A couple of weeks ago, my daughter and I went to a free lecture sponsored by Komen of Massachusetts with Stacy Kennedy, MPH, RD, CSO, LDN, who is a dietitian with Dana-Farber (and some other places, too) about breast cancer and nutrition.
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| Us, front row to the right as they introduced Stacy Kennedy (from the Komen Mass Facebook page) |
She was a fabulous speaker, not only really knowing her stuff and the science behind it, but also enthusiastic and interesting. To be honest, before the lecture my daughter thought it would be kind of dull and only went to keep me company, but she ended up enjoying it as much as I did and we both learned a lot. Of course we were the dorks who sat in the front row and took a few selfies before the lecture started, but she's 15 and I have stage iv cancer, so no apologies for that.
She talked a lot about phytonutrients and a plant-based diet as effective parts of making your immune system strong. And about how those phytonutrients are found in fruits and vegetables and the color of those fruits and vegetables is generally a good indicator of which phytonutrients they contain. So this is the kind of rainbow she was talking a about:
Of course this wasn't the first time I'd heard that advise, for eating right it's kind of old news, but she was really good about going into why you should (it comes down to vitamins, minerals, and those phytonutrients).
She also talked about how important it is not to necessarily avoid sugar (fruits have sugar, for instance, but also lots of good things with it) but to avoid the insulin peaks and drops that come from too much sugar and refined carbs (white flour, etc).
I avoid artificial sweeteners for obvious reasons, but another thing I found interesting was that even though they don't contain sugar, artificially sweetened foods and drinks will actually cause an insulin spike anyway because your brain is preparing for it based on the taste. That was kind of cool (ok, if I'm honest, it was cool for the science, but also cool because I got to congratulate myself for not having to deal with that in the first place, even if that wasn't the initial reason, because, hey, there's enough stuff to work on as there is, so it's nice to get a nice spot or two where I'm doing ok to begin with!).
She said that the whole "food pyramid" and the older "4 food groups" that I grew up with were really not based on science and in some ways were really bad advise (I know, nice of the experts to do that to us, right?). She recommended Harvard School of Public Health and Medicine's "Healthy Eating Plate" instead:
You can click on the image to read more about it (actually true for all of the images in this post), including this beautifully snarky little gem:
The Healthy Eating Plate is based exclusively on the best available science and was not subjected to political or commercial pressures from food industry lobbyists.Yep, not like we don't say this kind of thing amongst ourselves, but it feels a little sad for the state of things to have to see it in print on a reputable website.
And, one more really interesting thing she said was that only something like 3% of Americans get enough exercise, don't smoke or drink more alcohol than recommended, eat enough fruits and vegetables (actually 8 "servings" rather than the 5 we usually say), maintain a healthy weight, and possibly 1 other healthy "habit" that I've forgotten--it's not in my notes, but I just sort of remember there might have been something else. And for several years before my cancer diagnosis, I was one of them in several ways (exercise and veggies/fruits).
Even now I have my moments (Christmas cookies, Girl Scout cookies, chocolate chip cookies--you get the idea), but I've been getting the exercise part since May (and am, incidently, waiting eagerly for this coming May when the weather gets better and I don't need to rely on the Nordic Track and mall so much) and had stepped up that fruit/veggies part already and am now stepping it up even more and focusing on colors and adding whole grains (brown rice is not my favorite, but I'm trying new things (like quinoa which cooks in 20 minutes like white rice instead of 40 minutes of advanced planning just to be nasty and chewy like brown rice does).
I don't believe good eating and exercise will cure me, I'm totally relying on high-powered drugs for that, but if it helps the drugs in any way, I have to say, why not give it a go. Especially since it's probably what we should be doing anyhow and there's not a real downside to it.
So my fridge is full of vegetables and my fruit bowl has apples and clementines galore and I'm about to zip up my boots and go for a walk before the snow they cancelled Church for gets too heavy and I have to resort to that dreaded Nordic Track.
Of course, as I say all this, I am feeling pretty happy because my husband has just made all of this:
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and you know I've already enjoyed one (really, really enjoyed it, too!) and am extremely likely to have more before the day is done. Because I want to do my part to stay around as long as possible, but the balance is that moments like these, when we all oooh and aaah and mmmmmm as we enjoy hot cookies fresh out of the oven, are part of what it's all about :)
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