How to Be a Conscious Eater

35

YOUR DIET AND CANCER

F

or each of us, the chance of developing one or more types

of cancer throughout the span of our lifetime depends on

a 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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