightly cooked with their nutrients intact, will help prevent various types of cancer. Following is a list of some important foods you must consider to include in your diet:

Green Leafy Vegetables

The fiber, folate, and carotenoids found in green leafy vegetables are the nutrients that can prevent certain types of cancer. Fiber can help in fortifying the body against colorectal cancers, whereas folate and carotenoids work on preventing the onset of cancer in the mouth and the larynx. Since some carotenoids are also anti-oxidants, they can prevent the development and growth of other types of cancer cells, which include breast cancer, skin cancer, lung cancer, and stomach cancer.

Berries

Berries are full of nutrients that prevent cancer in many parts of the body. Berries contain potent phytochemicals that play important role in inhibiting the development of cancer. Ascorbic acid or vitamin C, which is abundant in most berries, protects the digestive tract from cancer. Another nutrient, the ellagic acid, found in raspberries & blackberries counteracts skin, bladder, lung, and other cancers related to internal organs by providing abundance of anti-oxidant that neutralize of some carcinogens.

Cruciferous vegetables

Broccolis, cauliflowers, cabbages, and other cruciferous vegetables prevent cancers related to the digestive tract, which runs from the mouth to the stomach and the intestines. Cruciferous vegetables contain glucosinalates, crambene and isothiocyanates that are important in regulating nutrients governing the natural enzyme system, protecting the body against digestive tract cancers.

Herbs

Garlic is one most researched herb by the scientific community for its benefits. Among many benefits, one of the most important one is its cancer prevention ability. Studies show when garlic is consumed regularly by an individual, his or her chances of developing cancer drop significantly. When garlic is eaten raw, it provides several cancer-fighting nutrients, such as allicin, allixin, allyl sulfides, guercetin, etc. These nutrients slow or stop the growth of carcinogenic bodies on the prostate, bladder and the colon. Another ingredient found in garlic, diallyl disulfide, is deemed to prevent skin, colon and lung cancers, as well as leukemia.

Legumes

Beans and other legumes are also on the shortlist of foods for cancer prevention. They contain saponin, protease inhibitors and phytic acid that protect the cells from weakening, which can lead to cancer. They also prevent the growth, division and reproduction of the cancer-causing cells. Raw ground flax seed is the best source of lignans, which is a group of plant estrogens known as phytoestrogens that have anti-cancer benefits, as well as omega-3 fatty acid known as alpha-linolenic acid, which prevent the formation of tumors on the breast, lung, colon, and skin.

If you are looking to form a diet with cancer prevention in mind then you must design recipes that include all foods mentioned above. Enjoy it in good health.