WE SHOULD ALL EAT FRUIT AND VEG

fruit and veg WE SHOULD ALL EAT MORE

TORAL SHAH IS A NUTRITIONAL SCIENTIST AND A BREAST CANCER SURVIVOR. SHE IS PASSIONATE ABOUT SPREADING THE WORD ON HEALTHY EATING AND THE IMPACT ON CANCER

STRONG: Exercise helped Toral feel well again

Ever since I was a child I have been interested in health and science. I went to medical school, but watching my mother have chemotherapy for breast cancer made me realise that a career as an oncologist was not for me.

I watched Mum and my aunt fight the disease and side effects of treatment and I knew I wanted to prevent others going through the same thing. Understanding how cancer grows became important so I switched from medicine to studying cell biology.

It was while I was doing my master’s in nutritional medicine that I found a lump in my own breast. It was an incredible shock. It made no sense to me. I knew that I might have to deal with breast cancer at some point in my life but I didn’t think I would be quite so young. I was just 29, had a healthy lifestyle and was training for a triathlon. It felt like my world was falling down around me.

I had an incredible trainer who helped with the mental and physical effects of breast cancer and encouraged me to feel normal again. I finished my master’s and completed the London triathlon Olympic distance.

The ability to exercise and complete physical challenges helped me learn to love my body once more. It made me feel strong and was an important way of coping. If I’m honest I also felt inspired watching all the fit men running around. I wanted to feel attractive again!

Breast cancer has changed my attitude to life. It has made me more confident to try new experiences. It pushed me to try things that I always wanted, including doing a ski season, travelling by myself, learning to surf and kite surf and standing up for what I believe in. I changed my life to ensure I had time to do the things that I loved, such as seeing the world and supporting marginalised communities with their health.

I started my business, The Urban Kitchen, in 2004 to support people optimising their health and preventing disease. I saw that how and what we ate could make a huge understand why traditional medicine didn’t discuss this more. Having cancer or recurrence is a bit of a lottery, but optimising a healthy diet, exercise, rest and sleep can help.

I am not talking fad diets. According to the World Health Organization, we know that at least a third of cancers could be prevented with diet and lifestyle changes. In fact, diet is second only to tobacco as a preventable cause of cancer.

My master’s thesis was on how nutrition and lifestyle can prevent a recurrence – a subject that has always interested me. I have had cancer patients who felt anxious about their diet come to me for support as they had been so confused by information they had got from the internet.

The more that we can educate the public and health professionals, the more we can share the pool of our resources difference to our health and I couldn’t

and knowledge. So my next step is putting together a PhD proposal, looking at the impact of stress, diet and lifestyle on oestrogen-dependent breast cancer.

Anecdotally, many women diagnosed with breast cancer have had some large stress or trauma in the year or two preceding their diagnosis. Now that I understand how the stress cycle intersects with the oestrogen detoxification cycle, I want to explore how these might be linked to hormone-dependent breast cancer and how we can help women reduce their risk.

TORAL’S GOLDEN FOOD RULES

Eat the rainbow... with a wide variety of seasonal vegetables and fruit. Fill half your plate with these. Eat a diverse mix of plant-based and fibre-rich foods... to optimise your gut and immune health. Good immune health can support cancer prevention by catching cancer cells as they start to grow out of control. Eat fruit and vegetables... fresh if you can but frozen and tinned can be just as nutritious. Eat seasonally... to make it cheaper. Bulk buy and cook if possible as this saves time and will mean that you have something healthy and tasty to eat when tired or stressed.