STOCK UP ON TOMATOES AND TURMERIC

Fruit and vegetables:

We’ve all heard it a thousand times before, but it can’t be stressed enough that eating plenty of fresh foods is proven to reduce the risk of certain cancers, including mouth, throat, stomach and lung. The antioxidants they contain help reduce the impact of free radicals, the damaging molecules linked to cancer.

Eating ten portions of different fruit and veg a day is associated with a 13 per cent reduction in cancer risk, according to a study from Imperial College London published in February.

A particularly good choice is beetroot. Its rich, purple colour comes from powerful antioxidants called anthocyanins.

And include tomatoes — the deeper red the tomato, the more lycopene it generally contains. This antioxidant is thought to help reduce the incidence of many cancers, including prostate. Lycopene levels intensify even more when the tomatoes are cooked, and they can also become far more appetising and easier to digest this way. Fibre: This is particularly important in preventing cancer of the digestive system, including bowel cancer.

Fibre bulks up your stools, making them quicker and easier to pass, reducing the number of toxins in the body, which can cause cell changes. You need both soluble fibre, which is broken down in the body and found in fruits, vegetables, pulses and grains, and insoluble fibre, which passes through the body virtually unchanged, and is found in wholegrains.

We need around 18g of fibre a day — to put that into perspective, a slice of wholegrain bread provides around 2g, a bowl of muesli around 4.5g, and a banana, 4.2g. Turmeric:

Recent studies have found lower cancer rates in countries where people eat lots of turmeric over long periods — it’s thought that the active ingredient, curcumin, may reduce the cell changes that increase cancer risk, and that may even kill cancer cells. Curcumin is fat soluble so is better absorbed by the body when it’s eaten as part of a meal, rather than a supplement.

So it’s the perfect excuse to enjoy a delicious curry spiced with turmeric.