This is the first in a series of posts on eating to fight cancer, a topic that is very close to our family’s heart.
I will be featuring ten foods that have cancer fighting properties with an explanation of what those properties are and a favourite recipe of ours that includes cancer fighting ingredients.

This is our story:
It’s a lot more personal than I usually get but it’s a subject that I take very seriously (as we all should.)

Last Monday, July 12th, we celebrated our thirteenth wedding anniversary. It was also the five year anniversary of doctors telling my husband that he probably only had about 5 years left to live. He was diagnosed with stage four Chronic Lymphocytic Lymphoma.
It was the day of our 8th wedding anniversary and I was almost three months pregnant with my first (and only) child.
I remember it like it was yesterday, you hear the words but you don’t really understand what they mean, until a day or two later when the shock wears off. My husband was the strong one, he shed about two minutes worth of tears and said that was all the time he was going to waste feeling sorry for himself. I, on the other hand, was a mess. My first feeling was guilt, I felt that it was my fault, that I had somehow traded his life for my baby’s. I had wanted a child so badly that we had spent eight years working on it (he already had three, practically grown, children from a previous marriage.) My next fear was that I would have to explain to a four year old why her Daddy wasn’t ever coming home again (this was a biggie for me.) I worried constantly about how my husband was handling it, I was afraid that he was burying his feelings to protect me. Of course all of this was mixed with the one thing I was trying to avoid thinking about, life without my husband.

Obviously, everything was different after that, we didn’t mention the future, even six months seemed too far off to think about, we avoided talking about our baby, it felt like we had a timer over our heads and we had no idea when it was going to run out. I cried all the time and ended up off work with a doctor’s recommendation that I find someone to talk to, which I did. I like to think that I would have handled it all better if I hadn’t already been hormonal from the pregnancy (or maybe not, it just makes me feel better to think so.)
The biggest change we made, at the time, was giving up our dream of  renovating a house that had been in my family for generations, it didn’t seem like a reasonable expectation anymore, considering the doctor’s predictions. The day we sold it I was sure I could hear my husband’s heart break.

After six months of chemo there was a follow up appointment with our family doctor. He gave us our first clue that we didn’t have to just sit around and wait to see what the disease was going to do next. He suggested that we read Foods That Fight Cancer by Dr Beliveau. We kind of forgot about it at first but then I decided that it couldn’t hurt to check it out. We ordered it along with the companion book Cooking with Foods That Fight Cancer. I started reading and before I had even finished the first chapter I had a renewed sense of purpose, if we were going down it wasn’t going to be without a fight. I was on a mission to beat this thing any way I could and so began the complete overhaul to the way we ate, and thought, about food. The first thing we did was stock up on blueberries, big time!

Which brings us to the first of the foods in the – Eating to Fight Cancer Series:

Berries
I’m starting with berries for two reasons; they are the first major change that we made to our diet and second; it’s summer, the best time to buy fresh, juicy berries!

Berries have been recognized for centuries as having healing powers and were used as both health and beauty aids in ancient times. They may not have had the resources that we have today to determine the scientific reasons that berries are so beneficial, but their benefits were obvious just the same.

Most berries contain the specific types of polyphenols that have cancer-fighting abilities.

Raspberries and strawberries contain ellagic acid and blueberries contain anthocyanidins both of which block two proteins that are essential to cancer’s development. They hinder the formation of new blood vessels around the tumour, cutting off it’s oxygen and the nutrients it needs to grow.

Cranberries and blueberries both contain proanthocyanidins which are especially strong antioxidants and have been shown to interfere with tumour development.

Of all the berries, blueberries’ antioxidant levels lead the way by quite a margin, followed by cranberries, blackberries, raspberries, and lastly, strawberries (although a raspberry’s ellagic acid is present mostly in the seeds, while a strawberry’s is mostly in the pulp, allowing for easier absorption by your body.)

Eating fresh or frozen berries is always preferable to drinking juices. Berries (fresh or frozen) can be added to cereal, ice cream or yogurt for a quick cancer-fighting snack.
We are never without a giant bag of frozen blueberries and the nightly after supper snack for both my husband and daughter is a glass of frozen blueberries in milk.

Our Favorite Berry Recipe is from the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada:

Gratin of Summer Fruit

Prep time: 5 minutes
Cooking time: 5 minutes
Makes 4 servings

Ingredients:
1 cup 1% vanilla yogurt
3/4 cup Ricotta cheese
1/2 tsp finely grated lemon peel
1 1/2 tsp fresh lemon juice
3 cups of berries of your choice
1/4 cup brown sugar

Directions:
In a small bowl, mix together yogurt, ricotta cheese, lemon peel and juice.
Divide berries among four individual serving sized, ovenproof bowls.
Top each with the yogurt-ricotta mixture and sprinkle with brown sugar.
Place dishes on a cookie sheet, under a pre-heated broiler, until brown sugar is bubbly.
Serve immediately.

As an added bonus, not only are the berries cancer-fighting, yogurt and lemon also have anti-cancer properties which will be covered in a later post.

While we have no medical proof that this is why my husband is doing so well, we believe that it has played a major part in his continued health. The cancer will always be there, but we feel better knowing that we are doing everything that we can to make sure that it doesn’t have the opportunity to cause any more trouble.
Every day is a gift and I am so grateful that my little girl still has her Daddy around to teach her things, like playing the guitar and building bat houses.

Read More of the Eating to Fight Cancer Series:

Our Story and Why We Eat to Fight Cancer Part One: Berries

Eating to Fight Cancer Part two- Citrus Fruits

Eating to Fight Cancer Part Three- Herbs and Spices

Eating to Fight Cancer Part Four- The Cabbage Family

Eating to Fight Cancer Part Five- Probiotics

Eating to Fight Cancer Part Six- Flaxseed

Eating to Fight Cancer Part Seven- The Garlic Family

Eating to Fight Cancer Part Eight- Chocolate

Eating to Fight Cancer as well as the companion book Foods That Fight Cancer by Dr Richard Beliveau and Dr Denis Gingras can be purchased at:
Amazon.com
Amazon.ca
Chapters.Indigo

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