From 14 to 18 September 2020 the German Cancer Aid (“Deutsche Krebshilfe”) and the German Cancer Research Center (“Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum, DKFZ”) organise the 2nd National Cancer Prevention Week, this year focussing on the subject of nutrition. Eating a healthy and balanced diet can reduce the risk of developing one of the most common cancers, like breast cancer or colorectal cancer. One of Berlin’s top chefs, Thomas Kammeier, created five healthy meals that will be offered during this week at most company canteens in Germany.
Experts suspect that a healthy lifestyle can prevent about 40 percent of cancerous diseases globally. Willing to actively prevent cancer, the yearly National Cancer Prevention Week of the German Cancer Research Center and the German Cancer Aid aims to draw more attention to cancer prevention, focussing each year on a different lifestyle factor that affects the risk of cancer. This year everything revolves around nutrition.
Professor Dr. Mathias Heikenwälder, metabolism expert at the DKFZ, explains: “How we eat can influence the development of cancer. For example, consuming high amounts of red and processed meat has been shown to increase the risk of colorectal cancer. On the other hand, a high-fiber diet is beneficial. Many known risk factors – in addition to a unhealthy diet , in particular are a lack of exercise, smoking, high alcohol consumption as well as several infections and environmental factors – also support other chronic diseases, especially those of cardiovascular origin. By following basic cancer prevention rules, you are doing your health a huge favour.”
However, there is often little time in everyday working life to mind a healthy diet. It therefore creates big ease if company canteens offer balanced and diverse meals. “Taste and health do not exclude each other, on the contrary: a good cook always uses fresh ingredients. With our recipes for the National Cancer Prevention Week we want to convince you of this”, says Thomas Kammeier, chef of Berlin’s EUREF-Campus and patron of the National Cancer Prevention Week 2020.
During the campaign week “Reducing the risk of cancer with a knife and fork” about 300 canteens in Germany will be offering their customers five healthy meals by Thomas Kammeier. You can also find the recipes online to try them out by yourself.
»Further information on the Cancer Prevention Week 2020 (in German)
»Further information on nutrition and cancer (in German)