As for the eating habits affect the risk of developing cancer?

There are more than other cancers linked to the type of power?

What foods are preferred and what avoided, to try to prevent the disease?

Finding your way in the selection of fruits and vegetables?

The likelihood of becoming ill depends on how much calorie intake, as well as the items you choose?

The mode of cooking affect the risk?

It is true that alcohol may promote cancer development?

There are other drinks that may have a protective role?

How does food affect the birth and development of cancer?

You can override the beneficial substances in foods and supplements with drugs?

As for the eating habits affect the risk of developing cancer?

A growing number of studies are demonstrating the importance of a healthy diet in preventing cancer. It is not easy to make precise calculations, but the American Institute for Cancer Research has estimated that poor eating habits are responsible for approximately three out of ten tumors.

In some cases this depends on the presence of substances in foods that promote the development of the disease:

- Nitrites and nitrates used for storage of meats, for example, facilitate the appearance of cancer of the stomach, so that in Italy the disease is most prevalent in regions where the consumption of these products is greater;

- Sometimes the food would not be harmful in itself, but may be contaminated by substances such as aflatoxins, freed from certain molds in corn or other grains and legumes badly preserved. Such contamination is more common in developing countries, where aflatoxins are responsible for a significant proportion of tumors of the liver;

- More generally, epidemiological studies have shown that a diet rich in fat and animal protein encourages the development of the disease, while the preference for foods high in fiber, vitamins and trace elements, such as whole grains, legumes and vegetables, seems to have a protective effect.

There is now ample evidence that a healthy diet should be taken from an early age, but it's never too late to change the menu and, according to some research, even people who were already diagnosed with cancer may benefit from a diet healthy.

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There are more than other cancers linked to the type of power?

The answer is yes: there are tumors more sensitive to the effects of food. This is confirmed by several large studies, mainly the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC), who investigated the health consequences of eating habits of Europeans, the EPIC study have helped many Italian scientists, supported by AIRC.

Among those who suffer the most in the quantity and quality of food of course there are tumors of the gastrointestinal tract, and in particular those of the esophagus, stomach and colorectal cancer: it is estimated that up to three quarters of these tumors could be prevented by eating better food.

Important is the choice of foods for cancer of the liver, the organ through which pass all the substances absorbed from the intestine, and therefore particularly vulnerable to any damage caused by carcinogens.

The local action of certain substances (such as the ethanol content in alcoholic beverages) may also promote the development of cancers of the mouth or throat.

However, more recent studies have shown that the effect of food on cancer risk is much larger: it affects the type of power of the state of inflammation that may predispose to all forms of cancer and hormonal balance, which may favor or impede the development of prostate cancer in men and breast, ovary and the inner surface of the uterus, the endometrium in women.

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What foods are preferred and what avoided, to try to prevent the disease?

A healthy diet, taking away even heart disease as well as cancer cells, required primarily to drastically reduce the intake of fat and animal protein, favoring instead the intake of foods rich in vitamins and fiber.

For this we must bring to the table at least five servings of fruits and vegetables a day, and encourage the choice of cereals, bread, pasta and rice and match those integrals always a bit 'of vegetables.

Diet of this type especially protects the colon and rectum, but extends its benefits to other organs. In fruits and vegetables, in addition to fiber, found in varying degrees from vitamins and other antioxidant components, such as vitamin C and vitamin E, folate, carotenoids, selenium and zinc, are able to neutralize Free radicals are harmful to the body.

The dishes that combine cereals and pulses, typical of the traditional cuisine of many people of the world, also allow you to meet the needs of calories and protein, limiting the intake of fats found in foods with animal proteins.

A place of honor among the legumes, the soybean deserves, which can be consumed in various forms, from bean flour, soy milk and tofu, fermented soy up known as miso, used to flavor soups Japanese. All these products contain isoflavones, substances that resemble estrogen, take their place on the cell receptors, but does not induce the same biological effects: that consume regularly from an early age reduces the risk of breast cancer in women and prostate cancer in humans.

From Oriental cuisine we should also learn to regularly consume the algae, which many experts attribute the low incidence of some cancers in Asian populations, especially Japanese.

Healthy flax seeds are also rich in omega-3, is good for preventing cancer and cardiovascular diseases, which are also rich in many types of fish such as sardines and salmon.

Other fish, less fat may be a viable alternative to meat, which should not be consumed more than two or three times a week.

Especially to avoid red meat (beef, pork and lamb) and those working in the industry, as well as those preserved in salt such as salami. Excessive intake of red meat threatens especially the intestine, but several studies show that increases the possibility of developing other cancers, such as the bladder.

To flavor the food you can reduce the amount of salt with spices like curry or ginger, which seem to have an anti-inflammatory effect. But anyone who fails to give the flavors of traditional Italian know who may have a protective role also in other plants, flavoring substances, typical of Mediterranean cuisine, such as mint, thyme, marjoram, oregano, basil, rosemary, and others that are in the parsley, coriander in, the fennel, chervil and aspect in addition to the chili pepper and cloves. They also recognized anticancer properties of garlic and onion, as the other plants of this family, and fungi, not only the Japanese but also our own, particularly Pleurotus ostreatus also called "eared".

As for dairy, two studies conducted at Harvard University, United States, have correlated excessive consumption of fat cheeses and dairy products in childhood with an increased risk of developing cancer of the prostate. There are preliminary indications that a regular consumption of probiotics contained in yogurt and fermented milk may help protect the gut.

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Finding your way in the selection of fruits and vegetables?

The first of these is the variety: assorted as possible the colors of fruits and vegetables, which express their vitamin content in the pigmented substances of different nature, is a simple way to ensure intake of all the most important nutrients.

A recent analysis of data from the EPIC study mentioned above shows that the risk of lung cancer may be lower among smokers who are taking many different types of fruit and vegetables than those who never changes the menu.

Among fruits, the main means of prevention are not only rich in vitamin C of oranges, grapes and especially the berries, jam packed with antioxidants that protect DNA from potentially carcinogenic mutations. Especially valuable is the role of anthocyanidins contained in these red berries, especially blueberries and strawberries, as recent studies also show in Italy with the support of AIRC, not only protect the gut, but in different degrees the throat, stomach , ovary and kidney.

The green leafy vegetables such as lettuce, chard and spinach, are rich in folate, which protects the DNA from potentially carcinogenic mutations.

The yellow-orange vegetables, like carrots and pumpkin, take color from carotenoids, which are also anti-oxidant.

Many studies have focused on the role of the tomato, the backbone of the Mediterranean diet in cancer prevention: the merit is probably lycopene, a substance that protects against cancer of the prostate. Unlike many other agents whose beneficial properties are lost during cooking, the highest concentrations of lycopene are obtained by heating the tomato in the presence of fatty molecules such as olive oil, just as you prepare the sauce.

But the most important family of vegetables to ward off cancer at the table is that of cabbage: eat at least five times a week, cabbage, cauliflower and Brussels sprouts halves the risk of bladder cancer, breast, lung, intestine and prostate cancer.

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The likelihood of becoming ill depends on how much calorie intake, as well as the items you choose?

Certainly. In addition to quality, has also greatly the amount of food taken daily. Many studies have concentrated on the relationship between cancer and obesity, so that the experts of the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) believe that excess weight, a result of an unbalanced diet and lack of physical activity, could depend on 25 to 30 percent of some of the most common cancers, such as colon and breast. The recent analysis of a group of Dutch researchers published in the European Journal of Cancer has estimated that if obesity and overweight in Europe disappear, the frequency of new cases of colon cancer would drop by 20 percent per year.

But the risk of being too fat is not just the gut: According to epidemiological studies, obese people are more likely than those with normal weight, get sick of the kidney and esophagus. The women, after menopause, have an increased risk of breast and inner surface of the uterus, the endometrium. Recent studies suggest that obesity could quadruple the risk of developing liver cancer and the patient's weight can match the size of prostate cancer and its aggressiveness. Finally, bonds have been reported with pancreatic cancer, ovarian, gall bladder.

Sometimes size does not affect only the risk of getting sick, but also on the disease itself. In contrast, a reduction in body weight by just 5-10 per cent and increased physical activity can produce positive effects.

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The mode of cooking affect the risk?

Yes, grilling, especially of meat produces carcinogens. It is best to cook food at lower temperatures, for example using steam or foil.

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It is true that alcohol may promote cancer development?

A recent analysis published in the British Medical Journal, also based on data from the EPIC study on a sample of about 100,000 residents of eight European countries showed that ten percent of cancer deaths among men and three per cent among women can be attributed to alcohol abuse.

The risk of alcohol consumption varies from tumor to tumor is greater for the shapes that affect the mouth, throat esophagus, but also promotes tumors of the liver and colon-rectum. In women, also appears to be responsible for five percent of cases of breast cancer.

In light of these data, therefore, alcohol consumption should be limited to maximum: only red wine, resveratrol content for its antioxidant, may have a protective effect, but only when taken in small doses (no more than one cup per meal for a day for men and women).

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There are other drinks that may have a protective role?

Juices, juices, smoothies and fruit and vegetables centrifuges, they are free of added sugars, may compensate at least in part to a low intake of plant foods in the diet.

In green tea, but not in black tea, and Japanese than in that of China, contains polyphenols called catechins from known anticancer properties, which appear to protect against skin cancer, colon, lung, breast and prostate cancer.

A cup of hot chocolate, then, contains five times more antioxidants than a cup of black tea and three times more than a cup of green tea, but when you choose must also take account of its high caloric and fat content of its and sugars.

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How does food affect the birth and development of cancer?

A healthy diet for example, you create excessive blood levels of insulin and other hormones such as growth hormone, which promote cell proliferation.

Some foods are also attributed anti-inflammatory action, which could intervene in the early stages of the genesis of many cancers.

Others, such as soybeans, contain natural substances that compete with sex hormones reduce the risk of tumors that depend on these substances, such as breast, inner surface of the uterus and prostate.

The beneficial effect of fruit and vegetables depends largely on the content of fiber and antioxidants in these foods. The fibers because it facilitates intestinal transit, reducing the time spent in the gut of any toxins, while antioxidants such as vitamins and trace elements, neutralize the so-called free radicals capable of damaging DNA and other molecules in the cell.

Other nutrients tested in the laboratory, have proved able to promote programmed cell death, cell proliferation slow or prevent the formation of new blood vessels.

Finally, some ingredients help the immune system to control the disease, while others favor the elimination of toxic substances.

All these mechanisms contribute to varying degrees, to keep at bay the formation of tumors.

You can override the beneficial substances in foods and supplements with drugs?

The demonstration of the preventive effect of fruits and vegetables against cancer has led many research groups to determine whether the same result could be obtained by administering vitamins and other antioxidants in the form of supplements.

The results of most of these studies have disappointed those who hoped to meet with a pill or a way l to unhealthy diets, not only the effect is not as beneficial, but in many cases proved to be counterproductive, increasing rather than decrease, the risk of developing certain cancers.

It is unclear why this occurs: it is possible that the beneficial effect in food is produced by the synergic more of the various substances, mixed in a particular proportion, than by the individual vitamin. It is also not likely to be negligible, the role of fiber and other elements also present only in traces.

In light of these observations, leading experts to focus on now invite fresh and varied diet, rather than acquisition of these products.