Follow Friday

Happy Herbivore has to be one of my favorite spots on the Internet for plant-based, no salt, sugar, oil recipes.

I love the website so much I bought both Happy Herbivore and Everyday Happy Herbivore for Kindle.

Lindsey's recipes are very approachable, quick and yummy. Check her out if you're new to plant-based eating.

Say-it-with-pictures Sunday

[caption id="attachment_589" align="aligncenter" width="523"] These two make me happy every.single.day![/caption]

Follow Friday

Stumbled across this guy on Twitter. I can't remember who followed whom first, but the Healthy Fellow has some great information over at his website.

It's not necessarily all ETL friendly but he is a natural health consultant, so, there is info over that that we "nutes" can find useful.

Does a plant-based diet reverse diabetes?

"It may seem like a vegan diet is just too difficult to start and sustain. 'Diabetes is difficult,' says Barnard. 'Yes, people may think eating a vegan diet sounds hard–but ending up on dialysis and going blind is what is hard.' " -- Care2 story

[caption id="attachment_580" align="alignleft" width="198"] Photo courtesy of Ambro at freedigitalphotos.net[/caption]

Many many of the doctors and researchers into nutrition as healthcare believe so. And they have documented cases of patients who have reversed their diabetes by shunning the Standard American Diet (SAD) and meat.

Care2 recently had a story of a woman who reversed her diabetes and Dr. Fuhrman has a book coming out in December that addresses the use of a plant-based diet to reverse diabetes.

I don't have diabetes, thankfully. I have had relatives who had it. One relative in particular was incredibly aggravating about how she chose to take the advice of her doctors and diabetes educators. Other diabetics I've known have been frustrated by the advice of their doctors and diabetes educators, especially after they've gone plant-based and gotten off their medications.

[caption id="attachment_581" align="alignright" width="199"] Photo courtesy of artemisphoto at freedigitalphotos.net[/caption]

I know many many many people reiterate over and over again that you can't get enough protein on a plant-based diet and that's just not true. You get all the protein you need on a plant-based diet, and you don't have to count or measure.

I know it's not for everyone, but since it's vegetarian awareness month, I'm just trying to provide resource options for those who are interested in plant-based eating.

Say no to pinkwashing, Part II

I know, I know, back-to-back posts about why I hate the pink ribbon campaign.

But after writing this post, which included a story by an acquaintance whose mother died of cancer, I decided to hit the grocery stores and see if I could visually demonstrate my point (as well as hers). BINGO, I found it, so this is a show-and-tell of sorts.

See, one of the things Sharon talks about in her post is the fact that the companies raising money for various cancer charities are producing many of the products that cause or accelerate cancer.

And she's correct. Here's what I found on the shelves of just one store.

[caption id="attachment_646" align="aligncenter" width="300"] One of three products I found on the shelf that's helping in the fight against breast cancer[/caption]

So, I decided to take a look at the ingredients list on the side panel and here's what it shows.

[caption id="attachment_650" align="alignright" width="1024"] Ingredient list[/caption]

Sugar appears a few times there. Let's look at what Dr. Fuhrman has to say about sugar and cancer, shall we?

"Although different transport mechanisms are used to get fructose and glucose into cells, their metabolism is thought to be similar once they enter cells.  However, these scientists found that in human pancreatic tumor cells, metabolism of fructose and glucose occurs via different pathways, both leading to cell proliferation.  Keep in mind that both sugars led to increased cell proliferation at similar rates - that is, this study did not show that fructose is "worse" than glucose, just that they stimulate proliferation by different mechanisms.  Glucose was used by the cancer cells for energy production, whereas fructose was used to generate nucleic acids (DNA and RNA).  This study was the first to show that cancer cells could differentiate between fructose and glucose, and that they could use fructose as efficiently as glucose to fuel cell growth." -- from a piece he wrote for VegSource.

You don't have to take his word for it, he lists the studies at the end of the article.

Here's another product that's fighting the good fight

And, its ingredients



And, finally, off the store shelf, let's not leave out the BPA-lined canned goods



And, there's THIS information from the Breast Cancer Fund, which actually seems interested in PREVENTION.

Finally, what I was looking for was delivered straight to my mailbox, in the form of a grocery store ad with a pullout section promoting the products that are in it to win it in the fight against breast cancer

What do we see in the ad? Well, fake food. Products with sugar (or high fructose corn syrup, which the corn lobby would like you to call corn sugar thank you very much), as well as dairy, which has been linked to cancer.

So, there you have it. My little experiment has taught me that if I want to contribute to any cancer charity, the Breast Cancer Fund may just be that charity because they are focusing on environmental causes and as their little tagline says "Prevention Starts Here." OH, and to stay out of the center aisles of the grocery store.

Say no to pinkwashing

I've been anti-pinkwashing for a while now for a variety of reasons (money doesn't really go to preventing breast cancer, I don't believe big pharma will ever allow a "cure" to be found, I don't agree with the political motivations of some of the groups that raise money for this "cause," money from the purchase of pinked items doesn't go to cancer prevention and precious little to finding a cure, I could go on and on and on.)

Thankfully, an acquaintance shared on Facebook a 2011 blog post she wrote about boycotting the pink ribbon. I think she says best my latest reason for avoiding the pink ribbon. Here are some points from that blog post, you can read the full post here.

[caption id="attachment_594" align="aligncenter" width="523"] Illustration courtesy of scottchan at freedigitalphotos.net, altered by me[/caption]

By Sharon McRae

Why I’m Boycotting the Pink Ribbon

Posted on October 4, 2011

My Mom died of breast cancer.  It’s still hard to say that, much less to believe it, even after two and a half years.  She was diagnosed when she was in her early 40’s, and I still remember how shocked we all were when we learned that the small lump she had found herself in the shower, the lump that the doctors were all but certain was benign, was in fact, cancer.  She initially had a lumpectomy and radiation therapy, and all was well for a few years.  But the insidious disease came back, and she had a mastectomy and chemotherapy next.  I still remember taking her for her first wig fitting and how embarrassed she was about letting me see her bald head.  She was always so brave, taking every step her doctors recommended along the way, and much to everyone’s surprise, including her radiation oncologist, who referred to her as a “walking miracle,” she fought this battle off and on for a total of 26 years.  In the end, the cancer metastasized to her pelvic area, and she had to have a double nephrostomy so as not to suffer damage to her kidneys.  My Dad stood by her every step of the way, flushing and changing her nephrostomy bags dutifully, helping her in the restroom, getting her out whenever she was strong enough to go.  She always loved to go out to eat….food was her passion in life.  And it’s a little ironic to me that although she was overweight for most of her life, no medical professional ever talked to her about her diet, or even her weight, throughout all of the years that she struggled with this disease.  Meanwhile, I was so strongly affected by watching her and what was happening to her that I began to gradually modify my own health habits and relationship with food, believing somehow that it would protect me from suffering the same fate.  I began exercising daily, religiously, for at least an hour, and I also gradually began to move towards a vegetarian diet.  I often encouraged my parents, and particularly my Mom, to eat more vegetables, to stop eating so much fatty meat and sweets, but my words had little to no impact.  I wish now that I could turn back time and refuse to allow any animal-based or processed foods into my home, but at the time, I didn’t know about the strong connection between these foods and their ability to turn on cancer genes and/or feed cancer cells, so I allowed my parents to bring their own food and eat it here when we were together for holidays and other gatherings.

**************************

I am “fighting breast cancer” this year by informing everyone I know, in as many ways as I can, about the benefits of eating a whole foods, plant-based diet.  I truly believe that if my Mom had been given this order by her doctor, she may have made some changes and lived a better quality of life.  She may have learned how delicious real food can be, how great you can feel after you eat it, how you don’t have to worry about counting calories and controlling portions, and how it doesn’t lead to excessive weight gain and digestive discomfort the way that animal-based and processed foods do.  I’m currently working with some clients who have changed their diets gradually to include these delicious, plant-based whole foods, and they are looking and feeling amazing.  And I know that this is the best way that I can personally “Race for the Cure.”  The cure lies in knowledge and in prevention, not in a new drug with all kinds of short and long-term side effects or a new, expensive treatment that takes a heavy toll on the body and may or may not be effective.  The cure lies in informing and educating women, men, children, that what is on the end of their forks truly is medicine, and will profoundly affect their bodies and minds both immediately, and in the long-term.  We are not victims of our genes; genes may load the gun, but it’s the choices we make that pull the trigger.  I lived for years in extreme fear that I would find a lump or get a bad report after a mammogram.  I was terrified to go through what my Mom endured.  And now I feel secure that by making the dietary and lifestyle choices that I have, I am doing the very best for my body, my mind, my spirit, and my family.  I want to find the cure and fight this disease every bit as desperately as I did when I participated in the walks and purchased every product I could get my hands on that displayed the pink ribbon.  But I know now that it’s not about making more money for these companies that are not really in it to win it.  It’s about taking responsibility for my health, educating myself and others about the reality of where the breast cancer risks really are, and making whatever changes are necessary to minimize exposure to these risks.  If we all work together and inspire each other to move towards a healthier lifestyle, then maybe we won’t need to race anymore, other than for the thrill of it.

I wrote a similarly-themed post about my mom a few months back.

(I had a conversation with a work friend about this issue Wednesday, and we both agreed, they might as well just add pink ribbons to cigarettes to raise awareness. The same friend shared this post with me by a breast cancer patient who is no longer alive.)

Another friend posted THIS about the pink ribbon campaign.

Say-it-with-pictures Sunday

[caption id="attachment_561" align="aligncenter" width="400"] Photo courtesy of Matt Banks at freedigitalphotos.net[/caption]