When you think about it, most communities which follow a native diet and lifestyle STRICTLY have very low cancer rates, if at all. It’s the people who adulterate this “formula” who start getting all kinds of sicknesses, including cancer. Let’s look at the elements which are common to relatively cancer-free societies, whether they are Asian, European or African:

1. They eat foods native to their territory, whether it be plant or animal in origin. Don’t forget that the Mongolians and Eskimos eat a predominantly meat and fat based diet, with hardly any plant food. The Mongolians, in addition, eat plenty of dairy foods. Many traditional European, Middle-Eastern and Indian diets also feature dairy products and meats.

2. Each native group obviously adapted to their respective diets, eating whatever was naturally available in order to stay alive. This is why a diet abundant in meat and fat was not harmful to the Eskimos or the Mongolians. In fact, it was protective for them, living in their harsh, wintry environments.

3. The foods they ate and beverages they drank were organic, unprocessed, unrefined and free from artificial additives like chemicals, hormones and antibiotics. Meat and dairy were completely natural and uncontaminated.

4. Foods were generally eaten fresh, freshly harvested or freshly killed. Any food preservation or storage was usually limited to salting, fermenting, drying or pickling. Modern societies tend to eat food which has been canned, packaged in some way or frozen for quite some time.

5. Cooking methods were completely natural. Nothing strange like microwaving or “nuking” in any way.

6. Kitchen utensils, cookware and materials used were also completely natural (clay, leaves, wood etc). Certainly no plastic.

7. Condiments, spices and flavorings were kept simple and natural. Nothing artificial.

8. In Asia, if oil was used for cooking, it was what was indigenous to the territory eg. peanut oil, coconut oil, soya bean oil, ghee (clarified butter), or lard (made from animal fat). “Healthy” fats like olive oil or grapeseed oil were unheard of.

9. If a sweetener was used, it was natural eg. cane sugar, palm sugar or honey.

10. Carbohydrates were fine and even essential, but they were usually natural, unrefined and free from artificial additives eg. tapioca, sweet potatoes, corn, beans, nuts, seeds, potatoes and other tubers.

11. No leftover food was kept. Everything was made fresh and finished in one sitting, so food did not have a chance to deteriorate further.

12. Usually, native people ate only what they needed, or even starved at times for a while. Excess was a luxury, and generally reserved for special occasions. Modern people are literally indulging themselves to death.

13. With the exception of people living in harsh environments like the Mongolians and Eskimos – where meat and fat was more readily available than plant foods – most native diets are dominated by plant foods. Meat was considered a luxury item to be eaten sparingly or reserved for special occasions. If seafood was available, that was eaten more often than meat. Modern societies consume far more meat than our forefathers did, and the meat we eat today is mostly adulterated and contaminated.

14. Almost all native societies have some fermented foods. These foods are rich in anti-cancer properties. Think sauerkraut, kimchi, miso, tempeh and yoghurt.

15. Almost all native societies have a rich tradition of using herbs for food, healing and beauty. The Chinese, for instance, have a vast variety of herbal teas, using herbs, flowers, roots, tree bark, fungi etc. I grew up drinking herbal teas and soups, but switched to Western concoctions and drugs and soda pop from my early teens. Now that I’m older and (hopefully) wiser, I’m beginning to rediscover Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and learning how to use traditional herbs at home.

16.The true native lifestyle is physically active, even rigorous, on a daily basis. Exercise was a way of life. People living in urban societies are very sedentary, and obesity has become an epidemic.

17 The environment and air was clean and pure. There was no exposure to modern contaminants like chemicals, radiation, electrical currents, vehicle and industrial emissions etc.

18. Furniture, building materials, fabrics etc was all organic.

19. There was no obsession with cleaning or enhancing body or home with products saturated with chemicals, unlike today.

20. People slept early and woke up early. Their sleeping environments were completely dark and quiet, except perhaps for the sounds of nature. No night lights, street lights, blinking lights, TV etc. Perfect for melatonin production.

These are just a few of my observations. As I said in my opening paragraph, the people who adulterate this “formula” are the ones who start getting all kinds of sicknesses, including cancer. Of course, observing a strict native diet and way of life is challenging in an urban society. But I believe we need to try our level best, in order to be cancer-free, even if it means re-locating. Major miracles often require major changes.

So, should we consume green tea, or soy, or turmeric, or flaxseed, or berries, or cruciferous vegetables, or iodine, or dark chocolate etc. or load up on more supplements? I think we know by now that each in itself CANNOT defeat cancer. Diet alone won’t cut it. Even vegetarians and exercise fanatics get cancer, right? A radical, holistic approach is required, and this may include some medical intervention. To keep cancer and other diseases at bay, it’s back to basics, back to our roots.

GO NATIVE, as far as it makes sense. In other words, if you’re a Mongolian working in a nice, cushy office in New York, the traditional Mongolian diet may not be healthy for you in this context. Adapt it to your present living environment, eliminating elements which are harmful (eg. unnatural foods, high-fat diet, chemicals, being sedentary) and adding those which are protective (eg. daily exercise, lots of plant foods, natural foods, fresh foods, safe personal care and household care products, conducive sleeping environment and times).

As long as your foods are natural and your way of life is as native as possible, a little dairy food or meat or dessert once in a while is not going to kill you. Just make sure it is pure, unrefined, unprocessed and fresh. Food which has travelled a long way to get to you is often “preserved” in some way to make it last the journey and storage. They also lose their nutritional value with each passing day.

Avoid anything artificial or unnatural, eat fresh, don’t over-indulge, lose weight, learn how to use herbs for everything, eat some fermented foods regularly, live in a pure and uncontaminated environment, sleep well and exercise everyday. GO NATIVE!

Posted: June 4th, 2010 under Alternative Remedies, Cancer, Diet, Health Basics 101.
Comments: 1

A certain spot on my upper lip started tingling one morning last week. For me, that’s usually a sign that a cold sore is developing. So I grabbed my tube of cold sore ointment and applied it immediately. Normally, if you do this before a blister forms, you should be able to nip the cold sore in the bud. To my consternation, the blister formed within the next couple of hours.

Now, if you’ve ever suffered from cold sores, you know that they are not a pretty sight. They can spread quickly all over the mouth, which is a very embarrassing as well as painful condition to be in. Once they are established, they can linger for seven to 10 days on average. I had meetings scheduled for the week ahead, and I was desperate to get rid of the blisters. I don’t know why, but I decided to try dabbing apple cider vinegar on the sores. I hadn’t heard about that being a natural remedy for cold sores but, somehow, I just felt it would help.

The vinegar was certainly soothing. I kelp applying it to my lips for the next few hours, using a cotton bud. Before I went to bed, I applied the apple cider vinegar again.

To my amazement, when I woke up the next morning, the cold sore had dried up and flattened out. It no longer hurt. Wow! That took less than 24 hours, the fastest healing time ever for a cold sore. No medicine has ever achieved that before for me.  Yay for another natural cure!

Posted: May 10th, 2010 under Alternative Remedies, pain relief.
Comments: none

There’s a lot of controversy about consuming phytoestrogens like flaxseed and soya when you have estrogen-dominant breast cancer. Some say you should avoid them as they mimic estrogen and may aggravate the breast cancer. Others reason that phytoestrogens are a weak and harmless form of estrogen, so it is better for them to occupy the estrogen-receptor sites in the body which feed the cancer, rather than have those sites occupied by harmful estrogens like estradiol and estrone. By competing to fill the estrogen-receptors, phytoestrogens are actually cancer-fighting, or so the logic goes.

After following the Budwig protocol for 14 months and consuming large quantities of flaxseed oil combined with cottage cheese daily, as well as ground flax – an essential part of the program – I’ve come to the conclusion that flaxseed is harmful for my estrogen-sensitive breast cancer. Tumors as large as oranges developed during that time and covered my breast, bleeding profusely. That was a horrifying period. No more flaxseed for me!

Soy, on the other hand, seems to have helped keep the cancer under control for several years since I was first diagnosed. I drank soy milk daily and used it in my cereal until my husband and I sold our house and moved in with his folks for almost a year while we were looking for a new home. During that interval, we could not use the kitchen freely, so we did not buy groceries or prepare our own meals and beverages then. Not only did I stop consuming soy milk daily, I even stopped my daily juicing routine. Whether it was due to these changes in my diet or to the stress of living with the in-laws, the cancer started getting active and the small tumor I had then bled for the first time ever. Shortly after moving into our new home, I started on the Budwig protocol and the breast cancer grew exponentially thereafter.

I’m back to consuming soy daily now. I love drinking fresh soya milk every day, the natural, clean-tasting type which Asians have been drinking for generations, not the additives-loaded fake substitute for dairy milk sold in the West. I also enjoy cooking with soy products like tofu and tempeh, a fermented pressed soy cake. Interestingly, my oncologist suggested I consume more soy products to counter the side-effects of Femara (Letrozole), an estrogen inhibitor. I blend my own fresh vegetable and fruit juices daily too. I even make sauerkraut regularly and eat it daily for its cancer-fighting and estrogen-regulating properties. When I can find space in my fridge, I also make a big batch of coleslaw, one of my favorite salads which also happens to have cancer-fighting properties.

I know what flaxseed did to my body and I also remember how soy protected me against breast cancer so, as phytoestrogens go, my vote is for soy.

Posted: May 3rd, 2010 under Alternative Remedies, Cancer, Healing Foods.
Comments: none