How to Eat
I recently looked on the internet
for information about my plantar fasciitis. One article says it may be caused
by inactivity, and the suggested treatment is rest. It pretty much cured itself
while I was puzzling out what to do, but this is nevertheless an indication of what
it’s like to get answers to health-related questions.
Kim and I have been trying to
figure out how to eat in order to control, if not cure, her cancer. We are
convinced that diet is important. There are ways to make your body an unpleasant
host for cancer cells – much the way a heavy metal concert makes me feel. While
the trifecta of surgery, radiation and chemo are vitally important, it’s also
important that we play an active role – more active than just lying there to be
almost but not quite killed by the treatment. We need to do what we can. Within
reason.
We have read a few books on the
subject of diet and cancer, and we’ve done some searching on the internet, all
of which resulted in a few clear steps and a lot of confusing contradictions.
What is
clear?
·
Avoid sugar – not just added sugar, not just
high fructose corn syrup, but also sugar that occurs naturally in fruit juices.
This sugar point was made dramatically clear to me when Genne’ explained that
PET Scans work by injecting you with a radioactive sugar solution, and the
sugar goes right to the cancer tumors to feed them. I’m reading a book now
about the way cancer cells metabolize glucose, and that’s what defines them as
cancerous. Unfortunately, alcohol has a lot of sugar in it. To offset that, one
of my doctors grudgingly admitted that people who have a drink or two a day
tend to live longer than people who don’t. I’m just sayin’. . ..
·
Eat fresh vegetables, especially those in the cruciform
family that includes broccoli, cabbage, Brussel sprouts, cauliflower, and other
veggies that lots of people don’t like. Fortunately, Kim and I like them,
though not for breakfast.
·
Avoid white flour. In fact, avoid most carbs, as
the body quickly converts them to sugars. In fact, avoid pretty much anything
that is white, from rice to potatoes to vanilla ice cream. (White Supremacists
take note.) The jury is still out on milk and yogurt. Some sources say to avoid
all dairy, others say dairy is OK if it’s grass fed, and that probably means if
the grass is organically grown and the cow shit fertilizing the grass is also
organic.
·
Avoid nasty chemicals, which means most
processed food, and probably anything that is not organic. Read the labels. Of
course, none of this applies to the chemicals that make up your chemotherapy.
·
Water is good if you are not drawing well water
from a source near a farm. And don’t drink from the trough the horses drink
from.
After that, it
gets a bit murky. Some say eggs are good, others say just eat the whites, but
others say just eat the yolks. Butter is OK as long as the cows from which it
is derived were grass fed. Grass, apparently, is good. It’s pretty much OK to eat fruit, but some
fruits are naturally less sugary than others, so eat raisins in moderation. Our
new doctor, an M.D. specializing in alternative medicine, suggested the Paleo
Diet, which basically removes all carbs, and so suddenly brown rice and oatmeal
are bad for you. Meat is OK if it is grass-fed. Fish OK if they are not farm
raised but caught (humanely?) with a hook or net, and if they are low on the
food chain (e.g., sardines) so they don’t contain much mercury. Nuts are good
for your health, but peanuts are not nuts (nor are doughnuts). Vegetables are
good for you, but not beans. I’m reminded of a Monty Python routine where John
Cleese says, “A whale is not a fish, you know. It’s an insect.” So much for
common sense.
We were pleased
to learn from one book that red wine is good for fighting cancer, especially
Pinot Noir from Sonoma county. When I learned that wine could be a health drink
I sent in an insurance claim from the liquor store, so far with no success. Same
for intense dark chocolate, which I bought without a prescription.
News Flash:
Bacon is now OK.
Of course, the
key to the success of any diet is that people will actually follow it. I’m fond
of the “moderation in all things” approach, attributed to the ancient Greek
poet, Hesiod. Follow the rules, but when Kim bakes a cherry pie, eat a piece.
Or finish off the pie to protect Kim from all that dangerous sugar, a sacrifice
I made out of loving concern. A few days ago we went for our daily walk around
the building, about a mile, finished off with a climb up the back stairs –
about 4 long flights. All good. Before the stairs we stopped at Cuppa Joe to
share a treat that may have had a bit of sugar in it. Moderation. We were
celebrating whatever day of the week it happened to be.
I actually
choose to follow a variation on Hesiod: Moderation in all things, including
moderation. Sometimes you just have to be immoderate. If you have tasted Kim’s
scones, you know what I mean.
NOTE: Despite the sometimes
humorous tone here, this is deadly serious business.
