100 Perks of Having Cancer: Plus 100 Health Tips for Surviving It (73 page)

Perk #73: Cancer Brought Out the Family Resemblance to My Son

305

Although I was personally comfortable with

my own baldness, I was not comfortable enough

to bare it to the world. At least not until my

hair started to come in again. The only reason I

was comfortable with my look was because I

was told that I look JUST like Demi Moore from

the movie
G.I. Jane.
Well, I was told that mostly

by myself, but if you stretch your imagination

just a little you might pick up on the resem-

blance. Is it the eyes? The nose? No, it is defi-

nitely the hair.

G.I. Flo

While being bald as a pumpkin has its perks,

it is a joyous day when new hair starts to

grow in. Be patient, it
will
grow back.

HEALTH TIP #73

While We Are on the Topic of Pumpkins

N
ative Americans introduced us to this beautiful orange vegetable,

which is:

●
rich in antioxidants
●
cancer fighting

●
cholesterol lowering
●
healing

●
anti-inflammatory
●
and has powerful anti-aging properties

And what do we do with it? Do we make it a staple in our diet for its

many health-promoting properties? Nope. Instead, we carve faces in it once

a year.

It’s a fact that a pumpkin is not only a cool Halloween prop but is a

powerful health food as well. However, if the only food you can think of

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100 Perks of Having Cancer

when I say “pumpkin” is “pumpkin pie,” then you need a pumpkin lesson.

So here it is: Pumpkins for Dummies.

Pumpkins belong to the gourd family, but they’re not “gourdy” at all.

Extremely nutritious and very high in beta-carotene (which is converted to

vitamin A), pumpkins supply wonderful antioxidants, which help the

body to slow down the aging process and fight disease. A diet high in

beta-carotene is linked with lowering your risk of gastric, lung, breast, and

colorectal cancers. One cup of pumpkin flesh contains 763 percent of the

recommended daily allowance for vitamin A!

Pumpkin has it all:

●
virtually no fat with 0 cholesterol (as do

all plant-based foods)

●
low in calories at 49 calories per cup

●
moderately high in fiber: 11% of your

daily requirement

●
2 grams of protein per serving

●
exploding with vitamin A: 38,135 IUs in one cup!

●
bursting with potassium: 14% of your daily requirement

●
a good amount of vitamin E: 13% of your daily recommended amount

●
a good source of folate, riboflavin, iron, magnesium, copper, manganese,

and zinc

●
and it contains omega-3 fatty acids, which help with overall health and

the reduction in the risk of chronic illnesses

Of course there are obvious ways you can eat pumpkin, like pumpkin

bread, pumpkin cookies, and, of course, pie. But broaden your vision and

cut the sugar. Try this soup to get your pumpkin the healthy way. It contains

curry, which is largely made up of turmeric, another great cancer fighter.

Perk #73: Cancer Brought Out the Family Resemblance to My Son

307

CREAMY PUMPKIN SOUP

YIELD: 9 CUPS

1 small, whole pie pumpkin, which is 4 cups cooked

or
4 cups canned pumpkin

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

1 cup chopped white or sweet onion (1 medium)

2 crushed garlic cloves, peeled

(let them rest for ten minutes to release cancer-fighting “allicin”)

1/2 teaspoon salt—use healthier sea salt if possible

1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

1 tablespoon curry powder and 2 teaspoons olive oil

mixed together

4 cups (low sodium if you like) vegetable broth

1 cup toasted walnut pieces
or
1 cup toasted pine nuts

1 cup low-fat coconut milk
or
rice milk,
or
almond milk

Coconut cream and chopped coriander sprigs, for garnish,

if presentation is important

Note:
If nuts are not toasted, place in oven-safe dish and

bake for 15 to 20 minutes at 350°F.

Directions:

1. Place whole pumpkin on a cookie sheet or in oven-safe bake-ware dish,

pierce it a few times with a fork, and bake at 350°F for about one hour until

a fork can easily pierce the flesh. (You can do this ahead and refrigerate up

to 2 days.)

2. In large soup pot, heat 1 tablespoon olive oil over medium heat. Add

chopped onion and two crushed garlic cloves, salt, and pepper, and cook

without browning, until tender and translucent, about 10 minutes. Stir in

the curry powder and oil mixture. Stir in vegetable stock and bring to a boil

over medium-high heat.

3. Add soft cooked pumpkin to pot and return to boil. Stir, and boil lightly

for 5 minutes.

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100 Perks of Having Cancer

4. Transfer half of the pumpkin mixture to a blender and add half the nuts.

Process until smooth (and then process 1 minute more—you don’t want

any tiny pieces of nuts—you want it to be smooth).

Be careful when putting hot liquid in a blender.

Leave the top open, covered by a clean dishtowel

Don’t wait for

for venting steam, when blending. (I tried using a

Halloween to enjoy

handheld blender for this recipe, but it didn’t puree

this wonderful and

the nuts enough; however, I might not be proficient

powerful cancer-

in the hand-mixing department, so you can give it

fighting vegetable.

a try.) Repeat with the other half of the mixture and

the remainder of the nuts.

5. After entire mixture has been processed, return pumpkin-nut mix back to

pot and whisk in your choice of milk. (I personally love coconut.) Heat over

low heat until heated all the way through. Do not overheat or boil.

6. Optional garnishes: coconut cream and coriander sprigs. Place a can of

coconut milk in the fridge for several hours. Open can, scoop out the thick

cream that rises to the top, and place in a bowl and whisk until smooth. Ladle

soup into bowls. Add a dollop of coconut cream to each bowl and add a sprig

of coriander for garnish if you like.

NUTRITION PER 1 CUP SERVING:

Calories: 178; Fat: 13 grams; Protein: 3.5 grams; Fiber: 4 grams;

Vitamin A: 343% of the RDA; Vitamin C: 10% of the RDA; Iron: 9%

of the RDA.

Perk #74

Cancer Gave Me a

New Way of Marking Time

O
n March 15, 2011, I sat in my

living room with a few friends,

celebrating my friend Sherry’s forty-

fourth birthday. Eventually the

conversation came around to an

acquaintance of ours who was dying

from a very aggressive form of breast

cancer. I said, “Look around you,

ladies. With the stats as they are,

there is a good chance that one of

us could get breast cancer.”

Hey, I didn’t mean ME! I meant

Sherry, Jackie, or Madonna. Surely

I wasn’t going to get breast cancer. I

was young, healthy, fit, and had

no family history. As if some creepy

premonition were unfolding, I found

it the very next day: a lump in my

left breast. Life would never be the

same. I do not remember the exact

My Grandmother’s ninetieth birthday, Dec. 2010 B.C.

day that I received my diagnosis, or

when I had my biopsy or lumpectomy, but I will always mark March 16 as