A doctor shares his 5-step routine for preventing cancer

Every day, you're making hundreds of small decisions that might be exposing you to a higher risk of cancer.

A few simple tweaks to your routine can help give you the best chance of preventing cancer, according to Dr. Avishek Kumar, a board-certified community oncologist in Edison, New Jersey.

"You can't fully eliminate the risk of having any sort of cancer," he told Business Insider. "But the key is reducing the odds, partaking in certain habits over the course of a lifetime, which can cut down the odds."

Small day-to-day decisions can add up to significant protection against deadly cancers like colon cancer and lung cancer.

He shared his own routine as an example, with five key components to reduce major cancer risks.

"Simple substitutions done over weeks and months and years can really pay off vast dividends in cancer prevention as time goes on," Kumar said. "Every given moment, we have the opportunity to take the stairs or substitute something healthy."

When it comes to nutrition, Kumar said his approach is to imagine a farmer from a century ago, prioritizing foods they would have eaten that can be harvested, foraged, or prepared at home.

Think berries, whole grains, lean meats, eggs, and dairy. The most nutrient-dense picks are often fresh foods you'd find on the periphery of the grocery store, rather than the shelf-stable, ultra-processed food in the center aisles.

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That said, it's not realistic to completely cut out processed food, and Kumar loves a convenient trip to McDonald's (for a Filet O' Fish) as much as the rest of us.

For a balanced diet, he makes sure that at least one meal a day is as little-processed as possible, so he doesn't have to stress about enjoying a brownie at work or a fast-food lunch.