Dr Visham Bhimull, Fam­i­ly Physi­cian MBBS (UWI) ex­plains that can­cer is the re­sult of the un­con­trolled di­vi­sion and growth of ab­nor­mal cells. Most of the cells in our body have a set lifes­pan, and when they die, the body gen­er­ates new cells to re­place them.

How­ev­er, in the case of can­cer, ab­nor­mal cells may not die or may con­tin­ue to di­vide which re­sults in an ex­ces­sive growth of cells. This growth even­tu­al­ly forms a mass, or tu­mour. Among the many can­cers that ex­ist, cer­vi­cal can­cer con­tin­ues to be a huge threat to women’s health. Al­most all cas­es of cer­vi­cal can­cer are caused by in­fec­tion with the Hu­man Pa­pil­lo­mavirus (HPV), a sex­u­al­ly trans­mit­ted in­fec­tion. While ad­vances in the med­ical field have helped to de­crease the mor­tal­i­ty rates caused by cer­vi­cal can­cer, it is al­so cru­cial to en­gage in pre­ven­ta­tive meth­ods.

It is of ut­most im­por­tance that women be­tween the ages of 21 and 65 get reg­u­lar pap smear tests to screen for changes as­so­ci­at­ed with cer­vi­cal can­cer. How­ev­er, it is al­so wise to eat healthy food as an every­day prac­tice to pro­mote good cer­vi­cal health. Eat­ing a va­ri­ety of fruits and veg­eta­bles may be use­ful in the pre­ven­tion of cer­vi­cal can­cer. Ex­perts be­lieve that a di­et high in an­tiox­i­dants, carotenoids, flavonoids, and fo­late found in fruits and veg­eta­bles can help the body fight the HPV in­fec­tion and pre­vent HPV from turn­ing healthy cells of the cervix in­to can­cer­ous le­sions. Ac­cord­ing to Every­day Health, here are a list of can­cer-fight­ing chem­i­cal com­pounds that can be found in var­i­ous fruits and veg­eta­bles that you can con­sid­er adding to your dai­ly di­et.

Flavonoids: ap­ples, as­para­gus, black beans, broc­coli, brus­sels sprouts, cab­bage, cran­ber­ries, gar­lic, let­tuce, onions, soy and spinach

Fo­late: av­o­ca­dos, chick­peas, for­ti­fied ce­re­als and breads, lentils, or­ange juice, ro­maine let­tuce and straw­ber­ries

Carotenoids: or­ange foods such as car­rots, sweet pota­toes and pump­kin

In con­clu­sion, safe sex­u­al prac­tices, reg­u­lar screen­ing and a healthy di­et rich in the above com­po­nents can great­ly re­duce your chances of de­vel­op­ing cer­vi­cal can­cer. Let us con­tin­ue to en­cour­age our­selves and oth­ers to make the healthy every day choic­es in our on­go­ing bat­tle against this dis­ease.