RSSBook Review : Cooking With Foods That Fight Cancer
June 11, 2008
While it’s true that some cancers can be cured nowadays, it still must figure among the most dreaded diagnoses. In Canada, 400 people are told they have cancer each day. Can you imagine being one of them?
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This horror story is real
Not a week goes by that I don’t have to tell an owner that their pet has cancer. Dogs get it a lot, especially the bigger breeds. Seeing the devastation in the family and the deterioration in the animal as this sickness claims its life makes me very aware of the hideous misery of it.
Knowing exactly how it looks to have this out-of-control alien eating your insides and growing off them at the same time, drives the point home. I might still get cancer, but I need to know I did everything I could to prevent it.
Derail the sequence
More important than the ability to cure some cancers is the understanding that it is possible to prevent most cancers. I wrote a review awhile back (Book Review : Foods That Fight Cancer) about the book by that name. Seldom am I so impressed by a book. There were no miracle cures and crazy formulas or secret supplements. The ability of certain foods to block tumor growth was backed up by excellent research and nothing else.
Much is known about how tumor cells grow. A cancer or tumor starts as a cell that has become abnormal, different from its neighbors. If it keeps growing by means of change in itself, and the support of the cells and environment surrounding it, it will become a cancer. The thing is, it takes a long time for it to change from having cancer-causing potential to becoming an irreversible tumor. During this time, you have the option of stopping the deadly process in its tracks.
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Why tissue irritation increases cancer risk
It may be less recognized that cancers often arise when cells are irritated or injured for long enough. If a tissue is hurt, the normal healing process causes redness and pain, but it allows healing and re-growth, and the inflammation will subside. Supposing that within that injured tissue, just by coincidence, there lived a cell with cancer-causing potential. It would have a heyday! Its blood supply would suddenly increase and it would multiply very happily.
The moral is: don’t bug your tissues. Get over your dislike of sunblock. Don’t let children get sunburned. Don’t let a stomach ulcer fester. Improve the health of your intestinal tract. Don’t scrub your skin. Lose weight; being overweight favours a precancerous state. Type 2 diabetes can be precancerous.
Prevention is the name of this game. 70% of the time, 70%!!, if we get cancer, it was our lifestyle that allowed it to happen. It was because of choices we made, that we were free at anytime not to make. It just feels like such an uphill climb because the world we live in seems, in every way, to support the development of cancer.
The sequel, the cookbook
In response to the phenomenal success of the first book, its sequel was published. Cooking With Foods That Fight Cancer , by Drs. Richard Beliveau and Denis Gingras from the University of Quebec in Montreal, might be the better book to begin with. It is like a very well condensed version of the first book, in its explanation of how cancer happens inside your body. It then moves fairly quickly through the risk factors (smoking, diet, and so on).
13 food families (while 11 are discussed in the first book) are covered in one to three pages each. The crux of the information is very concisely presented. Because the foods are covered in far more detail in the first book, I honestly think you would benefit from reading both.
Simple delicious recipes
The second half of the book is devoted to the recipes. I’ve made the Watercress and Leek Soup 30 times if I’ve made it once. I may never make the Carpaccio of Red Tuna. There are Spaghettis and Shepherd’s Pies, Spring Rolls (fantastic), Dried Fruit and Carrot Cake and much more.
I would guess I’ve tried 25 of the 160 recipes and they’ve all been excellent, some surprisingly so. There are no fussy techniques to master. The ingredients are a little exotic at times, but go with it. Change and learning don’t happen till you shuffle the cards a little.
My friend and colleague, Louise, makes the Green Tea and Soy Milk Truffles and kindly brings me a few. I can’t make them, you see, because I would eat every single one in 2 days. I swear it’s the truth. They are beyond divine, maybe because they’re not excessively sweet so you can taste chocolate more than sugar.
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Trying to be the best version of me
These foods and recipes may very well be a deviation from what you’re used to. Your husband and kids may not eat much of it. Empower yourself to move beyond sacrificing your health by eating what they eat just because it’s easier. Meet halfway. My husband eats lentils and makes jokes about turmeric. Whatever.
You may have heard that women and cats do what they want. Men and dogs get used to it.
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Carol from the Federal Trade Commission shared this important information:
The Federal Trade Commission has important information about products advertised on the internet that claim to treat or cure cancer. Many of them are scams — and frankly, when the diagnosis is cancer, a scam is the last thing you need. You can find the information at http://www.ftc.gov/curious. Download or embed a 90-second video that shows the signs of a cancer treatment scam, or grab the web buttons and free content for your site, blog, newsletter, or magazine. By sharing these resources with the readers of A Greener Tea, you can help us get this important information to many more people.
Thanks so much for your help in getting this important health message to folks.
Carol Kando-Pineda
Federal Trade Commission
ckando@ftc.gov