A friend sent me this article by the LA Times: After Cancer, Survivors Do Not Make Healthy Food Choices.
At first, I’m thinking, What will it take for people to wake up and realize they probably got sick because they made choices that were bad for their health? But after I calm down, I remember my team of doctors never told me to change my eating habits or lifestyle. I don’t think they even asked me those questions: What do you eat? Do you exercise? They did ask if I smoked, drank alcohol or used illegal drugs. In my opinion, food can be just as lethal as any of those. For example; sugar. It’s addicting. I still have problems with it and I hardly ever eat sugar, but when I do have a small piece of dark chocolate or cupcake, within a couple of hours my brain asks for more. If you don’t know that food can be addicting, without thinking about it, you eat another candy bar, not knowing you’re hurting your health. I know because I watched the nurses in the infusion center cram their faces with Halloween candy. You’d think they would know better.
Now a days, I’m really good about what I put in my body. Before I eat anything, I ask myself if it will help or harm me. How many ordinary people who’ve been through cancer treatments or are currently in treatment think about food and how it affects them? I know when I was in the hospital, the menu was basically crap. I was lucky, my family brought me food that I requested from the outside (something my doctors weren’t happy about because they couldn’t monitor if I was eating or not). They told me over and over to eat anything I wanted, but I knew better because I took the time to do my homework. My doctors tried to figure out why I got cancer; they ran every test imaginable, and came up empty, but I’m willing to bet none of them wondered if it was my diet and lifestyle. I know it was because I became my own detective. Everything I read pointed to it.
As soon as I figured it out, I changed my diet overnight and took charge of my healthcare. I took back the power I gave to my doctors and we became a team, with me being the coach. Chemo and radiation sucked and I have no intention of going through that again. Someone told me I wouldn’t be able to stick with my “new life.” Her words angered me and at the same time empowered me. What she didn’t know is that I have will power and that’s what it takes to make any life altering change. I also learned to love myself 100% and that includes self-care.
I’m really sad to read this article because I can’t imagine someone intentionally harming themselves, especially after a cancer scare. I don’t know anyone who wants to do that again. If you ask me, its the fault of our healthcare system. Our doctors know hardly anything about the importance of nutrition and I blame that on medical schools getting donations from the biotech industry. Are you going to say anything bad about someone whose paying your bills? Biotech makes the fake foods you find on your grocery store shelves; processed foods filled with chemicals and genetically modified ingredients. The good news is, everyday consumers are learning about healthy eating through social media (forget about mainstream media, they are owned by the same corporations who will do anything they can to keep us in the dark when it comes to what’s “really” in that canned, packaged or box of processed food). They don’t care if it makes you sick, they care about making money!
I hope people read and think about the article in the LA Times, their lives may depend on it.
Be well!
Ingebird
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