When it comes to increasing your intake of cancer-fighting catechins, doctors Richard Béliveau and Denis Gingras (authors of the book Foods that Fight Cancer) recommend that you choose Japanese green tea over Chinese. This is because the evidence indicates that Japanese green tea has higher amounts of beneficial cancer-fighting catechins.
Making the small change to Japanese green tea can have a big impact on your journey towards becoming a cancer thriver.
BUT…
What if you haven’t yet acquired a taste for green tea yet?
Well, I suggest you start with this recipe that combines mint and banana to balance out the matcha.
Ingredients:
Anti-Inflammatory Green Smoothie
Equipment
- immersion blender
Ingredients
- 1 banana ripe
- 1.5 cups soy milk unsweetened (can use vanilla too, but this will add more sugar)
- 1 tbsp matcha green tea poweder
- 1/2 tsp peppermint oil can start with smaller amount and taste
- 1 tsp maple syrup optional
Instructions
- Add the banana, soy milk, tea powder and half of the mint oil (some milk oils are more concentrated and if yours is very strong, then it will end up tasting like tooth paste).
- Blend with the immersion blender. Taste and add more mint or maple syrup as needed
- If you have fresh mint, then use this instead of the peppermint oil. Start with 6 mint leaves, blend and taste and add more to get the right balance.
Notes
Why Should You Try this Recipe?
Let’s take a look at the cancer-fighting potential of the ingredients in this delicious smoothie!
Banana—Banana is a source of prebiotic fibre. This is a type of fibre that provides fuel to the healthy bacteria that live in your intestines and helps to keep your immune system strong. A strong immune system is absolutely critical to a thriving after cancer lifestyle. Remember all prebiotics are fibre but not all fibres are prebiotic.
Peppermint Oil—Like many spices, peppermint has a long history of medicinal uses, which continue to be studied and documented. In the case of peppermint oil, it is known for helping indigestion, reducing stress and anxiety, and even has been shown in test tube and animal studies to combat a variety of cancers.
The ½ tsp in this recipe is a small amount but it is nice to know that most of the ingredients in the recipes have positive health properties. When you are learning to thrive after cancer, every small step helps! They can really add up and transform into a healthy lifestyle.
Matcha Green Tea Powder—Matcha is made from shade-grown tea leaves. The tea bushes are covered to prevent direct sunlight several weeks before harvest. The dried leaves are de-veined and de-stemmed, and stone ground to the fine, bright green powder known as matcha.
When you consume matcha, you are consuming the entire leaf—so you don’t use a tea bag or diffuser. Because of this, matcha is thought to be higher in beneficial cancer fighting compounds than steeped tea. To use the powder, just add it to the smoothie (or hot water if you are making a cup of tea). You can find it in tea shops and health food stores.
Soy Milk – While I still come across cancer patients and survivors who have sworn off soy products (either on their own or recommended by a health professional), I am a promoter of soy. I’ve looked at the scientific evidence relating to soy and cancer and I feel very comfortable consuming organic whole soy foods. This is because the evidence has shown that consuming organic whole soy foods can help to reduce cancer risk due to soy’s many beneficial plant compounds.
If you choose to avoid it, then substitute your favorite milk/milk-like beverage. I would love to hear how it turns out! Also, I should mention that this recipe calls uses unsweetened soy beverage. If you wanted to use vanilla, you can but it will add more sugar and calories.
How to Choose a Soy Beverage
It is recommended you choose whole soy foods and not processed soy foods. In order to choose whole soy foods, it’s important to read the ingredient list on the product. You want to choose those products that contain “organic soy beans” and not “soy protein isolate”. Organic soy beans will give you a higher level of isoflavones, which are a group of compounds shown to protect again cancer.
More Than Ingredients
Finally, this recipe provides more than the healthy ingredients and what they do for your body on a cellular level, it also provides you with positive energy and feelings from eating something you know is good for you. You feel you are part of your health care team. You feel you have the power to make a difference in your survivorship. To me, this is an important part of being a cancer-thriver—knowing you are making a contribution to reducing your cancer risk. I believe food, diet and lifestyle choices can make a difference in boosting your immune system, reducing chronic inflammation, and directly fighting cancer cells. Your everyday choices matter.