Keeping cancer away

Watching what you eat and getting regular exercise are important to your health. And this advice is especially important if you're a cancer survivor according to a new report.



If you're a cancer survivor, living a healthy lifestyle should be a top priority.

"Our message to cancer survivors, absolutely, is eating well, being active is really important to get you through cancer treatment and certainly as you look forward to that life beyond cancer," Colleen Doyle of the American Cancer Society said.

The American Cancer Society's new report finds that a healthy lifestyle will help patients feel better during treatment, and could reduce their risk of cancer coming back.

"There is much more evidence that being overweight, as a cancer survivor, has some really bad effects," Doyle said. "In particular for breast cancer survivors, breast cancer survivors who are overweight at diagnosis or have gained weight after diagnosis are more likely to have cancer occurrence and also are more likely to die of that cancer."

The cancer society's best advice:

"Eat a wide variety of fruits and vegetables, eat a lot of whole grains, breads, cereals, pastas, cut back on high-fat meat, high-fat dairy products," Doyle said. "Watch the amount of saturated fats you eat. These are the same type of things we tell anybody that is trying to improve their health and reduce their risk of chronic disease."