6 cancer-fighting superfoods

To reduce your risk of cancer, look no further than your fridge.


Aim for five to nine daily servings of all kinds of fruits and vegetables—especially these six superstars.

1. Broccoli

All cruciferous veggies (think cauliflower, cabbage, kale) contain cancer-fighting properties, but broccoli is the only one with a sizable amount of sulforaphane, a particularly potent compound that boosts the body's protective enzymes and flushes out cancer-causing chemicals.

Helps fight: breast, liver, lung, prostate, skin, stomach, and bladder cancers

2. Berries

All berries are packed with cancer-fighting phytonutrients. But black raspberries, in particular, contain very high concentrations of phytochemicals called anthocyanins, which slow down the growth of premalignant cells and keep new blood vessels from forming (and potentially feeding a cancerous tumor).

Helps fight: colon, esophageal, oral, and skin cancers

3. Tomatoes

This juicy fruit is the best dietary source of lycopene, a carotenoid that gives tomatoes their red hue. Lycopene was found to stop endometrial cancer cell growth in a study in Nutrition and Cancer. Endometrial cancer causes nearly 8,000 deaths a year.

Helps fight: endometrial, lung, prostate, and stomach cancers



4. Walnuts

Their phytosterols (cholesterol-like molecules found in plants) have been shown to block estrogen receptors in breast cancer cells, possibly slowing the cells' growth.

Helps fight: breast and prostate cancers

5. Garlic

Phytochemicals in garlic have been found to halt the formation of nitrosamines, carcinogens formed in the stomach (and in the intestines, in certain conditions) when you consume nitrates, a common food preservative. Women with the highest amounts of garlic in their diets had a 50 percent lower risk of certain colon cancers than women who ate the least.

Helps fight: breast, colon, esophageal, and stomach cancers

6. Beans

A black and navy beans significantly reduced colon cancer incidence in rats, in part because a diet rich in the legumes increased levels of the fatty acid butyrate, which in high concentrations has protective effects against cancer growth. Another study, dried beans particularly effective in preventing breast cancer in rats.

Helps fight: breast and colon cancers


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How about our vegetables? Any cancer-fighter? At one time our research on nature products was very active. What are the outcome? retired poor professors? More research grants and continuity needed in research institution and universities. Malaysia very fast developping country not just infrastructures but should be intelectual products too.