After cancer I choose to eat

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After cancer, I choose to eat

04:12 PM CDT on Tuesday, June 17, 2008



Editor's note: Sheron Patterson, senior pastor of Highland Hills United Methodist Church, is chronicling her journey through breast cancer. Look for her next installment July 15.

The pecan tart was topped with whipped cream, and it was calling my name. It was the last course of an expertly prepared lunch at a fundraising luncheon.

I was sitting on the dais in a hotel ballroom where at least 1,000 women probably were eating their tarts, too. I gave the invocation and went to my seat with dessert on my mind. I swiftly consumed the tart and washed it down with not one but two cups of regular coffee, brimming with cream and artificial sweetener. As I savored this sugary experience, I noticed that the woman sitting to my right had been watching me. She seemed to be waiting for the right moment to speak. It had come.

I've been reading about your breast cancer journey. Should you be eating desserts? she gently asked. I heard that coffee and artificial sweeteners are bad for cancer patients, too, and you just had two cups.

Wow, I thought.

Writing about my battle with breast cancer invites people to journey with me. Now, I understand that part of that invitation is checking out what I eat.

Her remarks made sense. She'd been reading my columns since the diagnosis. She'd been there through the mastectomies. And she probably assumed that since it seems the cancer is gone, I should take all possible precautions to avoid more cancer.

I wondered whether she was the only one in the room watching me mow through the tart. Were others in the audience aghast that I was throwing caution to the wind and eating as if I'd never had cancer?

Maybe they are thinking, Hey, lady, you dodged the bullet once, shouldn't you be eating and living with more caution?

I did not have a strong defense for my confectionary consumption. So I simply told the truth. I shrugged and said, I just eat what I want.

After I said it, I wondered, but should I eat what I want?

The lunchtime conversation sent me soul-searching about what I eat and whether I have a responsibility to eat with a goal of preventing cancer from recurring. Am I being irresponsible with my health? Is my eating a form of sabotage?

My pre-cancer food choices have not changed post-cancer. I eat lots of fresh fruits and vegetables, poultry, seafood, no red meat. I drink plenty of water, along with coffee and diet soda. I call this carefree eating.

Maybe I am too relaxed about this whole food thing. Maybe I should look at food very seriously and weigh everything that enters my mouth. Would that keep cancer from returning? If I were a strict vegetarian and I drank green tea all day, would I be better off?

When I received the breast cancer diagnosis in 2006, I went online and researched cancer diets. I was looking for a way to stay alive. If eating seriously and with a purpose was the cure, I was interested.

There is a lot of interesting data about cancer diets. Experts have identified foods that they think will help fight cancer, believing that cancer can be considered an immune-deficiency disease. They believe there is a link between what we eat and cancer's presence in the body.

In his book, The Zone: A Dietary Roadmap, Barry Sears writes, I believe that the ultimate strategy for fighting cancer is one that allows the body to prevent an overproduction of bad eiconsanoids, which depress the immune system.

Apparently the eiconsanoids help cancer spread and promote metastasis. So, he says, it is best to avoid eating foods that can hurt us. Not surprising, the suspect foods are my favorites: bread, pasta, grains, potatoes and sweets.

Before I allowed myself to walk too far down the road of self-pity, I reflected on a conversation I had with my breast cancer doctor after the surgery. I asked whether there was anything special I should be eating and whether I should alter my diet.

To my surprise, he said, no. In his opinion, the removal of the cancerous breast and the noncancerous breast were sufficient. The type of cancer I had was noninvasive and nonaggressive. He released me and advised me to enjoy life.

I am taking him at his word. I do not meet many pecan tarts that I don't like. Coffee in the morning tickles my fancy. An ice-cold diet soda slides down my parched throat on sizzling afternoons.

If I offended or disappointed the woman who watched me eat the tart, I apologize. But I will stand by my decision to eat with a carefree attitude.

Having cancer was grim. It is time to have fun.

Is certainly think of folic acid. In fact, not only pregnant women, men, women and children are the meeting of folic acid. Because it involved in the manufacture of red blood cells and white blood cell count, enhance immunity, once the lack of human will appear fatigue, forgetfulness, insomnia and other symptoms.

So we usually have to pay attention to the life of a folic acid supplement, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration

In the daily diet of lettuce is the best source of folic acid, it contains a lot of leaves and stems in both the natural folic acid, is of high nutritional value. Jiantang drink of fresh lettuce leaves can cure the swelling and ascites, lettuce-curable unreasonable milk, lettuce Nenjing in white Jiangzhi also has the role of hypnosis. Therefore, it is lettuce

High nutritional value of food, some people even say that every-are not be overemphasized.

In addition to lettuce, folic acid in fact widespread in our daily consumption of animal and plant foods, good sources are liver, kidney, eggs, beans, fruits, green leafy vegetables such as. Because folic acid in food cooked after the loss rate can be as high as 50% -90%, more than the consumption of some raw fruits and vegetables

If you suspect that they have health problems, please consult your health-care doctors. Medical source of the world, the authors, editors will not be the responsibility and obligation.

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