FORKS OVER KNIVES

Hopefully nearing the end of my cancer journey, I still wonder what precipitated my lymphoma and what I might do to prevent its reoccurrence in the future. My oncologist has been vague whenever I’ve questioned him about it. His specialty is treating cancer, not preventing it.

Googling for the causes of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma wasn’t much help either. Most websites concur that although an exact cause isn’t known, doctors believe a virus or activation of abnormal genes may be involved in some cases. Some risk factors are thought to be:

     - exposure to pesticides, chemical solvents, and dyes
     - exposure to some viral infections
     - immunodeficiency states, such as AIDS
     - prior exposure to chemotherapy or radiation therapy

I am also well aware that people can have non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma even without these risk factors.

Over the Christmas holidays, my son’s good friend, Mark Raso, gave me a DVD that opened my eyes to the impact diet can have on overall health and cancer prevention. The documentary entitled Forks over Knives has given me new insights into cancer prevention and has left me cynical about our health care system’s mandate to treat the symptom, not the cause.

Without going into a lot of detail, this 90 minute documentary basically makes the case that nutrients from animal foods promote cancer while nutrients from plant foods decrease its incidence.

In particular, the avoidance of animal-based foods like meat, dairy and eggs as well as processed foods including bleached flour, refined sugars and oil is encouraged. A plant-based diet consisting mainly of cereal grains, vegetables and fruits is claimed to always be associated with lower mortality rates for stroke and coronary heart disease as well as certain cancers.

If cancer starts in genes and animal products encourage genetic abnormalities, then why am I still eating roast beef and drinking 2% milk? And why does the medical community seem so out of touch with what seems to be such common sense?

Of course, the answer has to do with money. What would the pharmaceutical industry do if the incidence of diabetes, obesity and heart disease declined drastically? What would happen to fast food chains and the beef industry if people suddenly lost their taste for the burger? What would happen to our agricultural industry if Health Canada no longer recommended two to three servings of dairy products, per day, for adults?

I know I probably could never make the switch from carnivore to herbivore.  However, Terry and I have resolved to try to answer the question, ‘Where’s the beef?’ with a plate of salad or some rice or pasta at least twice a week.

Walking around with a cancer tumour in my body is a sobering reality check. Just in case my parasitic foe thrives on animal products, I’ve decided to rely on my fork a lot more than my knife this coming year.

Let food be thy medicine.

Hippocrates