100 Perks of Having Cancer: Plus 100 Health Tips for Surviving It (43 page)

Perk #44

Perks for Parents

I
recently received a very moving message on my

blog from a woman who said, “Our world came

crashing down just after Christmas when our mom,

our best friend, the woman who holds everything

together, called and told us she was diagnosed with

breast cancer.” This statement brought home to me

the reality that cancer truly is a family disease.

When I was diagnosed, my whole family was grief

stricken, none more so than my parents. However,

just as cancer had its perks for me, it turns out that

my cancer held some perks for them as well.

Dad has lived most of his life with chronic

My parents, Len and Madeline Strang

back pain, among other health issues. For many

years he existed in the sick role, with Mom and his five daughters caring for

him. After I was diagnosed, there was a big change in Dad. All of a sudden

he started showing up at my house with his little tool kit asking if I needed

anything fixed. (That is a man’s way of nurturing, by the way.) While I was

undergoing chemo, my sister Sherry experienced serious health issues as well,

requiring emergency surgery. While Mom was at my home taking care of me,

Dad was at Sherry’s, nursing her back to health. What a reversal of roles!

At the age of sixty-eight, Dad got his first passport to travel outside Canada

in order to accompany us on my surprise trip to Florida. Mom had been trav-

eling to Florida for years to visit my sister, but she long ago gave up hope of

ever getting Dad to go with her. It took everyone by surprise when he agreed

to go with us, and I have to say, despite the discomfort he experienced during

our travels, he was a real trooper. Dad still lives with chronic pain, but the

experience of seeing his daughters through illness seems to have given him a

new lease on life.

Another perk is the deeper closeness that seems to have developed

between my parents. Pulling together in a time of crisis has taken them to

I 170 J

Perk #44: Perks for Parents

171

a new level of intimacy. This is apparent, not only to

our family, but to others as well. On the flight back

It is sometimes difficult to

from Florida, as my parents were chatting and laughing,

allow ourselves to be nursed

the flight attendant asked them if they were on their

and nurtured by others. Keep

honeymoon. Mom, a practical, no-nonsense person,

in mind, however, that this

laughed heartily at that comment. For her, it was a real

blessing is a gift as much for

knee-slapper! I think Dad took it as a compliment.

the giver as the receiver.

HEALTH TIP #44

Keep in Mind—Colorful Means Healthy

I
f colorful means healthy, it’s not hard to find the foods that you should avoid:

White ones. White potatoes, white rice, white pasta, and white bread.

Let’s compare sweet potatoes to white potatoes. Gorgeous, bright-orange

sweet potatoes have 14,185 IUs of vitamin A, which is an antioxidant and

powerful cancer fighter. That’s 284 percent of your recommended daily

allowance. White potatoes have 0 percent. Remember, inflammation equals

disease. Certain foods promote an inflammatory response based on their

nutritional content. One noted nutritionist has assigned inflammation

points to foods, giving them either a positive or negative rating. Positive

foods are anti-inflammatory, and the higher the number, the more potent the

anti-inflammatory effect. Negative-numbered foods cause an inflammatory

response. The higher that number is, the more the response is. For more

information about this rating system, visit www.InflammationFactor.com.

I am using the factor ratings here for comparison’s sake only.

Sweet potatoes have an inflammation score of 124 (anti-inflammatory).

White potatoes have a score of -66. That’s a
negative
66, which means that

white potatoes cause a mild inflammatory response in your body, causing

your body to react. Of course, one spud won’t do you harm, but if white pota-

toes (or potato salad, potato chips, French fries, home fries, mashed potatoes

. . . you get the idea), and many other inflammation-promoting foods find

their way to your plate every day, and the foods that inhibit inflammation

don’t find their way there too, over time it could spell trouble.

How about pasta? White pasta has an inflammation factor of –302!

172

100 Perks of Having Cancer

Negative 302
for a bowl of macaroni or spaghetti! If you choose to eat the

pasta, you should balance it out with fresh veggies to make it a “pasta primav-

era.” That way, the broccoli, red peppers, yellow squash, and garlic will balance

out the negativity of the white stuff. (By the way, the inflammation factor for

three cloves of raw garlic is +322.)

White bread comes from white flour, which is highly processed. White

flour begins as wheat flour, and wheat flour begins as a whole

Eat all the colors

grain. If you take that grain, crush it, strip it, run it through chem-

of the rainbow.

icals, and bleach it, you are left with a white powder called “all-

(Hint: there’s

purpose flour.” Take the flour, add dough stabilizers, preservatives,

no white in a

high fructose corn syrup, and yeast. What you get is highly

rainbow.)

processed brand-named white bread that contains very little nat-

ural nutrition. (There are vitamins and iron in the bread, but

they’re added after the flour is processed.)

White rice is just brown rice that’s butt naked (or is it buck naked?). Yep,

they stripped it of its nutritious high-fiber coating, and you’re left with just

the sticky, starch insides.

Potatoes, rice, pasta, and bread are all high-starch foods. Starch turns to

sugar even before it hits your stomach. The enzymes in your saliva start the

conversion process immediately. As the starch moves through the digestive

tract, it is further metabolized into sugar and enters the blood very quickly.

Experts agree: Sugar feeds disease.

These starchy, sticky foods also do a number on your intestines once they

get there. White foods are like glue, gumming up the works. Think about what

foods your doctor tells you to eat when you have diarrhea: white rice, white

toast, white potatoes, and pasta. That’s because they will stop runny stools in

their tracks. But if you don’t have diarrhea, all that glue will slow things down

and can cause bloating and constipation.

Healthy bowels not only make you feel better and allow you to success-

fully zip up your jeans, but they are a necessary part of important vitamin

and mineral absorption and have a lot to do with your body’s detoxification

system, ridding your body of unhealthy free radicals that damage cells and

lead to disease.

I can’t help but think of a typical fast-food meal—white-bread bun filled with

meat, fried white potatoes . . . and if you add a vanilla shake—Okay, I’ll quit there.

Perk #45

Home Alone

W
hile I thoroughly enjoyed my Florida vacation, for me there’s no place

like home. I love solitude. However, a hectic work schedule combined

with three children left very little “alone time” for me. Most nights I would

drop into bed shortly after tucking Ben in for the night and fall asleep mid–

“Hail Mary.” Following my diagnosis, however, I had more time to myself

than ever before in my life. And I was lovin’ it!

Once the kids left for school, I had six glorious hours to myself every

weekday. Sometimes I preplanned my day, as I had to be sure to include

the boring stuff, like doctor’s appointments, picking up prescriptions, and

paying bills. Many days, however, I would awaken to a blank slate, which I

could fill in any way I wanted. Here are some of my favorites:

●
go for a walk

●
do a meditation

●
cook a pot of healthy soup

●
sit in my sunroom with a cuppa and bird-watch

●
read

●
garden (in season)

●
catch up on e-mails to my friends

As I continue to pursue these stress-relieving activities, I know that I am

creating an environment that is most conducive to my continued health.

“Learn to enjoy your own company. You are the one person

you can count on living with for the rest of your life.”

—Ann Richards

I 173 J

174

100 Perks of Having Cancer

HEALTH TIP #45

Another Thing You Can Count On:

BPA Is B-A-D

P
lastic and its byproducts are all around us and found in places they

shouldn’t be (like your urine—more on that later). Just look around and

you’ll agree that pretty much everything you see is made of some form of

plastic. But some plastics are “better” and “safer” than others.

The 1950s were great, weren’t they? They brought us the Chevy Corvette,

the Rat Pack, and a new, lightweight, fun-filled plastic: polycarbonate. Poly-

carbonates and PVC plastics are made from a substance called bisphenol-

A, better known as BPA. BPA can leech out of the plastic and into your body.