Breast Health Basics

BY: Tara DelloIacono Thies

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. No matter how you look at it, creating a healthy balance in your meal plan can help you today and increase your long-term quality of life.

Let’s review the guidelines for a healthy diet:

Vegetables

How can I stress the tremendous benefits of eating vegetables? Eating 3-5 servings of vegetables a day can be challenging, but it’s one of the best things you can do for yourself. The research has proven again and again the cancer-fighting benefits of antioxidants, vitamins and minerals can be found in veggies. One serving is pretty easy to get—eating just a half a cup of broccoli, spinach or salad, in fact. Why not eat one whole cup and make it two servings? If you do that twice a day— voila, you’ve eaten four servings!

Fruits

Fruits are also jam-packed with antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals. Try to include 2-3 servings of fruit every day. Fruit is a great snack to take the edge off your appetite between meals. Large fruits count as two servings so if you have a whole banana or a grapefruit, you’ve just consumed two servings of fruits. A small orange or apple would be considered one serving. See, it’s easy to get enough fruit for the day!

Fiber

Dietary fiber can play a key role in disease prevention. Fiber can decrease you risk of cancer, heart disease and aid in weight control. The recommended daily amount of fiber is 20 -30 grams. I recommend aiming for the high end. Getting plenty of fiber can be challenging. Select whole grain foods with 2-5 grams of fiber per serving in addition to your daily fruits and vegetables and you’ll hit the mark on fiber!

Soy

Soy is getting a lot of press these days. Research continues to indicate that including moderate amounts of soy in your diet can be beneficial to heart health. Soy may also be beneficial to breast health. Talk with your health care practitioner about whether including soy in your meal plan is right for you.

Fat

By now, we’re aware that a diet low in fat reduces your risk of cancer, diabetes, and heart disease. Limiting your saturated fat intake by drinking skim milk, limiting red meat to three servings per week, and decreasing your use of butter and saturated oils are simple lifestyle changes that will become second nature over time. Moderate the amount of fat you add to food (in the form of butter, salad dressing, gravy, etc.) to about 4-6 teaspoons per day. Choosing healthier fats such as olive oil and canola oil will allow you to enjoy the decadent flavor of fat while still following a well-balanced healthy meal plan.

You are in control

There are so many things in life that we have no control over, yet we spend a lot of time thinking about them. The weather is a great example. We can’t change it, so why not focus our energy on things we can control. If you choose to drink, do so in moderation. If you smoke, ask you doctor about strategies to help you quit. You have more control over your diet, smoking, or drinking than you think. You may just need some tools to help you along the way!

A healthy diet can lower your risk of many types of cancer and chronic illnesses, including breast cancer. Diet is one important step towards disease prevention, but not the only step. Regular exercise, reducing the stress in your life, annual exams and monthly self-exams are also play an important role in breast cancer prevention.

For more information on breast cancer, visit our friends at The Breast Cancer Fund, www.breastcancerfund.org.