Healthy, varied meals help reduce risk of cancer

From cabbage soup for every meal to fasting for 12 hours or more, fad diets have waxed and waned in popularity over the decades, but none entered the zeitgeist quite like Atkins.

Created in 1972 by Dr Robert Atkins, the high-protein, low-carb diet gained popularity, with three million people in the UK trying the diet by 2003. Although Atkins said eating unlimited meat, eggs, cheese, fish and shellfish, while forgoing potatoes, cereals, pasta, rice and bread, would help with weight loss, many nutritionists warned against restricting starchy foods.

Today, a new generation of low-carb “ketogenic diets” have once again hit the headlines.

Aiming to send the body into a state of “ketosis”

(when the body burns fats instead of carbohydrates as its main fuel source), the

Keto, Dukan and Banting diets all recommend eating low-carb meals.

However, the NHS recommends avoiding restrictive diets, instead ensuring starchy foods make up just over a third of everything you eat, as part of a balanced diet.

What’s more, there are other benefits other than weight loss when it comes to eating varied, nutritious meals. A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association Oncology, found wholefood, plant-based diets can be more effective than ketogenic diets at reducing cancer risk and improving long-term health outcomes after cancer treatment.

Oncologist Neil Iyengar said: “While weight loss is one important strategy for reducing cancer risk, there are many other variables such as diet quality, fibre intake, and the bacterial composition in our gut. A plantbased diet is an effective strategy for addressing most of these variables in addition to weight loss.”