Diet

 "Let Medicine be thy food and food be thy medicine."  Hippocrates (Father of Medicine) 460 B.C.

Now you might say that when the Father of Modern Medicine made that statement, there wasn’t the problem of preservatives, pesticides, GMO, excessive amounts of sweets, food dyes and chemicals that plague our modern diet. 

"Eating is always a decision: nobody forces your hand to pick up food and put it into your mouth."

Albert Ellis, Michael Abrams, Lidia Dengelegi, The Art and; Science of Rational Eating, 1992

We are trained from birth to relate to food, sometimes in very unhealthy ways.  In all the ideas of healthy eating.  It is empowering to recognize much more than life-nourishing and medicinal properties of food.  Food can bring us joy, creativity, celebration, family and community, as well as vitality.  It can also be used emotionally in negative ways to stuff feelings.  Food consumption can become subtle and not so subtle forms of addiction masking fears underneath.  Our common phraseology speaks to the close connection between digestion and the emotions.  To "chew on that" refers to the processing of information while, "I can't stomach that" refers to being exposed to something unpleasant that one does not want to engage with.   "I have butterflies in my stomach"  means being anxious.  How about the words "assimilation"and "processing" refering equally to digestive process and the intake of information.

Research tells us that there are more neurotransmitters in the gut than in the brain.  That is why the gut is referred to as the second brain. 

"Feed your faith and your fears will starve to death."

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One measure of health and vitality is the normal functioning of the digestive tract - assimilating and breaking down nutrients without a feeling of bloating, fatigue or fullness, and with stools (see pic) that are well formed. 

A Stomach that receives food without belching, burning or pain shows contentment.  In addition to foods and spices that have impact on disease, we must also eat diets that address functional vitality.  Lifestyle is also important in relation to the digestive tract.  Stress hormones that can be instigated by unexpressed emotions,  poor diet, excessive exercise and physiologic stress (ie. inflammation, organ dysfunction) all impact our energy level and disease fighting ability.  See the article I wrote:  The Role of the stress hormone cortisol: in maintaining vitality and wellness.

It is estimated that greater than 40% of cancers can be prevented by diet and lifestyle.  It is also true that diet and lifestyle can effect outcomes and quality of life for people with cancer.

Many foods have been researched for their significant impact on cancer.   You can read about them in many posts on the site.  But the story is deeper than that.  I am interested in preventing cancer growth whether or not you have a disease or not but also in creating vitality in the process.  This approach is integral to complementary and natural cancer  treatment strategies even though along the way one may need toxic therapies.   This means that whether you have a disease process going on or not we all need to be working on maintaining and improving functional health of digestion, absorption and elimination.  This includes rebalancing the body from the G.I. side effects of drugs. 

 Stomach: A slave that must accept everything that is given to it, but which avenges wrongs as slyly as does the slave.
- Emile Souvester

I have posted many articles under Diets and Cancer.