The Benefit Of Fighting Cancer With Nutrition

Fighting cancer with nutrition may sound like a joke, but the effects of a healthy diet are proven to improve a person's survival chances. The benefits of a healthy diet rich in fruits and vegetables can not be overstated for anyone, but for those fighting a serious disease, it becomes extremely important for a variety of reasons.

There are different schools of thought concerning how nutrition works to fight cancer. Regardless of the logic that promotes it, eating the right foods works to boost the body's defenses and helps a person withstand the stress of chemotherapy and other treatments better than one who does not eat right.

It is critical that a patient consume fresh fruits and vegetables as the majority of the diet. Protein is also very important, so meat is not something to rule out unless one is a vegetarian. In this case, beans and other foods can still provide the necessary amino acids to produce the proteins the body needs.

One school of holisitic medicine teaches that fighting cancer with nutrition involves increasing the internal pH levels of the organs by eating more foods that are acidic (have a lower pH). There are several medical reports that indicate that cancer need acid to survive and grow. Yet, the body works in a sort of reverse manner concerning the acids and alkaline substances in foods. The acids in fresh fruits enter the blood and are converted to more alkaline substances that draw the excess acid out of the cells, thus choking off the cancer.

Modern medicine agrees that more fruits and vegetables are essential because of the number of nutrients they contain that the body is not as well equipped to absorb from dietary supplements. The number of antioxidants found in such foods work to restore normal cellular function and help to slow the spread of cancer if not prevent it outright.

What one eats is only a portion of the total picture, however. It is also important to maintain a healthy number of calories each day to provide the body with the energy it needs to fight off the illness and the effects of the cancer treatments. No more than 20 percent of these calories should come from refined sugars. This means that more complex carbohydrates are needed along with naturally occurring sugars such as those found in fruit.

One of the biggest problems many cancer patients face is the loss of appetite that often follows chemotherapy treatments or radiation treatments. Stomach upset, diarrhea, and constipation are also reasons for patients to not eat enough food to maintain them. It is imperative that caregivers urge the patient to eat several small meals each day and to make sure that healthy food choices are provided.

Fighting cancer with nutrition may not be a cure for the disease, but a healthy diet can increase one's energy levels, help to fight off additional infections, and make the prognosis improve drastically in almost all cases. There is a great deal of truth to the old saying, "You are what you eat."