Eat a Variety of Healthy Foods

Step 3: Eat a variety of healthy foods.

Though making healthy selections at the grocery store and at mealtime can't guarantee you won't get cancer, it can help reduce your risk. Research suggests that about 30 percent of cancers are related to issues of nutrition, including obesity.

The American Cancer Society recommends that you:

• Choose most foods you eat from plant sources. Eat five or more servings of fruits and vegetables each day. Also eat other foods from plant sources, such as grains and beans, several times a day. Plant foods contain dozens of minerals as well as fiber and other beneficial substances scientists are just discovering. Fruits, vegetables and whole grains are excellent food choices that may reduce your risk of various cancers. And green and dark yellow vegetables, beans, soybean products and cruciferous vegetables — such as broccoli, brussels sprouts and cabbage — may help reduce your risk of colon and stomach cancers.
  
  
• Limit fat. Eat lighter and leaner by choosing fewer high-fat foods, particularly those from animal sources. High-fat diets may increase the risk of cancer of the prostate, colon, rectum and uterus.
  
  
• Don't drink alcohol. If you drink, do so in moderation. Your risk of cancer increases with the amount of alcohol you drink and the length of time you've been drinking regularly. Even a moderate amount of drinking may increase your risk. That's true particularly if you smoke. The impact of alcohol and tobacco on your risk level may be even greater when they're used together, significantly increasing your risk of cancers of the mouth, esophagus and larynx. Some studies also suggest that alcohol use could put you at greater risk of breast cancer.

If you're a man, drink no more than two alcoholic drinks a day. If you're a woman, drink one or fewer. Pregnant women shouldn't drink alcohol at all. Twelve ounces of regular beer counts as one drink or one alcohol serving. So does 5 ounces of wine or 1.5 ounces of 80-proof distilled spirits. Each of these contains about 14 grams of alcohol—about half an ounce.

Learn more about the benefits of organic food.