“Every time you eat or drink you are either feeding disease or fighting it”
~ Food Matters
This beautiful lady in the picture is my mom. She is a cancer survivor of now over 10 years. I am, for that reason a high risk individual (or so the doctors tell me). This post is about her, about me and about the big C lurking in my life and all of our lives whether we like it or not.
If you have been with me for a while you know my story and my mom’s, but for my new friends I will summarize. My mom received an early diagnosis and took a very radical decision: Full mastectomy. After surgery most doctors recommend chemo, but that was not going to happen. Not for a woman that had learned about the power of foods and herbs. We were the weird family in those years when green drinks where not cool that eat a 90% plant based diet and all kinds of strange concoctions. There was no soda or fake stuff in our kitchen and mom cooked everything.
Fast forward time a few years and I find myself in America completely adapted to the convenience food culture and forgetting all that my mom taught me. Sadly, the inheritance I kept was the tendency to feel stress (which I’m sure played a role in her development of the disease in the first place). I had my mom’s story in the back of my mind but never close enough to make changes, until my body broke down in pieces and I had to. I did not develop cancer, but a deep hormonal imbalance combined with adrenal fatigue and episodes of paralyzing anxiety, that I now know could have ended up in Cancer. But thanks to my mom’s upbringing I went back to my roots, and here I am today, a new woman, but more than anything a determined health crusader. I never thought that my coaching would have me face the big C again, but so it has. Many of my clients have had to face the monster, and sadly now many of my friends too. It is so upsetting! I’m now realizing that I am in the forefront of the battle. I never like the whole “finding the cure” slogan….I’m about “finding the root and pulling it out”!
I collected a couple of very important pieces of information for you. Read this and meditate on it: If you are overweight, your chances of developing cancer could be even higher than mine, a supposedly high risk person because of my direct family history. If you have a glucose imbalance you can multiply that again, and if you have diabetes, well…you get the point. I don’t like to scare people. But if you think your extra pounds are a matter of heart health, cholesterol or even just vanity, I want you to think again. There is a big C lurking in your life…and I cannot let any more people go there, not if I can help it. Do you think I care about how your clothes fit? Sorry, I really don’t. I care that you LIVE to fulfill your dreams!
I’ve never written a blog post with these much scientific research…But reading them I knew I had to share. Stay focused and read my friend. Because you know what? This is not theory. Being overweight causes cancer. I did not say it, science did. Period.
Here are the cold hard facts:
- Strong evidence was already available to link five cancers to being overweight or obese: adenocarcinoma of the esophagus; colorectal cancer; breast cancer in postmenopausal women; and uterine and kidney cancers.A new review, published in The New England Journal of Medicine, links an additional eight cancers to excess fat: gastric cardia, a cancer of the part of the stomach closest to the esophagus; liver cancer; gallbladder cancer; pancreatic cancer; thyroid cancer; ovarian cancer; meningioma, a usually benign type of brain tumor; and multiple myeloma, a blood cancer.“Only smoking comes close” as an environmental factor affecting cancer risk (Dr. Colditz). “And that’s an important message for nonsmokers. Obesity now goes to the top of the list of things to focus on.”
- Elizabeth A. Platz, a professor of epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and a widely published cancer researcher who was not involved in the report, said that this was a “high-caliber working group of respected epidemiologists and laboratory researchers,” and that women in particular should take note of the results.“The strongest association they found,” she said, “is with uterine cancer. And postmenopausal breast cancer is also connected to obesity, especially estrogen receptor positive cancer. These are important messages that women need to hear.”
- Other research hints at a connection between high intake of added sugars and colon cancer. This higher risk remained even after adjusting for other colon cancer risk facts like being overweight or obese or having diabetes.
- Peiying Yang, PhD, Assistant professor of palliative, rehabilitation and integrative medicine research pinpointed fructose, a component of table sugar and high-fructose corn syrup, as the responsible sugar facilitating lung metastasis in the breast tumors studies. Previous epidemiological studies have shown that dietary sugar intake has an impact on breast cancer development, with inflammation thought to play a role.
- Added sugars increase the risk of esophageal cancer, while added fructose (think high fructose syrup and its dangers) appeared to increase the risk of cancer in the small intestine. (1)
- Other research hints at a connection between high intake of added sugars and colon cancer. This higher risk remained even after adjusting for other colon cancer risk facts like being overweight or obese or having diabetes (2)
If you thought I was passionate about my job and disciplined about my purpose in life, this is rising the bar. I urge you to listen, to take action and to be smart about it. Don’t go on a stupid diet (yes, I said stupid – I’m that fired up!) That is not the point. You need to alkalize your system and that’s why we need green superfoods or even better start with a 10 day transformation. But it can’t stop there. You need to keep it up, change your mindset, learn a new way of living and that my friend is what I am here to help you do. I’m not going to rest until that Cancer ghost goes away. We’ll use superfoods, we’ll meditate, we’ll learn how to exercise for your body & schedule, we’ll develop stress managing techniques and we’ll embrace cooking and self care. No big C is going to rob the world from the gift you came to give. CLICK HERE NOW and book an initial 30 minutes strategy session with me. It is free. But you have to want to live this life I am talking about. Quoting Mary Oliver “Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”
XO
Coach Maria Marcano
