Every year cancer affects millions of people worldwide. Although the deadly disease doesn’t have a proper cause of origin, various reasons like poor diet, nutrition deficiency and ingestion of toxin-heavy foods can contribute to it. Bollywood actor Sonali Bendre, on July 4, revealed that she has been diagnosed with cancer. The actor, who is famous for her roles in films like Sarfarosh and Hum Saath Saath Hain is currently in New York for treatment.

Now while we pray for her speedy recovery, it is important to take care of ourselves as we never know when life can throw us a curveball. While many might argue that there’s nothing you can do to stop cancer, we believe that you can always do your bit. Start with these 10 foods that you can include in your everyday diet that might just help to keep cancer at bay.

Broccoli
This green veggie helps in fighting prostate, colon and bladder cancer. It is rich in fibre and contains sulforaphane, a particularly potent compound that boosts the body’s protective enzymes and flushes out cancer-causing chemicals.

Oranges
Oranges contain vitamin C and antioxidant, which are required for preventing cancer. Eating citrus-rich fruits can cut the risk of many other diseases like reducing cholesterol, weight loss and making your skin look younger. Note: While eating oranges, do not mix it with other foods so that your body can consume their benefits fully.

Green Tea
Green tea is full of antioxidants and helps prevent esophageal, lung, oral, liver, pancreatic and prostate cancer. It further contains polyphenols that help in cell replication and has anti-cancer properties.

Ginger
Did you know ginger can actually trick the cancer cells into killing themselves? Moreover, it blocks ovarian cancer cells from growing, limiting its ability to spread. It also helps in relieving nausea and motion sickness and must be included in your everyday diet.

Garlic
It has several antibacterial properties that can help ward off cancer in a number of ways and stop cancer cells from multiplying. It helps to kill the cancer cells for breast, colon, esophageal, and stomach cancers.

Blueberries
Like oranges, blueberries too are rich in antioxidants. They neutralize free radicals, which are unstable compounds that can damage cells and lead to cancer.

Apples
The statement “An apple a day keeps the doctor away” stands true even when it comes to cancer. This fruit has many disease-fighting benefits and helps in killing prostate and breast cancer cells.

Salmon
It is rich in omega-3 fatty acid and is rich in vitamins, proteins and selenium, all of which helps in preventing liver cancer. Furthermore, it decreases the risk of heart attack.

Lentils
Lentils help prevent bowel and breast cancer. They also help the body to produce enzymes that have anti-cancer benefits and helps regulate blood sugar levels.

What's better than a toasted bread slice for breakfast? It's quick-to-make and quite filling at the same time. There must have been times when you would have ended up eating a burnt toast, considering you forgot setting a timer in your toaster. But, did you know that there might be a health risk linked to burnt toast? In fact, The Food Standards Agency (FSA) in the UK had launched a campaign warning about cancer risks linked to eating burnt toast or any other foods that contained starch being cooked at high temperatures. Now, there is no scientific proof, but here's what the reason may be.
According to Dr. Preeti Jain, Senior Dietitian at Action Cancer Hospital, "It is highly recommended to not overdo vegetables while cooking or burn bread when put in toaster. The idea behind the same is to reduce the amount of compound acrylamide that is formed, which is a chemical that lives on food that contains starch, like breads and potatoes. It's yet to be scientifically proven that foods like these contain chemical that are linked to cancer. It's better to avoid cooking them at high temperatures as foods like these are not counted under the healthiest snacks available."

According to the FSA, some mouse studies identified that high level of acrylamide led to an increased risk of cancer. Acrylamide is the compound that makes bread and potatoes golden brown in colour when toasted, roasted or fried. This compound is formed from simple sugars like glucose, reacting with an amino acid known as asparagine, when these foods are cooked at high temperatures. Now, as these foods are cooked for longer period, they may turn golden to brown and eventually black. In the process, they produce higher levels of acrylamide, which may further increase the risk of cancer as per the FSA campaign.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), while the information on levels of acrylamide in food is incomplete, the magnitude of the cancer risk posed by the compound hasn't been quantified; however, several principles must be applied in order to minimize whatever risk exists, one of them being foods shouldn't be cooked excessively, that is for too long or at high temperature.

So, even if it hasn't been proved that acrylamide may be linked to cancer, it does not mean that is isn't unhealthy for you. Always prefer eating golden brown toast, not only to enjoy health but also the taste; after all who'd like the taste of a burnt toast?

Benefits of using boiled water instead of normal water are known and understood by everyone. But, just like all other processes, boiling water also has some disadvantages. Each time you boil water, its components do a reverse which makes it unhealthy for consumption. Frequently boiling water increases the amount of arsenic, nitrite and fluoride in it, and this can harm your health.

In addition to this, the vapours produced by boiling water has a tendency to re-enter the vessel, which can be a cause of serious ailments.

Here is some more detail on how boiling water over and over makes it unsuitable for your health.

Toxic Nitrite

Boiling of water exposes nitrite, which is one of its components. However, re-boiling water transforms nitrite into a toxin. High temperature turns nitrite into nitrosamine, which can cause fatal cancers.

Arsenic Intoxication

When water is boiled multiple times, the amount of arsenic in it increases disastrously. Consumption of this water puts you at risk of fatal conditions such as cancer, heart attack, several mental conditions and even infertility. People who consume arsenic polluted water in excess or for many years can experience skin damage or develop problems with their circulatory system.

Exposure to Fluoride
Repeatedly boiled water has an unhealthy amount of fluoride in it. Consumption of fluoride over a prolonged period increases the likelihood of bone fractures in adults and can result in bone pain and tenderness. For children aged 8 years or younger, exposure to fluoride in excess can increase a risk of developing of pits in tooth enamel along with other cosmetic effects on teeth.

Prostate cancer which develops in the male reproductive gland poses no major threat to life if diagnosed and intervened at early stage, say health experts.

"If detected and intervened at early stage, an individual can comfortably live for 10-20 years. Prostate cancer (PCa) does not lead to death," P.N Dogra of the AIIMS, New Delhi told IANS.

"There is no major reason to worry if diagnosed with PCa. A person, even if diagnosed with the same, can will have a normal death and not out of cancer," Dogra, who heads Urology Department of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), said.

"Certain cancers are silent but it should also be noticed that not all cancers are life taking one. Normal life can be comfortably led even if diagnosed with PCa," Anup Kumar, Head of Department of Urology and Renal Transplant at Safdarjung Hospital, New Delhi, said.

The experts also advised for health check-ups for men above 50, especially for those whose family members have been diagnosed with the cancer.

"We do not recommend mass screening for cancer. Those who are having symptoms related to urination should first undergo blood test and finger examination which is free in government hospitals. Following the results of the test, we recommend PSA (prostate specific antigen) test which is also done without any cost at government hospitals," Kumar maintained.
"The main symptom of PCa is associated with urination. One might face problem while urinating, can feel a burning sensation or might have to urinate multiple times at night. If any such symptoms persist, one should immediately go for check-up," Kumar suggested.

Cancer of the prostate is the second most frequently diagnosed cancer among men in the national capital accounting for about 6.78 per cent of all malignancies, according to Delhi Cancer Registry.

According to a study by International Agency for Research on Cancer, the world-wide prostate cancer burden is expected to grow to 1.7 million new cases and 4,99,000 new deaths by 2030.

According to the health experts, heredity, gene and lifestyle factors play a major role in development of prostate cancer.

"Prostate cancer, which is found only in men, mostly occurs after the age of 50. If in a family someone is diagnosed with PCa, then there is a high chance that the disease is carried forward by the offsprings. It is also noticed that fire fighters are more prone to get the disease," Dogra pointed out.

Obesity, lack of exercise and too much consumption of red meat may lead to an increase in cancer patients, the experts noted.

The experts also added that though cancer cannot be stopped, it can be prevented to some extent with adoption of healthy lifestyle routine.

"For low risk cancers, we prefer to keep under observation and we do not opt for treatment while for high risk cancers we advocate treatment considering the lifespan of patients -- when at least 10-15 years of lifespan is left. If lifespan is less, we opt for alternative therapy and don't apply any aggressive form of treatment," Dogra added.

For awareness, the experts added that they are talking with the health ministry to revive the programmes which were earlier introduced.

"PSA test should be made compulsory for everyone with symptoms. The government-run hospitals like Ram Manohar Lohia, Safdarjung and AIIMS have all the facilities available for treatment," Kumar said.

"PSA test should be made accessible in remote areas as well," Kumar stressed.

It is also promising to note that new drugs are becoming available to treat metastatic prostate cancer, the experts suggested.

"Presently, research is going to develop a vaccines to prevent prostate cancer," Dogra said.

Close to 9 million people across the globe lost battle to cancer in the year 2015. Experts suspect this number to increase over time with no respite in the increasing incident of cancer cases. Cancer is the second leading cause of mortality across the globe. It is estimated that one in every 6 deaths globally is caused by the debilitating disease. Cancer is a lifestyle disease with its precise cause still under investigation, however experts point at a host of lifestyle factors that sum to causing this disease.In most cases, cancer goes undiagnosed for long; experts therefore explain timely detection and cancer prevention as the biggest tools in the global fight against cancer. Lack of easy availability of drugs and latest treatment has been another hurdle. Cancer research remains highly underfunded. Any breakthrough or novel research initiated toward providing better treatment to cancer patients is a welcome move. A team of Australian researchers have done just about that. Experts at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre in Melbourne, Australia began a clinical trial of injecting radiotherapy to combat aggressive breast cancer.

In a novel experiment, experts will aim at combining radiation with immunotherapy with an attempt to "reawaken" the immune system to fight the disease. Cancer is a disease wherein cancerous cells begin to form and multiply at a rapid pace outnumbering and killing the healthy cells in the body. It is much like an autoimmune disease where a person's own mechanism starts acting up against it.

"We think that cancer outwits the immune system. Once you develop cancer, your immune system has failed. It can't see the cancer any more, and it also actively suppresses the immune system."

The team of Australian experts aims to target activation of the otherwise unresponsive, dying immune system. Women suffering from the most aggressive types of breast cancer will undergo treatment. This is the first time when gene therapy is been teamed with immunotherapy.

"The trial was approved after promising studies on animals where radiation was used to prepare the immune system to fight cancer," Sherene Loi, head of translational breast cancer research at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre in Melbourne, said.

Breast cancer is the biggest killer of young and middle-aged Australian women. Cancer Australia estimated that 17,586 women would be diagnosed with breast cancer in Australia in 2017, accounting for 13 percent of all new cancers in the country. Primary cancer in the breast is usually curable, but if it comes back it is "incurable", Loi was quoted as saying.