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9 Foods That Can Help You Prevent Cancer

Prevent CancerThere are certain foods which help us build immunity and strengthen bodily functions. Nature has provided us with many superfoods which are a combination of many vitamins, minerals and fiber. We should try and include such food in our daily diet so that we can keep off deadly diseases like cancer and provide our body with the power to fight these diseases.

9 Foods That Can Help You Prevent Cancer 

Below are some foods that can help you improve your immune system and might even aid in the prevention of cancer.

  1. Garlic: contains sulphur – which gives a good boost to the immune system. You can eat 2-3 cloves of raw garlic early in the morning before brushing your teeth. Chew properly and swallow or  you can add garlic to whatever food you eat
  2. Lemon: Vitamin C increases immunity power and helps the body in fighting any outside infection or problem. It also keeps a check on cancer cell growth. Drink a glass of lemon water daily. No sugar. No salt. You can also squeeze a 1 whole lemon over your salads twice a day.
  3. Broccoli: This vegetable is a superfood! Don’t forget to include this in your diet. Try to eat it steamed/ semi-cooked. Don’t microwave it or fry it. It will kill all the nutrition.
  4. Onion: A diet that includes onions is said to reduce the risk of cancer. Include raw onions in salads or cook them lightly to get all the benefits provided by it.
  5. Apple Cider Vinegar: improves your gut’s functioning. A healthy gut means better overall health! Take 1 tsp daily diluted with 200ml of lukewarm water. You can have it half an hour before eating your lunch or dinner. You can also take ACV diluted in 200ml of water early in the morning on an empty stomach. Mix 1 tsp of cinnamon powder to the mix for extra benefits.
  6. Corn: contains a phenolic compound called ferulic acid, which may inhibit cancer-causing free radicals. Just roast it and go for it! You can also boil and take out kernels and add onion and tomatoes to it to make it a healthy chat.
  7. Dates: are high in polyphenol and Vitamin B6 and fiber which helps prevent many types of cancer. Eat 1 – 2 pieces every day along with your breakfast or else you can have them as a part of your mid-morning snacks.
  8. Green Leafy Vegetables: They contain bioflavonoids, carotenoids and other cancer-fighting compounds in abundance. They also contain indoles, a compound which reduces the cancer-causing potential of the body. Add them to your salads or have them as juices or soups. Don’t strain if possible.
  9. Wheatgrass Powder: Wheatgrass is rich in nutrients such as vitamin A, C and E, iron, calcium, magnesium, and amino acids. Other benefits include removing toxins from the body, increasing production of hemoglobin, improving blood sugar, among many other benefits. Add 1 teaspoon of powdered wheatgrass to any vegetable or fruit juice. It can also be added to your porridge.

Always remember that these are just precautionary steps to prevent cancer. There are many other environmental factors as well as lifestyle factors such as lack of physical activity, improper sleep, stress, smoking and alcohol consumption which affect our health. These foods only help us in reducing any ill effects and strengthening our immunity. You have got to manage and live a healthy lifestyle as well. For guidance, you can always reach out to a GOQii Coach by subscribing for personalized health coaching here: https://goqiiapp.page.link/bsr

If you are already suffering from cancer, you can include all these in your daily diet as they will empower you and give you the energy to fight the disease. Don’t stop the treatments at any point in time. Keep continuing them along with these natural remedies. Before you begin any of the above foods, consult your doctor.

#BeTheForce 

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Sprouts As Superfoods During the Pandemic!

sprouts

During this period of time , when most of us are avoiding crowded markets again and again to purchase fruits and veggies , sprouting of the readily available beans and grains at home has become the best and cheapest way of getting complete nourishment. We have been using sprouts for ages either to recover post illness or to build muscle mass, increase stamina, to combat nutritional deficiencies and so on. 

What Can Be Sprouted?  

All edible grains, seeds and legumes can be sprouted. These include:

  • Grains: Wheat, Maize, Ragi , Bajra, and Barley . 
  • Seeds: Alfa-alfa seeds, radish seeds, fenugreek seeds, carrot seeds, coriander seeds, pumpkin seeds, muskmelon seeds, sesame seeds. 
  • Legumes: Mung , Bengal gram, groundnut and peas ( commonly used )  .

Benefits Of Consuming Sprouts

  1. Increase in Nutrition: In the process of sprouting, the vitamins, minerals and proteins increase substantially with the corresponding decrease in the calories and carbohydrate content.  There is an infinite increase in vitamin C content. 
  2. Good For Pregnant Women: Being high in folate, sprouts are beneficial for pregnant women. Folate is quite essential for fetal development and proper development of brain development of a child. 
  3. Ensures Healthy Eyes: As Vitamin A content also gets enhanced by a remarkable percentage, sprouts keep our eyes healthy and protect them from all the Vitamin A deficiency diseases of the eyes such as night blindness. Regular intake even delays the development of cataract due to ageing. 
  4. Healthy, Shiny Hair: Being rich in Vitamin C and protein, they ensure strong and healthy hair.
  5. Good Heart Health: Sprouts are high in omega 3 fatty acids which make them heart-friendly.
  6. Easily Digestible: Now the question arises in our minds, the black gram, the mung beans, and some other legumes do produce flatulence… will it be ok for those who suffer from bloating and indigestion to consume these legumes and beans?  And the answer is yes! When we are consuming sprouts, they are in pre-digested form – which means they have already been acted upon by enzymes and made easy to digest.  In fact, they contain a lot of fiber and water. Hence, they help overcome constipation. 

When Can You Eat Them: You may have them as your post-workout meal in the morning, in your evening snacks when you are hungry and while raiding your kitchen for something to munch on.

How To Eat Sprouts: Besides having sprouts alone, you can make it delicious by adding chopped onion, tomatoes, cucumber and squeeze some lemon juice. You may make sprout dosa or pancakes or mixed sprout bhel with puffed rice. You can also try this delicious Sweet Potato Sprouts Tikki and Oats, Sprouts and Vegetable Uttapam. Make sure you are steaming or boiling sprouts in water before eating them. This will not only make them easily absorbable, but will kill any bacterial growth that may have developed during the process of sprouting. 

Eating sprouts is the safest and cheapest way to get all the advantages of fruits and vegetables. If you are having them in your breakfast, it’s going to be a perfect power-packed breakfast. No packaged Muesli, instant oats, processed cornflakes, etc. are going to provide this much nutrition. 

Please Note: Make sure the dried beans and seeds are of best quality, purchased from a good store where they are kept under good conditions and packaged as “food”. Seeds meant for planting purposes may contain mercury compounds and other toxic chemicals. Avoid purchasing seeds or beans of low quality because these may cause various bacterial infections like salmonella, e-coli infections. 

We hope this article helps you! Go on and get your sprouts. Do let us know your thoughts in the comments below! For more on nutrition, check out Healthy Reads or ask a GOQii Coach by subscribing for personalized health coaching here: https://goqiiapp.page.link/bsr 

#BeTheForce 

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Should You Consider the Keto Diet?

keto diet

Lately, a lot of my patients have been asking me about the Keto Diet – if it is safe or if I would recommend it. Despite the recent hype, a Keto Diet isn’t something new. In medicine, we have been using it for around a 100 years to treat drug resistant epilepsy, especially in children.

The Keto Diet is a very low carbohydrate, high fat, adequate protein diet which had originally developed in the 1920s for managing intractable epilepsy. Later, it had been indicated in many other conditions such as obesity, diabetes, cancer, Parkinson’s disease. In recent days, Keto Diet has become increasingly popular among people trying to lose weight.

The diet primarily aims at depriving the body of glucose and putting it in a metabolic state (ketosis), in which fats are burned to produce ketone bodies. These ketones are utilized as fuel for energy production instead of glucose. In order to create this state, the dietary carbohydrates are restricted to as low as 20-25g per day and the fat to carbohydrate ratio is typically kept at 4:1 or 3:1 ratio by weight. Because it lacks carbohydrates, it is rich in protein and fats. It typically includes plenty of meats, eggs, processed meats, sausages, cheese, fish, nuts, butter, oils, seeds and fibrous vegetables.

What is Ketosis?

Glucose is the preferred fuel, especially for the brain. Glucose is also required for the complete oxidation of the fats in TCA Cycle. In conditions of starvation or drastic carbohydrates restriction (below 20g/day), i.e. when glucose is not available, fats are broken down in an alternate pathway to produce ketone bodies. These ketone bodies are utilized by the brain and other tissues for energy production instead of glucose. This condition is known as Ketosis.

What Are The Effects of a Keto Diet on Weight Loss?

The effect of Keto Diet on weight loss has been attributed to several possible factors:

  • The appetite suppressing the action of ketone bodies by modification of hormones.
  • Reduction in the accumulation of fat (lipogenesis) and breakdown of fat (lipolysis).
  • Increased metabolic cost of gluconeogenesis (breakdown of fat or protein for glucose) and thermic effect of protein.
  • High satiating effect of fats which provides the feeling of fullness for longer hours. 

Benefits of a Ketogenic Diet Beyond Weight Loss

Due to obesity, excess body fat is closely associated with insulin resistance. The metabolic disturbances associated with insulin resistance due to inefficient utilization of glucose are improved with low carbohydrate high-fat diets. These changes beneficially affect gene expression, improved resistant states, attenuate oxidative stress and inflammatory conditions.

Significant reductions in serum triglycerides, marked increase in HDL cholesterol and decrease in inflammatory markers have been observed with this diet.

Potential Risk of Following This Diet

Despite the metabolic benefits of Keto Diets, the severe carbohydrate restriction and huge fat content of the diet raises question regarding safety. The severe restriction in diet calls for inadequacies of several nutrients.

  • Selenium deficiency is noted which leads to abnormal cardiac rhythm and impaired myocardial functions.
  • Arterial stiffness, increase in LDL cholesterol occurs in about half the individuals on Keto Diet.
  • Although it might show improvements in certain cardiovascular parameters like increased HDL and lowered TGLs, this mostly in the short term. In the long term, it has been shown to cause Hepatic Steatosis (accumulation of fat in the liver), Dyslipidaemia and glucose intolerance in mice.
  • It affects calcium balance and bone health. Prolonged exposure to the acidic environment caused by the ketones in blood can lead to progressive loss of bone minerals.
  • In fact, Nephrolithiasis, a very commonly noted complication of the Keto Diet, can be attributed to increased urinary calcium which leads to stone formation.
  • High amount of fat in the diet gives rise to gastrointestinal tolerance issues which include nausea, diarrhoea, constipation and GERD(Gastro Esophageal Reflux Disease).
  • Other side effects include dehydration, Hypoglycaemia, Hyperuricemia, Pancreatitis, Ketoacidosis, low serum sodium and magnesium have been reported.

Practical Considerations To Be Taken

It is important to consider the total calorie intake, especially in context of weight loss. Reduction in total calorie intake is always important and not just replacing carbohydrate calories with fats.

With the above considerations, a modified Keto Diet can serve as an effective tool for weight loss with certain added metabolic advantage and can be advised to obese individuals having no other metabolic disorder for a limited period of time. This should, however, be followed up with a healthy and more balanced eating plan on the long term.

Please note that we do not advocate, advise or recommend fad diets to our players. Please reach out or consult your doctor, dietician or nutritionist before making changes to your diet.

For more topics on diets, nutrition and health, check out Healthy Reads or ask a GOQii Coach by subscribing for personalized coaching here: https://goqiiapp.page.link/bsr

#BeTheForce 

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The Power Of Black Tea For Immunity

A powerful immune system not only prevents the attack of any foreign invaders like bacteria, fungi, viruses, parasites but also can protect against degenerative diseases like cancer, heart disease. There are many beverages that can support a healthy immune system and black tea is one of them. The health benefits of black tea have been attributed to it’s decent amount of polyphenols and a wide range of flavonoids—particularly thearubigins, theaflavins, flavonols and flavones. These phytochemicals have shown antimicrobial, anti-viral, antioxidant, anti-carcinogenic, anti-mutagenic and anti-inflammatory activities.

Black tea has beneficial physiological effects like the prevention of atherosclerosis and coronary heart disease by easing inflammation and supporting the flexibility of blood vessels, which can reduce risk of high blood pressure, heart attack, stroke. Researchers at Harvard University have found 10 times more virus-fighting interferons in the blood of people who drank black tea in comparison to people who drank placebo beverages. The researchers attributed this to an amino-acid, L-theanine found in ordinary black tea.

Various studies over the years have also linked drinking Black Tea to reduced risk of certain types of cancers, and increased number of immune cells, antioxidants that protect cells against free radical damage. The antimutagenic effect is well documented for the black tea polyphenols, namely theaflavins and thearubigins and attributed both to the inhibition of the oxidative DNA damage as well as, considerable literature demonstrates their inhibitory effect on the tumor cell proliferation. Latest research also suggests that these polyphenols even affect the balance of gut bacteria that enhances immune functions, encouraging short-chain fatty acids formation that support liver’s function.

Tea drinkers have shown lower levels of the stress hormone, cortisol, after an exposure to a stressful situation. Stress can suppress the immune response of the body. Thus, indirectly by managing stress, tea again improves the effectiveness of the immune system.

Tips To Include Black Tea In Your Diet  

  1. Infused Tea: Add 3-5g or one black tea bag into a cup. Fill to the top with 85-90c boiling water and steep for 3-5 minutes. Remove the tea bag or strain and serve hot or over ice.
    Optional: You can add half a cup of fruit pieces into a one-quart Mason jar with tea and, later cover and let the fruit steep for another ten minutes in hot infused tea, after removing the tea bags.
  2. You can add some lemon juice or crushed ginger or a pinch of cinnamon to infused black tea for additional antioxidant activity and flavour.
  3. Japanese researchers have found that even gargling with black tea extract twice a day was less likely to catch flu by flushing microbes trapped in the throat area.
  4. Inhaling boiling water mixed with Black Tea can facilitate the clearing of the passages towards the lung and facilitate the removal of bacteria/viruses trapped around the nasal area and opens a pathway for the Theaflavins to reach the lungs and protect it from infection.

 Word of Caution 

  • Adding milk may diminish the disease-fighting potential of the tea as various studies have not observed the beneficial effect of black tea consumption on the risk of coronary heart disease in subjects consuming tea with milk.
  • Avoid having tea with meals due to the presence of Tannins, an anti-nutritional compound, which has inhibitory effects on absorption of protein and certain minerals from food like, Iron, copper, sodium and aluminium.
  • Do not drink tea close to bedtime as another compound in tea called Caffeine could keep you from falling asleep.

Don’t miss on physical activity, adequate sleep and Dietary Diversification, that is, include a variety of food in your diet ranging from whole grain/pulses to coloured fruits/vegetables, nuts and seeds, lean meats, to add a wide spectrum of vitamins and minerals and antioxidants in diet, to enhance body’s disease-fighting capabilities. 

Enjoy your cup of tea 1-2 times a day in snack time away from meals. We hope this article helps you. Do leave your thoughts in the comments below. For more immunity-boosting tips, check out Healthy Reads or tune in to our experts on GOQii Play. 

To get these tips directly from your GOQii Coach, subscribe to personalized coaching here: https://goqiiapp.page.link/bsr

Stay safe, boost your immunity and #BeTheForce! 

From Terminal Illness To Complete Wellness! Ananda Mukherjee Health Story

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