Kristi Whitley

Healthy Living

The Real Breast Cancer Cure


 
Well, it’s back! Breast Cancer Awareness Month is in full swing. Fox News interviewed some woman this morning that has been battling cancer for 13 years. She has a foundation to raise money “to find a drug that will manage cancer and make it a disease you can live with.” She never mentioned diet or lifestyle or any other preventative or cure for cancer. 
 
Last weekend, while shopping at Ulta cosmetics store, the clerk told me that I could win a bag with $600 worth of products in it if I “donate to breast cancer”. When I asked her where the money would go (besides “to breast cancer”) she said she thought it went to Susan Anthony. 
 
Hopefully, by now, you know that mammograms do not cure or even detect breast cancer early. The cancer is most likely ten years in the making by the time the mammogram picks it up if it ever detects it at all. Hopefully, you realize that you will not get all the information you need to prevent or detect cancer from your conventional medical doctor and you have to look for it on your own. Here are a few more resources for you and there are more where these came from.
 
The article that I cited last week from www.ucsfhealth.org has in-depth information on nutrients and reducing the risk of breast cancer and surviving breast cancer. In summary they mentioned the following guidelines:
 

  •  “Eat 8 to 10 colorful fruit and vegetable servings daily including:

            -Two to three pieces of fruit

            -One cup or more of vegetables with lunch and dinner

            -8 fl oz vegetable juice

  • Consume 30 to 45 grams of fiber daily- (You will likely meet your fiber goal if you eat 8 to 10 servings of fruits and vegetables plus one serving of beans/legumes or at least two servings of whole grains daily.)
  • Avoid processed and refined grains/flours/sugars
  • Keep WHITE off your plate: bread, pasta, rice, cream sauces, cakes, and more.
  • Limit meats and whole milk dairy products
  • Include healthy fats like cold-water fish, flaxseed, walnuts, soybeans, olive oil, avocados
  • Eat 2 Tbsp ground flax daily
  • Limit alcohol consumption
  • Drink 1 to 4 cups of green tea daily
  • Maintain serum 25 (OH)-vitamin D levels above 35 ng/mL
  • Drink plenty of fluids, water or non-caffeinated beverages, daily to help meet fluid needs
  • Engage in daily physical activity to help achieve and maintain a healthy weight”


These are basic guidelines that everyone should follow to prevent all diseases, not just cancer. Dr. Joel Furhman, author of Eat to Live, advises that the current guidelines from the USDA and the American Cancer Society to eat five servings a day of fruits and vegetables is insufficient to prevent cancer. He goes on to say, 
“Cruciferous vegetables (the cabbage and broccoli family) are simply the most powerful weapon against all forms of cancer and especially colorectal cancer”.
 
Dr. Furman also says, 
“The process that is creating our modern epidemic of cancer is two- fold. One aspect involves the exposure of our cells to damaging stresses such as chemical carcinogens, radon, acrylamides, and high levels of saturated and trans fats and animal protein. At the same time, we have a woefully insufficient dietary intake of plant-derived nutrients, which renders our cells incapable of functioning to their fullest potential for repair and maintenance.”
 
In an excellent review article published in the October 2004 issue of Nutrition Journal, titled Nutrition and cancer: A review of the evidence for an anti-cancer diet, researcher Michael S. Donaldson cites 238 articles on diet and disease. Donaldson concludes by outlining an anti-cancer diet as such:
 
• adequate, but not excessive calories,
• 10 or more servings of vegetables a day, including cruciferous and allium vegetables; vegetable juice could meet part of this goal,
• 4 or more servings of fruits a day, 
• high in fiber, 
• no refined sugar, 
• no refined flour,
• low in total fat, but containing necessary essential fatty acids,
• no red meat,
• a balanced ratio of omega 3 and omega 6 fats and would include DHA,
• flax seed as a source of phytoestrogens, 
• supplemented with ~200 μg/day selenium,
• supplemented with 1,000 μg/day methylcobalamin (B- 12),
• very rich in folic acid (from dark green vegetables),
• adequate sunshine to get vitamin D, or use 1,000 IU/day supplement,
• very rich in antioxidants and phytochemicals from fruits and vegetables, including α-carotene, β-carotene, β-cryp- toxanthin, vitamin C (from foods), vitamin E (from foods),
• very rich in chlorophyll, 
• supplemented with beneficial probiotics, 
• supplemented with oral enzymes
 
Dr. Russell Blaylock wrote in his March 2007 issue of the Blaylock Wellness Report;
“I have observed, over the years, that people who have survived advanced cancers — believed to be terminal — either juiced virtually all their vegetables or ate very large amounts of nutrient-dense vegetables.”
 
Raw vegetables and fresh vegetables contain enzymes that are vital for digestion, metabolism and even DNA modulation. There are estimated to be 4,000 enzymatic transactions that occur in the body with a different enzyme needed for almost every one. If not supplied by food, the body has to make the enzyme. High heat denatures the enzymes in our food. Eating as much raw vegetables and vegetable juice as possible supplies our bodies with the enzymes it needs. 
 
Are you yelling “OK, ALREADY, WE NEED TO EAT A BOAT LOAD OF VEGETABLES EVERYDAY”? But what does that look like? This is why I don’t like writing about this lifestyle. I prefer showing you. The people I have helped turn around their diseases have done so by tasting and seeing how I do it. Not by reading about it. Here is a typical day in the life of a plant-based diet foodie, i.e. me!
 
Breakfast:
If anything, 8 oz. Nanogreens powdered green vegetable drink
6 oz. vegetable and fruit juice
16 oz. green or white tea
 
Mid morning:
If anything, more vegetable juice or a small serving of fruit
 
Noon:
Very large green salad with 4 or more packed cups of spring mix, a few slices of sweet pepper, onion, grated carrots, grape tomatoes, artichoke hearts, avocado, sunflower seeds or walnuts, beans left over from the night before, maybe even a few raisins or a little sliced apple that I didn’t have mid morning. Topped with vegan ranch dressing or other vinaigrette. 
 
Mid afternoon:
If anything, more vegetable juice or a handful of nuts
 
Dinner:
Another salad with different toppings and dressing, a few roasted vegetables like squash, mushrooms, potatoes, sweet potatoes, asparagus, or cauliflower. And if I didn’t have any for lunch, a small serving of beans, and maybe some grains like brown rice or quinoa. If it is summer, I may have an ear of fresh corn. 
 
My meals sometimes get more elaborate but most are very simple even when I have guests. They may get a little meat on the side. 
 
It is very easy to cook an all-vegetable meal as opposed to one with meat. The cook time is faster; the prep is faster and safer because I don’t have to be careful of meat contamination of my work surfaces and hands. Plus, I always have something easy and fast to prepare or good leftovers in my fridge off which to build the next meal. 
 
My food prep essentials are a good ($100), sharp chef’s knife, a sturdy, large cutting board, two large rimmed baking sheets, and a draining basket that fits over my sink for washed vegetables. I also use a lemon squeezer, micro plane, vegetable peeler, colander, salad spinner, food processor, and high-powered blender often. 
 
Knowing you need to eat more vegetables and knowing why and how are very different. Here are a few of my best resources for recipes and articles on good nutrition.
 
Drfurhman.com
Drmcdougall.com
Hacres.com
Forksoverknives.com
Meatoutmondays.org
PCRM.org
 
Instead of donating “to breast cancer” this month, why not subscribe to one of these websites or at least download some of their free info and forward it to all your friends? That would go a lot farther toward the real cure for breast cancer than wearing a ribbon or buying something with a ribbon on it. 
 
All the best,
K
 
Proverbs 19:20-21
Listen to advice and accept discipline, and at the end you will be counted among the wise. Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the LORD’s purpose that prevails.