Afterwords

Healthy Eating for Life to Prevent and Treat Cancer

Putting It All Together

Scientific research continues to bring new insights on the surprising links between nutrition and cancer. In research studies, scientists help people change their diets and then measure how nutrients enter their bloodstreams and power up anticancer defenses. Other researchers examine cancer-fighting immune cells under the microscope and see how various nutrients help or hinder them. Almost daily, we learn more about how to knock out the free radicals that can cause the cancer, how to readjust the hormones that can affect cancer risk, and how to strengthen our resistance.

At present, we already know more than enough to get started. At first, the basic principles seem simple—cut the fat, boost the fiber, bring in the antioxidant vitamins, be careful about alcohol. But we have applied these and other principles in a way that is much more effective than you may have imagined. As you'll see in the recipes that follow, we have taken humble foods—vegetables, fruits, whole grains, and legumes—and allowed their full healing powers to blossom.

Incorporated into wonderful recipes, they are a delight for your taste buds. And a cancer-fighting menu has other benefits you may not have expected. It will likely give you extra energy, trim your waistline, and lower your cholesterol level—by a great deal. If you have high blood pressure or diabetes, the same foods that fight cancer will do wonders for these problems, too.

A dietary approach has one other vitally important advantage. Unlike a radiation beam that only affects the organ it is focused upon, or surgery that benefits only one patient at a time, a diet change helps the whole family. As everyone joins together to enjoy a hearty meal, they are also getting healthier—whether they are aware of it or not. And, as healthy foods are placed on the lunch or dinner table, parents give their children—and each other—a wonderful gift that will literally last a lifetime.

Let me encourage you to venture into a menu change with the sense that you really are trying some new things. As you experiment with recipes or perhaps new menu items at restaurants, you'll find some winners, some exotic tastes, and even the occasional dud. That's what experimenting is all about. When you find the foods you really love, you'll soon become fast friends. And please share your new knowledge with others. They'll profit, just as you have.

We wish you the very best of success in your new endeavor, and the very best of health.

Healthy Eating for Life for Children

Putting It All Together

Our kids have advantages no other generation has had. They can profit from an impressive body of medical research that has matured over many decades, guiding their pediatricians—and their families—toward the most healthful possible diets.

We now know how to prevent, at least to a substantial degree, most of the diseases that have been major killers up to now. While their grandparents may have thought that heart disease was an inevitable part of getting older, children today can virtually sidestep it with wise diet and lifestyle choices. We have learned how to cut the risk of many forms of cancer. Stroke, diabetes, and hypertension can all be held at arm's length by preventive steps that were only dimly understood a generation ago.

As children reach adulthood, they can take advantage of instant access to virtually unlimited health information via the electronic media. Whereas once research studies gathered dust in medical libraries, today they can be read immediately by anyone.

And healthy foods are more available than ever. With more and more movement of people to and from other lands, a kid in Idaho thinks nothing of having lunch of foods from Mexico and dinner from China, while Dad and Mom can practice their Italian or Thai cooking skills.

Even so, our kids have risks that no other generation has had. A few decades ago, fast foods, snack vending machines, and convenience stores were uncommon. Today they are everywhere. School lunch programs serve up unhealthy foods, catering more to meat and dairy purveyors than to children's health needs. Exercise is rapidly becoming a thing of the past as televisions and computers rivet children to their chairs for hours on end, and cars replace walking and bikes as the primary mode of transportation.

The result is that, despite our having better health information than ever before, our kids are more out of shape than at any time in history. More children than ever are overweight. The artery changes that will one day cause heart disease start before they graduate from high school. The poor nutritional habits many kids learn today are sowing the seeds of cancer, diabetes, and hypertension that will arrive all too soon. Their doctors, ever pressed to dispense prescriptions to try to cope with these burgeoning problems, are likely to fumble with questions about the nutritional steps that could be much more decisive.

You now hold in your hands the opportunity to change this scenario. By serving foods that keep your children healthy, you are doing them a tremendous favor. And the healthy habits they learn will help insulate them, at least a bit, from the seductive but unhealthy foods they'll find all around them.

And you'll be doing them an even bigger favor by joining them in healthy eating habits. As much as they need good health themselves, they also need healthy parents who will be part of their lives for many years to come. They'll profit from your wisdom as they plan their own families and wrestle with the challenges of modern life, including the question of how best to nourish their children.

We hope you have found the information in this book helpful, and wish the very best of health and success to you and your children.

Healthy Eating for Life to Prevent and Treat Diabetes

Putting It All Together

We have now turned an important corner in learning about diabetes. Although, for many people, diabetes has been very troubling indeed, leading to all manner of complications—not to mention the annoyances of having to keep track of your blood sugar and watch your diet—a new approach makes everything much easier.

We've started with a very different look at the disease itself. For Type 2 diabetes, our goal is not simply to try to hold our blood sugar steady. We're actually aiming to rejuvenate our insulin production. We'll make it work more efficiently, so that we can reduce our reliance on drugs—perhaps eliminating them completely. For Type 1 diabetes, our goal is to prevent it or, when it has occurred, minimize our need for insulin. Over time, this will help us stay in excellent health. For gestational diabetes, our goal is to keep it from recurring to turning into Type 2 diabetes.

We can accomplish these goals with a new and very different take on diet. Instead of rigidly adhering to old-fashioned exchange lists and counting every last carbohydrate gram, we will choose foods that jump-start our insulin sensitivity, help us slim down (or stay that way), and keep our heart and blood vessels healthy. In the process, we gain the freedom to enjoy foods that are tasty, familiar, and filling. With a few simple but important changes in our diet, we can control our blood sugar much better—to the point where, if we have Type 2 diabetes, it can even go away.

If a major diet change seems like a challenge, try this: First, make major diet changes, rather than minor ones. Really give it a chance to work, so you can see results. A minor adjustment in the diet here or there will not give you any reward, but to make it doable, focus on the short-term. Try it for just three weeks. If you like it—if you feel better and your energy improves—you'll want to stick with it. But, in the beginning, focus on making major changes with a short-term focus.

In the process, we'll not only trim our waistlines, cut our cholesterol level, and lower our blood pressure. We'll also have a healthy effect on those around us. The fact is, your good eating habits will rub off on people around you. When they try the same foods that are helping you tackle diabetes, they'll get healthier, too.

Good luck as you embark on your new, healthy life!

Healthy Eating for Life for Women

Putting It All Together

We've covered many stages in a woman's life. It's amazing how profoundly diet affects each and every one. From puberty, through the childbearing years, and certainly on into our mature years—eating well is the foundation for good health. No matter what your age today, the right diet will significantly influence your life in the coming months and years. Congratulations are in order as you turn to the recipe section of this book, putting what you have learned to work.

You'll see that unlike tricky diets that forbid carbohydrates, cost a lot of money, or require a lot of time, the perfect nutrition plan is really quite simple. That's not to say that those of you of who enjoy the culinary arts will not be able to create an elaborate and exquisite dinner party menu. You can indeed! And on busy days you'll also be able to get in and out of the kitchen in 15 minutes, creating wonderful meals packed with antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals.

What's nice about building a diet from plant foods is that it is one plan you can share with your family and even with friends who are life-long dieters. Once you take new recipes like those at the back of this book to the dinner table, you'll wonder why you ever missed out on these delicious vegetables and grains.

It is very likely that you will see changes immediately. Dwindling energy will return, your clothes may soon fit a little more comfortably, and your mind will be free to focus on something other than calories and cholesterol. If the entire family joins in, they will benefit along with you in so many ways. Happily, good eating habits, developed early, often stay with us for life. You may have been raised on over-processed convenience foods or very high-fat hamburgers, hot dogs, and chicken wings. But you are breaking the cycle now, and that's what matters.

We can all look around and see obesity, heart disease, diabetes, cancer, osteoporosis, and other diet-related illnesses touching more lives than ever before. By switching to a plant-based diet, you'll be taking one momentous leap toward avoiding these serious conditions.

In working with research participants, dietitians at the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine have found the greatest success with women who follow this eating plan 100 percent. An easy way to ensure that you will stick with it, is to commit yourself completely for three weeks. There's no need to follow the daily menus exactly; just choose any of the recipes that appeal to you. At the end of this time, many people are anxious to explore more new tastes and are already enjoying the benefits of a vegan diet. Three weeks will easily turn to months, and then to years.

Speaking of years, the clock is ticking for all of us. Yet when you change your eating habits in as dramatic a way as this, you'll begin to see each day as an opportunity for strengthening and invigorating your cells, your body, your life. Father Time will surely smile upon you. So get going and enjoy!

We wish you the very best of success in your new endeavor, and the very best of health.