Cancer Prevention and
the “Anti-Cancer” Diet

When my best friend died of breast cancer,
it changed my life, as well as hers.

by Gillian Drake

TWENTY YEARS AGO this May, my dear friend Barbara died of breast cancer. She was beautiful, smart, witty, a loving mother, and a great friend. We lived across the street from each other, spent a lot of time at each others’ houses, and our young kids ran around the neighborhood together. We were family. When she was diagnosed, we were stunned. When she died, it left a hole in our hearts that I don’t think has ever healed.
I have never told this story before, but I think Barbara would want me to, especially if it can help just one other woman. After all, in the 20 years since she died, the “war against cancer” hasn’t turned up a cure, and prevention is still a woman’s best defence.
Cancer for Barbara was a wake-up call. She was raised in the South, and had always been the quintessential “good girl,” doing everything her parents expected of her, including getting her pilot’s licence, even though she hated flying. She shone in school, earned a PhD in marine biology, and moved to Cape Cod where she started a non-profit organization that studied the ecology of the coastline and the surrounding waters. One day, when her youngest son was just a few years old, she went for her usual mammogram and was given a clean bill of health. A few months later, she felt a lump. It turned out to be malignant. These were the early days in cancer research, and, like the scientist she was, Barbara searched diligently and methodically for some good people to help her. She had the good fortune to find Dr. Susan Love—before she wrote her seminal book about breast cancer and became famous. She also sought out Bernie Siegel, and the two of them guided her through her fight against her very aggressive cancer.
Barbara’s wake-up call meant she had to take a long, hard look at her life. And it was a sobering moment when she realized she was not living a life that she would have chosen for herself. She began to question it all—her choice of career, choice of husband, choice of home town. But most of all she questioned her lifestyle—her attitudes, her belief system, and her diet. She was a “yes” person. She never said no, and sometimes her life was chaotic and stressful because of it. You could almost see her gritting her teeth as she determined to be a “good girl” and please everyone—except herself.
She shared these epiphanies with me, and I remember some of her comments vividly. “Even if my body isn’t healed and I can’t cure the cancer, I can still heal my Self,” she told me. I had thought they were the same thing; I also did not realize there was a difference between healing and curing. It was news to me that we can heal our spirits, even if our bodies succumb to illness. She gave me books to read, many of which I still have: “Love, Medicine and Miracles” by Bernie Siegel; “You Are What You Eat” by Victor Lindlahr; “Getting Rid of the Poisons in Your Body” by Gary and Steven Null, one chapter of which is entitled, Sweet Suicide. In those days, reading these kind of books was considered a bit strange, but I sensed they told the truth and I devoured them.
As her disease progressed and she went through debilitating surgery, chemotherapy and radiation, we helped her celebrate each milestone, going out to dinner to show off her new wig or mark the end of a series of treatments. But a sense of resignation crept in. We knew she was losing the battle. “I’m only doing this, going through this treatment, for the sake of my boys,” she said to me once, knowing it would only give her a few more months, maybe a year. Her sons were both under the age of 10. At the time she died, she was studying for a master’s degree in clinical psychology in Boston. She would have made a terrific psychologist. But she never had that chance.
By witnessing her agonize over her treatment options and life choices, I received the gift of realizing that I too could change my life, but without the horrific challenge of fighting breast cancer. I was so grateful to be healthy that I decided to embark on a path of cancer prevention and all that it entailed—changing my diet, changing my attitudes, examining my belief system, and taking my first hesitatant steps into the new world of psychotherapy. As the years went by, this path led to AlAnon, membership in the Unitarian/Universalist Church, and a deep sense of connection to the spiritual world. But what I want to share with you here is the thorough understanding that I learned about the role of diet in degenerative diseases, especially cancer.

During this time, I too had taken a hard look at my life and changed many things. Even so, a few years later I began to experience chronic fatigue. I could not drive to our nearest town without stopping for a nap or drinking a Coke. My hair and nails became brittle, I couldn’t think straight—I had what I can only describe as “brain fog.” I would wake up in the middle the night thinking my hands had dropped off, they were so numb. Then I had a hard time going back to sleep, lying awake for hours. And I was plagued with digestive disturbances. I felt sick all over.
By some serendipitous event, I discovered that I had Candidiasis, a systemic yeast infection, something that doctors then (and now) refuse to consider a true condition. I started on the road to health by visiting alternative medical professionals on the Cape who understood this condition, and through reading and researching everything I could find to make myself feel better (not so easy in those days before the Internet . . . ) I set about curing myself of these symptoms and of the food allergies that blood tests showed I had. I went cold turkey. I could only eat tomatoes, carrots, chicken, salmon and rice. No grains, dairy, sugar, alcohol, or fruit. I did okay for about five months and was really proud of myself. I felt great. In fact, I felt fantastic. I had come alive again. But then I had a slip, a big one, in the form of a large French fruit tart. I devoured it at one sitting, and that was when I realized I had a big problem. I was addicted to sugar. And I realized I could not control this addiction just by telling myself I shouldn’t eat sweets. I really had to know WHY I couldn’t eat sugar, so that I literally didn’t want to put it in my body. So I read everything I could about sugar addiction and what I learned startled me, so much so that I put together this list to remind myself why I would not want to ever become addicted to sugar again. Simple carbohydrates—refined sugar and white flour—have now been shown to be the fundamental cause of the epidemic of degenerative diseases that we now face, and I knew that eliminating them from my diet was essential. Other people may be able to cut down (and I hope you will), but for me, like an alcoholic, it was “all or nothing.” And I chose nothing. In the nest column is the list I put together.

Slowly Does It
A few years after embarking on this diet, I was diagnosed with suspected ovarian cancer, with tumors the size of tangerines. After surgery, the pathology report showed no sign of cancer, and my doctor told me she believed it was because I had been on what she termed an “anti-cancer diet.” So whether you just want to cut back on refined carbs or to aggressively change your diet for the better, I know this list will help.
     The idea is to cut down gradually. Read food labels. Wean yourself off processed and packaged foods. Fully understand the detrimental effect that sugar and other sweeteners have on all aspects of your health.
     The easiest way to avoid the sugar trap is to banish sweetened foods from your home. Fill your refrigerator with healthy snacks, such as carrot sticks and hummus, corn chips and salsa or guacamole, rice crackers and peanut butter, nuts and seeds, and popcorn.
     Keep on hand a plentiful supply of the power-house fruits and veggies such as avocados, sweet potatoes, butternut squash, tomatoes, oranges, apples, grapefruit, pomegranates, and berries. For protein, eat fish, chicken, or other fowl such as duck and turkey (organic if possible). Eat red meat sparingly, and NEVER eat processed meat. If you are not allergic to gluten, you can eat whole, organic grains and bread, but NEVER eat packaged white bread. And I’ll say it again, NO PROCESSED FOOD! And no processed fruit juice, it’s pure sugar—much better to eat the whole fruit. Get to know your local health food store, it’s amazing what delicious things they have to offer that you may not have tried.
     Try not to eat sweet foods for breakfast or lunch. If you need to have something sweet in your diet, have it as a treat late in the afternoon. For sweetening coffee or tea, use Xylitol. When you eat out, try to eliminate dessert. Before I go out to dinner, I program myself to know that dessert is not going to be part of the meal. I will often have a cup of de-caf coffee with cream and Xylitol as my dessert.

Continued in next column . . .

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