A Guide to Preventing Cancer with a Healthy Diet

The Spanish Association Against Cancer, in collaboration with FuturLife21, publishes the second edition of the healthy eating guide with special recipes for the summer.

Healthy eating EFE/Kai Försterling

The guide to preventing cancer in summer, created by the Spanish Association Against Cancer in collaboration with nutritionists Futurlife21, aims to promote healthy habits during this time. Its goal is not only to encourage people to watch their diet, but also to prevent numerous diseases such as cancer.

Futurlife21 is staffed by two biochemists who are experts in clinical nutrition and public health, who actively participated and contributed their knowledge to the guide. Various companies from the food sector also participate.

This project is part of the Everyone Against Cancer initiative, which aims to exceed 70% cancer survival rate by 2030. Through this idea, the association encourages the creation of a movement that unites the entire population, organizations, companies, media and public administrations. to be able to reverse the number of diseases.

Alarming data

According to the Spanish Association Against Cancer, obesity is a factor closely associated with the development of up to 12 types of tumors.

Data from the World Health Organization (WHO) shows that one in eight people worldwide are obese. According to WHO, the main factors behind this problem are poor nutrition and lack of prevention.

Thus, adopting healthy habits and an active lifestyle leads to the prevention of various types of tumors. In fact, according to the European Code Against Cancer (ECCC), anyone who leads an active and healthy lifestyle is 18% less likely to develop the disease.

CEEC also notes that diet is directly linked to the occurrence and development of various types of tumors, such as colon or breast cancer.

Given these figures, the Spanish Cancer Association aims to raise awareness of the importance of developing healthy habits to prevent the disease, with particular attention to the summer months, a time when people become accustomed to overeating and excesses due to holidays.

Very complete guide

A guide released by the association outlines various habits you can adopt during the summer to help prevent cancer.

It features a range of ideas for healthy and nutritious summer meals, keys to self-care, debunking some myths and four recipes with all the steps and ingredients to make them.

Some tips for caring for yourself during these months and preventing cancer according to the guide:

• Have mouth-watering ideas for delicious, easy and fresh dishes.
• Eat healthy most of the time because the better you eat, the less anxiety you will have about eating unhealthy.
• Move. Movement is always healthy and can help us prevent many diseases.
• Be forward-thinking. Bring healthy snacks with you if you’re hungry between meals.
• Drinking water. Quench your thirst with drinking water and avoid sweetened or sweetened soft drinks and alcoholic drinks.

Myths about summer food

In addition to a number of keys, the guide also has a section that debunks food myths that always return in the summer season:

• Consumption of extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) and healthy fats leads to obesity: Recent research shows that including healthy fats in a nutritious and natural diet is beneficial. In addition, consuming it and maintaining balanced levels of omega-3 and omega-6 is important in preventing the development of diseases such as cancer.
• Eating light foods or foods with sweeteners is better than eating them with sugar: according to the World Health Organization (WHO), taking sweeteners does not help reeducate our taste. So get used to the natural taste of foods like fruits, which are sweet and protect us from certain types of cancer such as colon cancer.
• The most important thing is calories. For prevention, what matters is what we choose, not the calories themselves.