Cancer is a disease in which abnormal cells grow uncontrollably in the body. It is a medical condition in which in which the old cells do not die, instead they form new and abnormal cells. These abnormal cells are called Cancer cells. They are abnormal because they do not perform any specific functions which other cells of the body are designated to perform. Our body gets rid of the cells which aren’t needed by a mechanism called Programmed cell death or apoptosis. These cancer cells evade this mechanism and continue to grow. They not only grow, but also influence surrounding cells and tissues and form a tumour.
To counterattack this whole process of cell degeneration, Vitamin E plays a vital role. Vitamin E protects the cells from the elements like free radicals which can pose serious threat to the cells.
Following are the roles of Vitamin E in fighting with cancer:
- Vitamin E promotes apoptosis in cancer cell. It forces the cancer cell to die.
- It reduces rate of cell division of cancer cells.
- It reactivates the death receptors of cancer cells so that our body’s immune system can influence these cell to self-destruct themselves.
- It blocks the growth of blood vessels which feed oxygen to the tumour.
- Vitamin E acts as an anti-oxidant, i.e. they interact with the free radicals and neutralise their process of cell degeneration.
We can get Vitamin E from a variety of food sources. The daily value for Vitamin E is 30 IU, which is circa 20mg.
We have listed below top food sources which are rich in Vitamin E :
Almond is a top source of Vitamin E. Vitamin E is present in the skin of almond. In 1 ounce of Almond, there are approximately 7.3mg of Vitamin E. You can include a handful of almonds as snack.
2. Wheat Germ
Germ is a part of whole grains. Thus whole grains, too, are an important source of Vitamin E. 1 ounce of wheat germ contains 4.5mg of Vitamin E.Include whole grains instead of refined grains in your lunch and dinner instead
100gms of spinach has 2mg of Vitamin E. You can add 1 bunch of spinach, which would be roughly 250-300gms, in your salad before you lunch or dinner. You can also make a spinach along with other vegetable and make a vegetable juice.
4. Sunflower seeds
1 tablespoon of sunflower seed has 2mg of Vitamin E. You can add sunflower seeds in smoothie and oatmeal as breakfast and evening snacks.
Avocado is another rich source of Vitamin E. It can be consumed as a fruit or can be added in salad as well. One avocado has 2.7mg of Vitamin E.
6. Palm and Olive oil
Both Palm oil and Olive oil are valuable sources of Vitamin E. 1 tablespoon has 2mg of Vitamin E. Apart from Vitamin E, they are healthy for your hear as well.
These are our top food sources with high Vitamin E content. There are tons of other anti-cancer foods which a cancer patient must take in order to kill the cancer cells and shrink the tumour. And Vitamin E is certainly an essential nutrient in dealing with cancer.Cancer is a dangerous disease and nutrition play a major role in uprooting it. Hence, make all the above food items an inseparable part of your daily diet in order to fight cancer.