RECIPE: Cancer Fighting Salad

A Cancer Fighting Salad a Day Kicks Cancer Far Far Away

If you or someone you know is battling cancer, you may want to make this recipe for Cancer-Fighting Salad your new daily dinner (or lunch). This easy recipe contains the top foods that have been scientifically shown to protect against cancer, stopping cancer growth in its tracks and reversing its progress. Combined with the easy-to make sweet and spicy Superfood Sauce salad dressing, the Cancer-Fighting Salad recipe I’m sharing here may just be the natural medicine you need to kick cancer to the curb.

The Super Six Cancer Fighting Salad Ingredients

1. Spinach
2. Kale
3. Purple cabbage
4. Green onions
5. Berries
6. Walnuts

Why Science Says These Six are Superstar Cancer Fighters

1. Spinach: Science says that spinach may be the best green to base your cancer-fighting salad on. A 2009 published in the journal Food Chemistry compared the ability of five greens to suppress cancer cell growth. When Boston lettuce, radicchio, endive, romaine lettuce, and spinach were put to the test, spinach earned the top honors for its ability to suppress cancer of the brain, breast, kidney, lungs, prostate, pancreas, and stomach.
   
   
2. Kale: Kale, along with our next super six ingredient—purple cabbage—belongs to the cruciferous vegetable family well known for their wide array of health-promoting and disease-fighting benefits. Of all the veggies pitted against various human cancers in the Food Chemistry study, cruciferous and allium veggies showed the greatest ability to stop cancer growth in its tracks.
   
   “The extracts from cruciferous vegetables as well as those from vegetables of the genus Allium inhibited the proliferation of all tested cancer cell lines…”
   
   
3. Purple cabbage: Purple cabbage is our third cancer-fighting rockstar. For starters, cabbage is another member of the cruciferous veggie family, one of the top two groups of vegetables for stopping cancer growth in the the study. After testing 34 vegetables against eight types of human cancer the researchers concluded, “…the inclusion of cruciferous and Allium vegetables in the diet is essential for effective dietary-based chemopreventive [cancer-preventing] strategies.” Purple cabbage also receives the top award for antioxidant bang for your buck according to nutrition expert Dr. Michael Greger, MD. In his bestselling book How Not to Die, Dr. Greger writes,
   
   “…the gold for most antioxidants per dollar—according to a USDA database of common foods—goes to purple cabbage.”
   
   Antioxidants are known for their ability to protect cells from damage caused by free radicals which may lead to the development of cancer. These nutrients, found in abundance in many plant foods, may also play a role in reversing the course of cancer once it’s developed. In a paper reviewing the current research published in the journal Integrative Cancer Therapies, Carmia Borek, PhD, summarizes the research writing,
   
   “…experimental studies show that antioxidant vitamins and some phytochemicals selectively induce apoptosis in cancer cells but not in normal cells and prevent angiogenesis and metastatic spread, suggesting a potential role for antioxidants as adjuvants in cancer therapy.”
   
   
4. Berries: Speaking of antioxidants, among fruits, berries are the rockstars. According to Dr. Greger of NutritionFacts.org,
   
   “As a group, they average nearly ten times more antioxidants than other fruits and vegetables (and exceed fifty times more than animal-based foods).”
   
   While Dr. Greger insists that the healthiest berry is, “the one you’ll eat most often,” if you really want to maximize the health benefits in your breakfast bowl or in your Cancer Fighting Salad, you may want to choose blackberries. Thanks to a study, published in Nutrition Journal, that compared the antioxidant content of more than 100 different berries and berry products, we now know exactly how the various berries stack up. For comparison sake, apples and bananas (America’s most-consumed fruits) have 60 and 40 units of antioxidant power. Mangos have about 110 units per fruit. But check out the antioxidant score for common berries: strawberries boast 310 units per cup, raspberries have 350, and blueberries have about 380. But no berry widely available on the market comes close to touching blackberries with a whopping 650 antioxidant units per cup.
   
   Numerous studies have found links between berry consumption and protection against cancer and cancer reversal. In one study eleven common fruits were tested on cancer cells in a petri dish. The results revealed that berries suppressed cancer cell growth more than the other fruits tested. But could berries work in humans? In one study fourteen patients with colorectal cancer were treated with black raspberries daily for nine months. After the nine months of berries their polyps were half the amount of what they were before.
   
   A review of the research on the cancer-fighting abilities of berries published in the journal Antioxidants summarizes the current evidence showing why berries are good cancer medicine:
   
   “With regards to cancer, studies have reported beneficial effects of berries or their constituents including attenuation of inflammation, inhibition of angiogenesis, protection from DNA damage, as well as effects on apoptosis or proliferation rates of malignant cells. Berries extend effects on the proliferation rates of both premalignant and malignant cells. “
   
   
5. Green onions: Green onions belong to the allium family of vegetables which are known as the rock stars of dietary cancer defence. In the 2009 Food Chemistry study, green onions were among the five veggies that “abolished” cancer growth completely (cauliflower, brussels sprouts, leeks, and garlic were the other four).
   
   
6. Walnuts: Not only do nuts add a satisfying crunch to your salad, but they also contain a healthy amount of fat which helps you body absorb the fat-soluble vitamins contained in the other veggies. Besides that, nuts have been shown to have numerous health and disease-fighting benefits. But while any nut may be beneficial to your health, walnuts are the cancer-fighting rockstars of this food group. A 2009 study published in the journal Food Science and Technology examined 9 types of tree nuts and peanuts commonly available in the U.S. comparing their total phenolic and flavonoid contents, antioxidant content, and their relative abilities to suppress cancer growth. Walnuts came out on top for all three measures. Among the nuts tested, walnuts had the highest phenolic and flavonoid content, the highest levels of antioxidants, and the greatest ability to suppress cancer cell growth in vitro (along with pecans).

Supercharge Your Salad With Superfood Sauce Dressing

If you want to go all the way in with your Cancer-Fighting Salad, add some Superfood Sauce dressing on top. This simple salad dressing contains a whopping dose of superfoods that science has shown are the best of the best for preventing and reversing cancer growth. Many of the ingredients in the dressing are the same ingredients we used to make the salad, with a couple additions to give your salad some extra medicinal zing. What’s great about this dressing is that it will last for at least a couple weeks in the fridge, so you can use it to top your daily salads, veggies, baked potato, or pasta, or as natural cancer-fighting medicine to take by the spoonful. Here’s what you’ll need:

Superfood Sauce Salad Dressing Ingredients

• 1 cup blackberries
• 1 cup walnuts
• 1 cup kale, packed
• 12 cloves garlic*
• 4 large green onions*
• 1 tbsp fresh dill packed (or another fresh herb of your choice)
• 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
• 1 lemon
  * = one of the 5 veggies that abolished cancer growth completely in the Food Chemistry study.

Making Superfood Sauce Salad Dressing

To make the Superfood Sauce salad dressing, follow these four simple steps:

1. Rinse your blackberries, kale, green onions, and fresh herbs to remove any debris.
2. Chop the very bottom roots off your green onions and remove any tough stems from the kale.
3. Squeeze the juice of one lemon in a blender and add all other ingredients.
4. Blend on high until well incorporated.

It’s worth noting that blackberries contain a large amount of small seeds that may be more noticeable compared to other berries. The crunchiness of the berry seeds may bother some, and if so you are welcome to use a strainer to remove the seeds from the rest of the sauce. However, it is likely that at least some of the medicinal value of these berries is derived from the seeds themselves. Personally, I don’t mind a little blackberry seeds crunch and it’s definitely worth the nutritional benefits to me, so I leave them in.

If you want to use nutrition to heal cancer naturally, why not make Cancer Fighting Salad a daily feature on your menu. Here’s a few tips for making your own daily salad that stops cancer in its tracks and helps you heal naturally with nutrition:

• Feel free to swap the Super Six ingredients here for other cancer-fighting rockstars from the cruciferous and allium veggie families. Green cabbage, sliced or diced red onion, shredded raw garlic, and chopped raw broccoli or cauliflower would make excellent substitutes for their cancer-fighting abilities.
• The same sort of swaps can be made with the dressing.
• Try strawberries or raspberries instead of blackberries for a less seedy dressing.
• Use less garlic in the dressing if you are sensitive to this pungent bulb. You are also welcome to use more if you dare. 12 cloves makes a very garlicky dressing that I believe packs a whopping medicinal punch to maximize the healing power of your meal.
• Flax seeds are also worthy of mentioning as cancer-fighting super-food. Ground flax seeds could be sprinkled on top of your salad or add a tablespoon to your dressing (plus a couple tablespoons of water because of its thickening effect).

May this Cancer Fighting Salad and Superfood Sauce salad dressing nourish your body with the natural medicine of whole plant foods to banish cancer for good, restore health and balance, and protect you against disease one delicious bite at a time. 🍓🎗️💜

Cancer is the second leading cause of preventable death in the United States after heart disease. According to the American Cancer Society, in 2019 more than 1.7 million Americans were diagnosed with cancer and 606,880 Americans died of cancer. This recipe is dedicated to a family friend currently battling colon cancer. I recently published an article about healing colon cancer with diet, but here I provide an easy recipe to help you do just that. This article was also inspired by a passage in Dr.Michael Greger’s book How Not To Diet where he discusses the key ingredients to making a cancer-fighting salad.

Sources:
1. Antioxidants,"Protective Role of Dietary Berries in Cancer." 2016.
2. Food Chemistry, "Antiproliferative and antioxidant activities of common vegetables: A comparative study." 2009.
3. Food Science and Technology, "Antioxidant and antiproliferative activities of common edible nut seeds." 2009.
4. Greger, Michael, MD, How Not to Die. Flatiron Books, NY, 2015.
5. Integrative Cancer Therapies, "Dietary Antioxidants and Human Cancer," 2004.
6. Nutrition Journal, "The total antioxidant content of more than 3100 foods, beverages, spices, herbs and supplements used worldwide." 2009.

Print Recipe

RECIPE: Cancer Fighting Salad

This sweet and savory salad combines soft spinach leaves, juicy fruits and crunchy cabbage and walnuts for a medicinal blend of cancer-fighting culinary delight. Satisfy your taste buds and nourish your body with the whole plant foods that science shows are the best of the best for kicking cancer to the curb.

Course

Salads

Cuisine

Plant-Based, Raw Food, Vegan

Servings

Ingredients

• 2 cups fresh spinach packed
• 1 cup kale shredded or chopped finely
• 1 cup purple cabbage shredded or chopped finely
• 4 whole green onions
• 1 cup black berries or sub with other berries
• 1/2 cup avocado chopped

Course Salads Cuisine Plant-Based, Raw Food, Vegan Servings Ingredients 2 cups fresh spinach packed 1 cup kale shredded or chopped finely 1 cup purple cabbage shredded or chopped finely 4 whole green onions 1 cup black berries or sub with other berries 1/2 cup avocado chopped