This Cancer Prevention Action Week, a new tool has created to help Brits use staple food items in their cupboards to create tasty, healthy and cheap meals.
The tool created by the World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF) aims to help you find easy but nutritious recipes with whatever ingredients you have on hand.
Matt Lambert, WCRF’s health information and promotion manager, said: "Rather than shelling out on expensive ‘superfoods’, a well-stocked store cupboard plays an essential part in creating nutritious meals that, as part of a healthy lifestyle, can help to reduce your risk of cancer."
Here are some of the simple, staple ingredients most Brits have in their cupboards and how to use the tool to make tasty, healthy meals with it.
What foods in your cupboard can reduce risk of cancer?
Most of us pick up at least a few varieties of canned foods during weekly or monthly shop. These cans usually contain foods like lentils, tuna, beans and chopped tomatoes, which are both healthy and long-lasting.
Things like canned or frozen veggies not only count towards your five-a-day and are nutritious, but also much cheaper than fresh ingredients.
Mr Lambert explains: "There’s evidence that vegetables and fruit can help protect against cancers of the mouth, throat and digestive tract."
He adds that pulses like lentils, chickpeas and canned or dried beans, are also nutrient-packed, saying: "They are high in fibre and provide a really good source of plant-based protein. Foods containing dietary fibre help to protect against bowel cancer and against weight gain, overweight and obesity."
How to use the cancer tool to improve your lifestyle
The tool created for Cancer Prevention Action Week allows people to simply type one or two ingredients that you’re looking to use into the recipe generator, and it will then suggest meals that you can make using those ingredients.
For instance, if you put in lentils and chopped tomatoes, one recipe that pops up is for beef and lentil burritos - which counts for four of your recommended minimum of five portions of fruit and veg a day.
You can also use the cancer health check tool to find out how your lifestyle affects your risk of cancer.
The tool will ask you 11 questions about things like your diet and exercise routine, and then suggest actions you can take to reduce your risk depending on your answers.
What is the goal of Cancer Prevention Action Week?
Cancer Prevention Action Week, which falls between February 21 and February 28, encourages people to change their lifestyle to reduce their risk of cancer developing.
While there are certain types of cancers that can't prevented by anything we do, the WCRF states that 40% of cancer diagnoses could potentially have been prevented.
