Foods that help fight disease

It's an undisputed fact that what we eat can have an effect on our chances of falling prey to ill health and disease. But which foods and what illnesses? Is it worth cutting back on the chips and chocolate (and filling up on cabbage and brown rice) on the off-chance of adding a year or two to our life?

The truth is that we still don't know a lot about exactly which dietary patterns are best for preventing a premature slide into ill health. But scientists are discovering more by the day, and much of what they are uncovering would be foolish to ignore.

For example, a joint report published by the World Cancer Research Fund and the American Institute for Cancer Research estimates that the appropriate healthy diet combined with physical activity and control over weight gain can reduce cancer incidence by 30-40 per cent.

According to the British Heart Foundation premature death (below the age of 65) from coronary heart disease is also largely preventable through changes in diet and lifestyle. Although the prevalence of the disease is falling, it still kills more than 250,000 people in Britain every year.

But heart disease and cancer are just the tip of the iceberg. American research has recently shown that improving your diet, eating more fruit and vegetables and lowering your salt intake will result in a fall in the blood pressure of people with hypertension in as little as two weeks.

Diet is also important in preventing age-related eye conditions, in particular cataracts. Around 200,000 people in Britain undergo cataract surgery each year, costing the NHS a minimum of £500 a time.

Dr Sarah Schenker, of the British Nutrition Foundation, says that the main problem with today's menus is the lack of fruits, vegetables and whole grains. These foods contain crucial phytochemicals and antioxidants to snuff out the rogue freeradical molecules thought to be behind so many of the ailments that affect us as we age.

Though eating up your greens will undoubtedly help prevent everything-from diabetes to osteoporosis, there's no point in making yourself miserable by following a dietary regime that you genuinely can't stomach. "It's much more important to try to get five portions of fruit and vegetables a day than it is to force yourself to eat cabbage just because you've read it's the ultimate superfood," say Dr Schenker.

The more enlightened nutritional view acknowledges that food is for enjoyment as well as for protection against disease. So, eating a diet that's healthy but which you hate is not as good for you as it could be because you end up under stress and unhappy - which, in itself, increases the risk of disease.

Even better, there's increasing evidence that a number of the foods which killjoy nutritionists used to say we shouldn't eat aren't actually that bad after all. For example, there's very little evidence that coffee is the baddie it's so often portrayed to be, and a little red meat in your diet can actually be very beneficial, as long as it is lean.