In the summer of 2005 a family member was diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer. While it was devastating, and still is, it probably saved both our lives.
Like most women in the US we thought we knew the statistics.
1 in 7 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer.
“The risks are higher with a family history or genes that make you more susceptible”
“Frequent screening can catch it early and you get a little treatment and it’s over.”
“There are new drugs so once you are diagnosed you take a miracle drug and get on with your life.”
and my personal favorite: “Celebrities like Melissa Etheridge have been through it and now they are cancer free and fine!”
Not exactly.
Cancer free? Come on. The only thing they can tell you is that there isn’t any evidence of cancer. Even after chemo and radiation there are often cancer cells loose in your system and breast cancer can come back anywhere, not just in your breast. You can get it in your bones, your liver or even your toe.
Once we read all the horror stories from the real live women who were living with Cancer we started to find out how to fight it, and to see how we had helped the disease take over.
There are a lot of factors that increased our risks and we didn’t have a clue. Had we known would we have changed our lifestyle to prevent it? Well we sure would now!
I had been a restaurant chef, trained in spa cusine at one of California’s top spas, but that was years ago. As I moved from restaurant to restaurant over the years my cooking style had become less and less healthy, and so had cooking at home.
Eating out was one of our little luxuries. We were eating red meat with rich sauces, drinking before during and after dinner and having a lovely dessert or a nice cheese course at least three nights a week. Foie gras was (and still is) one of my favorite foods.
When we looked at the leading factors causing cancer and then at our diet and lifestyle it was easy to identify what we could do. Little did we know that this would be the one and only thing we could control in our battle against her cancer. Pretty much everything else would be trapped in the lock step treatment programs employed by the medical industry against cancer.
In fact, we often found that we clung to our new dietary habits like a life-raft as the only thing that we really could control ourselves.
We read everything we could find. We tried to filter out all the quackeries by cross-referencing data from dozens of sources. Our collection of research ranged from books that swore to cure cancer with nutrition alone with outrageous alternatives and cure-all herbs to medical studies on the effects of dietary changes and herbal treatments in cancer studies.
We spoke to naturopaths, oncologists, physicians and herbalists. Our own doctors were telling us that only they could do anything to help, and that during her treatment we would have to avoid all raw fruits and vegetables, sushi, no anti-oxidants, no herbs or supplements of any kind that were not cleared by the doctors. They were afraid we were going to “go natural” on them and ignore all of their prescriptions, run off after some crazy idea of holistic health. Even after we told them that what we were trying to do was augment their efforts, not bypass them, they were still suspicious.
But not all of them. We found an Oncologist in San Francisco who was also a naturopath. He looked at the plans we put together for dietary changes and made recommendations on supplements and dietary modifications that would change our lives.
From our research we knew we were in for a battle. We also knew that her appetite would either wane or rage, that her tastebuds would change from the chemicals infusing her body and that the havoc that they would wreak, along with the huge amount of stress and pain involved would put her body into a tailspin. We had to find ways to keep her white counts up, help her body maintain itself and not add any additional stress.
- No more grain alcohol
- 1 glass of red wine a night was OK for special occasions
- All organic produce, and any other foods we could get had to be organic
- Alternatives to dairy like almond milk, almond cheese and even rice ice cream
- No red meat
- More fiber in the way of whole grains, beans and cereals
- We didn’t cut out fresh fruit and vegetables as long as her white cell count stayed over 1500
We saw two oncologists who told us that anything raw was a risk, but we decided that our research showed patients stayed healthier eating the foods they loved, and it became a regular breakfast to have a fresh fruit shake every morning, loaded with additional anti-oxidants and nutrients like flaxseed oil. (See the breakfast section for ideas and supplements)
SO. It’s been almost 5 years now. I’ve been meaning to write a book about all this but life got in the way. I wanted to offer up a book for women to avoid the dietary risks that may drive us toward cancer. I also wanted to write a book for caregivers f anyone undergoing chemotherapy, radiation and the horrors of cancer treatment.
Maybe the day will come I’ll write that book, but if these recipes help you be more healthy or get through chemo and all of it’s side effects then that’s really enough for me.
Let me be clear. TALK TO YOUR DOCTOR. I’m no doctor and this is just what worked for us. There is no golden rule or promises. But if you want to try some of these recipes you may feel healthier.
The posts will be tips and tricks and recipes we use ourselves. Add your feedback. We’d love to hear it!