June 6, 2006 - Day 7 - Week 9 - Cancer Excerpts (Continued)

I began yesterday taking excerpts from The Earth Killer C’s written in 1995.  This condensed 68 page book was intended, when written, to foster a greater understanding of our participation in the health or decline of our island home earth.  Over the next few days I will be highlighting the chapters on cancer, chemicals and cigarettes; with the emphasis on the cancer and chemicals because most of us know the direct link between ill health and cigarette smoking.

Part Two

“There are Healing C’s that affect our own internal environments.  Our personal food choices have a direct correlation to our health and well being. (sound familiar?) Carolyn Clifford, Chief of the Diet and Cancer Branch of the National Cancer Institute, emphasizes that many scientific studies have demonstrated that eating greater amounts of vegetables, fruits and grains may lower the risk of getting cancer.  Several of these food classifications (of course they do) begin with the letter C.  Nutritionists and doctors are encouraging their patients to eat more CRUCIFEROUS vegetables:  (I do not believe I wrote this 14 years ago, but here it is)  broccoli, Brussels sprouts and cauliflower.  We are advised to eat lemons, limes, grapefruits and oranges, member of the CITRUS CLAN.

The third food group is called CAROTENOIDS: orange and yellow vegetables. Carrots, sweet potatoes, pumpkins and papayas, as well as fruits that contain healthy quantities of beta-carotene.

No one claims that this is a bullet proof formula for a cancer free life, but a diet based upon these food groups may help our internal environment; especially when these vegetable are grown with Seeds of Change (an organic seed company) organic seeds in composted organic soil with no chemicals.”

Today, what I wrote 14 years ago, has come back to haunt me because I did not heed my own words at the level that would have made a difference.  Yes, I have not eaten red meat for 15-16 years, yes we buy organic and grow our own organic vegetables, and yes color on my plate has been important, but I have cheated, a lot!  Turkey dogs and nachos to name two no-no’s from the Kreitler diet of the past.

If I had stuck to the cruciferous, citrus, and carotenoids more regularly…well, maybe I would not have been writing this compact.  Healthy eating habits are hard to build over-night, but knowledge is the beginning of the process.

I now know to say, do not do as I did, but do as I said because the small changes in our diet can make a difference.

(Part Three of the Cancer section from the Earth’s Killer C’s tomorrow)

Back to Week 9