How to Be a Conscious Eater

The reason I’m reminding you about the importance of

sunscreen and exercise in a food book is to provide some addi-

tional context for the previous discussion on processed and

red meats and for the relative impact that overall food choices

have on your lifetime cancer risk. As for cancer-protective

foods, there’s a great resource from the American Institute for

Cancer Research and the World Cancer Research Fund called

the Interactive Cancer Risk Matrix (you can find it at wcrf.org). It

plots various diet, nutrition, and physical activity factors with

how much they lower or raise cancer risk. What jumps out

from that map—aside from the reinforcement around both red

and processed meat—are a few key findings related to what

and how we eat:

Breastfeeding and having been breastfed as a baby are

hugely beneficial. It lowers breast cancer risk for lac-

tating mothers and decreases cancer risk for children,

mainly because of the protective effects against being

overweight or obese.

Fiber is your friend! See “Fermented Foods and Fiber”

in Part 1 for a refresher. Specifically, eat plenty of whole

grains, legumes, fruits, and vegetables.

Too much alcohol, as well as fast food and the overall

Western diet, are hugely detrimental.

All in all, cancer risk is a complex probability potpourri.

Unfortunately, an estimated 38 percent of Americans will

develop cancer at some point in their lifetimes. However,

thanks to advances in anti-cancer therapeutics, the overall US

death rate caused by cancer has declined substantially since

the 1990s—as have the death rates for the four most com-

monly diagnosed types of cancer (excluding those basal cell

and squamous cell skin cancers), which are breast, colorectal,

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