A study published this week in the journal Science Translational Medicine, suggests that fasting for a short periods at a time may help fighting cancer and enable patients to tolerate the effects of chemotherapy better, according to scientists. Going without food was found to slow the growth and spread of tumours in mice and in some cases even cure cancers when it was combined with chemotherapy. In research which is clearly not “mainstream science”, a professor of gerontology at the University of Southern California, Valter Longo, has shed new light on the age old process of fasting.

Eating plenty of fibre in the form of brown bread and wholegrain cereals three times a day cuts the risk of bowel cancer by a fifth, reports a study by Imperial College London and the University of Leeds published by the British Medical Journal. The researchers looked at 25 previous studies that involved almost two million people. They concluded that there is a strong link between diets rich in whole grain cereals and protection against bowel / colorectal cancer.

Marks and Spencers is today stocking a “super broccoli” which has been developed by British scientists to fight cancer and heart disease. The broccoli, called Beneforte, contains two to three times the beneficial plant chemical glucoraphanin than standard broccoli. Broccoli-rich diets have been shown in some studies to reduce the risk of prostate and bowel cancer. Other research suggests it can also help avoid heart attacks and strokes.