Page 150 - How to Be a Conscious Eater - Making Food Choices That Are Good for You

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YOUR DIET AND CANCER

or each of us, the chance of developing one or more types
of cancer throughout the span of our lifetime depends on
Fa complicated cocktail of factors. Genes play a role, but for
some cancers, genes are not nearly as influential as lifestyle
and environmental factors. The following lifestyle choices
deliver the biggest bang for your buck, probability-wise:

Don’t smoke.

Maintain a healthy weight. Aside from not smoking, this
is the single most helpful thing you can do to minimize
your risk of getting cancer. It’s protective for twelve dif-
ferent types of cancer. To get there, sustain the habits
that together do a body good—exercise and eat well.
Some of this is up to you and your willpower, yet the
feasibility of these habits is also heavily influenced by
our environments, meaning the extent to which we each
have access to healthy and affordable food choices, clean
air, safe outdoor space, and so on. Good news: These life-
style factors are the same ones that keep down your risk
for heart disease and diabetes. Three birds, one stone.

Use smart sun protection, from wearing sunglasses and
hats to applying sunscreen and seeking shade. Though
non-melanoma skin cancers—basal and squamous cell
carcinomas—are not tracked in cancer registries in the
same way most cancers are, together they make skin
cancer considered the most common type of cancer in
the United States.

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