Your immune system is constantly working to defend your body, standing guard against countless attacks by viruses, microbes or antigens that are trying to penetrate your immune system to cause cancer. 

Some sweets and snacks like baked goods (cakes, pies, muffins, sweet rolls, donuts, and cookies),  or cheese, crackers, and some chips, for example, are often high in saturated fat, sodium, and bad sugars.  These bad elements can weaken your immune system and allow the invading microorganisms to cause you serious harm and – in some cases – cause cancer – over a period of time.

Most sweets and snacks are made with refined grains and processed foods to enhance their flavor and shelf life, which diminishes their nutritional value.

• Weakened immune resistance is associated with deficient amounts (intakes) of vitamins and minerals.  Since most sweets and snacks are refined, those key nutrients are gone and are usually replaced by chemicals or substances that make us unhealthier and weaken our immune system
• Nutrient deficient foods first impair your immune tissues
• If the nutrient replacement found in refined or processed foods cannot perform the metabolic task of the missing nutrient, your immune system is weakened

Many cancers are a result of poor diet, nutrition, and lack of exercise.  Over time nutritional deficiencies accumulate and weaken our immune system, which changes our body’s chemistry.  As our body chemistry changes and cancer cells become established, these new cancerous cells crave refined and processed foods.  As our body heals and cells begin to improve, these refined food cravings go away.

Besides eating a balanced diet, exercising, and taking vitamins, minerals and supplements, maintaining or improving your health is about making daily choices.  If you want to have a healthy immune –boosting or cancer-fighting diet, avoid any products that are labeled refined, enriched, or fortified.  With these labels, the good nutrients have been removed and replaced with other nutrients such as riboflavin, niacin, folate, and iron, along with bad sugars and fats.  When grains are refined, fiber and important, natural nutrients have been lost.  Eat only whole grain products if you can.

Healthy sweets and snacks that are high in antioxidants:

• Protect the membranes of our intestinal cells
• Help prevent negative body chemical reactions
• Prevent faulty metabolism in a cell

Not all snack foods are high in saturated fat or refined. Try some of these low fat ones and keep them on hand for snack attacks:

• Ready-to-eat whole-food cereals or whole-grain granola bars without added sugar
• Frozen grapes or banana slices; or other fresh fruit
• Fruit leather or other dried fruit – try to buy organic
• Low fat or fat free whole-grain crackers like melba toast, rice cakes, rye crisp, and soda crackers
• No-oil baked whole grain tortilla chips
• Popcorn (air popped or "light") – avoid butter and try adding spices instead
• Whole-grain Pretzels
• Raw vegetables with nonfat or low fat dip