nutrition

so...on tuesday i went to a nutrition class through the university of colorado. and i am pumped.

for the last 2-3 months i've been feeling like this life is not my own. my body is not my own. doctors tell me what i need to do. chop something off. put chemicals in. and each of those solutions have their effects on my body...good but also bad. permanent scars. temporary side effects.

so when my neighbor told me he'd found a free nutrition class for breast cancer patients? i literally can't even tell you. i felt like i'd won the lottery. i'm not kidding.

so i went to the class. there were about 8-10 other people there. the woman leading the class was a nutritionist who specializes in cancer patients. and she talked for two hours straight. it was a little overwhelming and i'm still trying to go over all the information. but, in the end,it was completely helpful and inspiring. and what was really nice was that she had all this research specific to cancer patients that she used to back up her suggestions.

#1. exercise, exercise, exercise.
there have been all these studies that show that exercise is the absolute best thing you can do for your body. to help prevent cancer. i know everyone knows it's good for you...but the studies she cited were amazing. exercising only 30 minutes a day decreases rates of heart disease, osteoporosis, strokes, and cancer by 20-50%. just walking 3-5 hours a week decreased recurrence rates by HALF.

#2. drink green tea.
drinking 3 cups a day lowered recurrence rates of stage 1 and 2 cancer by 30-40%.

#3. talk with your dr. about your levels of vitamin d and calcium.
the nutritionist said that vitamin d is the new folic acid. in the 70's people were singing the praises of folic acid. and now they are finding that vitamin d has some similar very strong helpful properties.

#4. be careful with alcohol.
in people who have this bad breast cancer gene, one drink per day increased their risk of developing breast cancer by 10%. two drinks - 20%. etc. so...be careful.

#5. drink and eat organic dairy products.
so important. and so important for kids. there are so many hormones in non-organic dairy products...and it's doing a lot to mess with kids' bodies early.

there was a lot of other information in the class. most of it was very specfic to prevention of recurrence of breast cancer. but the moral of the story is...exercise, eat a lot of fruits and vegetables, keep a healthy body weight. like my friend phil has said, people shouldn't all freak out to follow every single one of these suggestions exactly. sometimes cancer just happens. but what i felt really good about in this class was that i finally felt like i had some control. i felt like i could do something to make a big difference in my body. and it wasn't just making the decision to get chemo intravenously. there were things i could do that felt more comfortable and known to me.

so. wrapped in my 'hello kitty' robe, i can feel a little more in control. it's nice.