A nutrition novel...

Cancer has done a great many things to and for me. Not one thing more important than re-emphasizing the importance of health. Ironically, I was already starting this path when I first started feeling the pain of cancer in my bone. With the pain came a downward spiral of inactivity and eventual failure of diet. It was hard to go to the grocery store to shop, cook, or even care about what I was eating when I was living with pain. It was debilitating. It would take five months of ever increasing pain before I would know why I was in such pain, and I am now well on my way to recovery.

I am not cured of cancer yet. I have no detectable cancer at this moment, but that does not equal cured. In fact, I will not be considered in remission until I hit the five year mark! My cancer was tested for biomarkers on the cell wall, and I have a biomarker that makes my cancer a more aggressive (though not most aggressive) than the average lymphoma and increases my risk of the cancer coming back. On top of that, the lymphoma went into the bone, which also increased the risk of the cancer coming back. What’s worse is that the doctors were unable to determine where my cancer started. If the cancer started in my bone, that is even higher risk of the return of the caner. My doctor’s will not say that the cancer will come back, but they have made sure that I know that it is most likely it will sometime in 2-3 years. In short, I am at high risk for this crap to come back.

This leads me to wonder, what can I do? How do I stack the cards in my favor so that I don’t have to go through this again? The truth is, not much. I cannot fight genetics or predict what my body will do. There is only one thing I can do to and that is to live a healthy lifestyle. It is the only thing I do have control over.

So let’s look at the risk factors for cancer. The most common risk factors are: aging, tobacco, sunlight, ionizing radiation, exposure to certain chemicals and other substances, some viruses and bacteria, certain hormones (especially sex hormones), family history of cancer, alcohol, poor diet, lack of physical activity, and/or being overweight. There are also environmental risk factors as well, but I will save that for another day. I am already becoming a wind bag!

Everyone knows that using tobacco products or regular exposure to second hand smoke increases your risk of cancer. You always hear about lung cancer and smoking, but did you also know that there are several other cancers you put yourself at risk for? People who smoke are also at higher risk for developing cancer in the larynx (voice box), mouth, esophagus, bladder, kidney, throat, stomach, pancreas,  cervix, and getting acute myeloid leukemia (cancer that starts in blood cells)!

Many people have asked me why I have mostly quit drinking alcohol. Granted I have a drink here or there on special occasions, but there are several reasons why I don’t really drink anymore. For the purposes of today I will keep the reasons cancer and me related.

First and foremost, my cancer ate away at the bones in my right hip and left shoulder.  Alcohol actually leaches calcium from your bones and decreases your bones density! This is not very helpful to a person trying to rebuild her bone!!!!

 On the cancer side, you increase the chance of developing cancers of the mouth, throat, esophagus, larynx, liver, and breast if you consume more than two drinks a day, on average, for long periods of time (a couple of years or more). Many of these cancers are increased risk with tobacco use too, so if you drink and smoke you are just asking for trouble. According the National Cancer Institute, a woman should drink no more than one drink per day and a male should drink no more than two drinks per day. That doesn’t mean you can drink a long island iced tea everyday either. One serving of alcohol is ½ oz of ethyl alcohol. Here is a great link to information about portion sizes and the different types of alcohol. http://www.wwu.edu/chw/preventionandwellness/AODWebPDFs/WhatisOneDrink.pdf

Ok…I will get off my soap box! Just keeps this in mind moving forward. These are two very controllable risk factors that are often ignored. More than 180,000 people die of cancer related to tobacco use each year. That is 180,000 people who essentially killed themselves this year alone!

So I can’t control the fact I have a family history or that I have hormones, but in the areas I do have control…I have a leg up. I don’t and never have smoked. I have never been a heavy drinker and rarely do drink. I have completely eliminated caffeine out of my diet already. I live in the Pacific Northwest, land of the hippie and hippie food. The most important thing I have is attitude. I want to change. I have a desire to eat well and to be physically fit.

I have to admit, I was really intimidated at first. I had no idea what quinoa was or how to cook it. I was venturing into the world of green juice, which isn’t the most wonderful tasting stuff but I crave it now. I was learning about all of these so called “super foods”, some of which I would still rather eat my shirt than the food itself! There are all these things you hear about like cleansing and detox diets, vitamin rituals, colonics, raw food diets, vegan diets, and on and on and on. Where do I start? How do I decipher what works for me and what is healthy for me?

I started with TV and the internet. I would watch some of the shows on TV that were about health. When I heard something I thought sounded good, I would go to the internet. This is how I found Kris Carr! She was on The Revolution. She had rare kind of cancer. There is no treatment for it and the prognosis isn’t good. She ventured out into the world of healthy eating and found a diet she thinks keeps her cancer from growing…she has been doing her diet or variations of it since 2003 and has had no significant tumor growth! I fully endorse her book, Crazy Sexy Diet. This book is not preachy and is very fun. It is a raw food diet, but has a lot of information and tips. You don’t have to want to do the raw food diet for this to be worth the cost of the book. I also saw Kelly Freston on the Ellen Show. I also have enjoyed her book, The Lean. It has lots of information. It is a book that helps you ease into a vegan diet over 30 days. I do not prescribe 100% to either book, but there is tons of great information backed by medical research in both. I have found food practices that I have encoporated from both books too. I have learned a lot and also found some other things to research from them.

So how exactly am I approaching food right now? Well, I eat mostly organic. I say mostly because sometimes there isn’t an organic alternative so I buy non organic. If there is organic I buy it though. When I have to buy packaged food, I read the label. I have to know what every ingredient is. No preservatives, refined sugar, refined or bleach flour, high fructose corn syrup, artificial sweeteners, and many other things. I buy meats that are not treated with hormones or antibiotics, contain no nitrates, and free range poultry. I don’t eat bread or pasta. If I do eat something made with flour, it must be whole GRAIN, not whole wheat. I have a smoothie with chia seeds, organic fruit, greek yogurt, and agave syrup everyday. I do have my green juice most days, but it is hard to juice everyday especially when traveling. I also keep my sugar and refined carbs down as they are the fuel that feed cancer!

I love Whole Foods, but it is so far from my house. I have also been going to Marlene’s in Federal Way. It is hard cooking with so many new things, but I am getting the hang of it. I have found many recipes I like thanks to my books and Pinterest, actually.

This is a lot for one blog, so I guess I will stop here for now. I will post my recipe for my green warrior juice in a different post in the next day or two. I have been asked about it, so I will post it.

I look forward to sharing all the things I have learned and am learning. I am already working up a post for coconut oil, chia seeds, and of course my green juice. I hope you all find it informative and entertaining at times.

A quick note about caffeine…there are tons of studies by various corporations and institutes about the healthy benefits of caffeine and coffee. I would suggest you do your own research and determine for yourself what you think is healthy. In my research I have learned that coffee, regular or decaf, is acidic and promotes inflammation and an environment hospitable to cancer. Caffeine also puts you at risk for hundreds of other diseases with seriousness ranging from who cares to life threatening. I will do a whole blog dedicated to caffeine in the future.