Let me think…
No😁
One of the greatest pleasures that most of us are lucky enough to take for granted, is enjoying our food. And I love food😍
My oncologist, before I started chemo, wisely said “if you can eat, eat”. The rest of my medical team added to that too. There aren’t foods that specifically cause cancer or that will magically flush cancer out. Fact.
When I was diagnosed I had been vegan for almost half a year and vegetarian for over a year, except for 3-4 festivities. And I enjoy cooking and baking from scratch: bread, jams, cakes, pies, pastries, mayonnaise, biscuits, spreads, you name it. Things that we buy for convenience in time and workload, I enjoy cooking and making. I choose my ingredients and I’m careful with the processed stuff and aim for produce from farmers’ markets. And the reason I became vegetarian and then vegan was to help save the planet, so I’m also careful to buy local, avoid products with palm oil etc. I also started being sensitive to cow’s milk a few years ago and learned to read the labels. I will always be careful with what I buy, cook and eat. These are great habits that I will not quit. For me, my family and the planet🌍
But during chemo I ate the meat, I ate the cake, I attacked the chips and I even had fast food. I was weak and I was starving. It was a battle between what I craved, what I thought I could taste, what I did taste and what I could keep long enough in me for my body to keep some nourishment. When I could, I would eat healthily. But my conscience didn’t make me feel an ounce of guilt when I devoured something that “could give me cancer”. It was a matter of survival💪
And another important factor is mood. And I don’t mean setting the mood with moonlight and candles. I mean keeping the morale up because I am fighting for my life. And cake makes me feel good. Ice cream too. I’m not saying no to the superfoods, but that it’s ok for the bad foods everynow and then. Let me eat. For the love of pie!
Pic of Titi, my new tea friend, who reminds me of my friends who gifted her to me, who love food, like me. And one of them makes the most beautiful cakes and the best brownies❤️
