Anti-Inflammatory Diets and Cancer

Research shows that chronic inflammation in your body can damage cells and increase your risk of cancer. Learn how eating certain foods might help lower your risk of cancer by decreasing this inflammation.

What is inflammation and how does it relate to cancer?

Inflammation is how your body reacts to injury or infection. Your immune system sends cells to heal an area and they release substances that cause redness, swelling, heat, or pain. Inflammation is usually temporary (acute) and helps the body heal.

Inflammation can also happen for other reasons. For example, when some foods, like added sugar and processed meat, are eaten frequently, inflammation can occur.  When inflammation continues for a long time (becomes chronic), it can damage healthy cells. This ongoing damage can increase your risk of cancer.

How can an anti-inflammatory diet decrease my cancer risk?

Research shows that following an anti-inflammatory diet helps prevent chronic inflammation. These diets not only avoid foods that cause inflammation but are also high in foods that can help reduce inflammation. This can help protect your cells from damage that can lead to cancer.

These diets might decrease your risk of some cancers, like colorectal, breast, prostate, and lung cancers. They might also decrease the chance that you will get stomach, esophageal, and oral cancers.

These anti-inflammatory diets can also decrease your risk of other health problems, like heart disease.

Eating an anti-inflammatory diet might also improve health and survival for people who have already been diagnosed with cancer.

Anti-inflammatory diets

There are several types of anti-inflammatory diets. While the Mediterranean diet is the most well-known, others include the DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) and Nordic diets. These diets are also consistent with the American Cancer Society Guideline for Diet and Physical Activity for Cancer Prevention.

They include:

• Plenty of fruits and vegetables in a variety of colors. Each color has different anti-inflammatory compounds. They can be fresh, frozen, canned, or dried.
• More whole grains than refined grains. Whole grains like brown rice, barley, quinoa, oats, corn, and millet contain anti-inflammatory compounds that are lost during processing (refining).
• Healthy fats found in nuts, seeds, and fatty fish instead of saturated and trans fats. Healthy fats are also found in olive, canola, corn, soybean, and sunflower oils.
• Lean protein sources like fish, poultry, or plant-based proteins such as beans, peas, lentils, nuts, soy, and mushrooms.
• Low-fat dairy like yogurt and kefir.
• Using spices and herbs for flavoring instead of salt.

These diets avoid:

• Foods that are high in added sugar.
• Ultra-processed foods, including some packaged foods and meats.
• Red meats and other foods that are high in saturated fats.

Tips on eating an anti-inflammatory diet

Changing to an anti-inflammatory diet doesn’t have to happen all at once. Each time you choose to eat foods that are anti-inflammatory, you can help reduce your risk of cancer and other health problems like heart disease.