Month: January 2016

Got A Beef With Meat?

There is no shortage of diet options for us to choose from: vegetarian, vegan, paleo, paleo vegan, macrobiotic, Mediterranean, raw, high fat, low fat, high carb, low carb, and on and on. Can’t we just eat food. Hmmm…now we’re talking.

What’s the purpose of our food? Pleasure? Nourishment? Both? Rip Esselstyn’s book, My Beef With Meat: The Healthiest Argument for Eating a Plant-Strong Diet makes the case that plant-powered food offers both pleasure and nourishment. A former firefighter, Esselstyn also puts to rest the argument that manly men can’t live on plants alone.

He argues that:

Plants can heal. Plants can nourish. Plants can nurture. Plants can give you everything you need to be the healthiest person you can be and live the life you deserve to live.

The book sets out to debunk 36 myths surrounding diet and takes a look at actual facts about plant and animal foods. From Plants are Plentiful in Protein to It’s Never too Early to Start a Plant-Based Diet to It’s Never Too Late to Start a Plant-Based Diet, Esselstyn explains his take on how and why plants are the way to go. Referencing science to back up his claims, Esselstyn implores us to take the plunge into the plant world and leave the beef behind. He also includes 140 recipes to entice us into the plant-strong side of life.

He cites the claim by the American Institute for Cancer Research that:

You can’t control your age, but you can control your cancer risk….For seniors, the AICR advises that all meals be based on plant-based food. A consistent diet of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains will ‘protect against a range of cancers, including mouth, pharynx, larynx, esophagus, stomach, lung, pancreas, and prostate.’

In full disclosure, I gave up meat (or carcass as Susan Peirce Thompson, Ph.D. would say) a number of years ago. It’s a decision that suits me well. I also realize that each of us is unique with our own nutrition needs. So…what to do? What to do? If you’re a carnivore, experiment with your diet. Try opting out of meat and giving Meatless Mondays a whirl. For the rest of the week, take a look at the amount of meat / animal products you’re eating. How much of your plate is covered by a hunk of meat and how much of your plate is covered by vegetables?

No doubt if you are eating meat, you think you’re not eating that much. That seems to be the refrain from meat eaters around the world according to Colleen Patrick-Goudreau. So take a look at your plate, and make a few adjustments. See what happens if you cut down on the amount of animal products (that includes dairy and seafood) you’re eating and replace them with vegetables. Pump up the volume on the amount of water you’re drinking while you’re at it. Do you feel better? Worse? Do you have more or less energy?

If you give this a try, let me know how changing up your diet works for you and whether you’ll make long-term changes or revert back to your traditional diet. Or have you already been experimenting to find a diet that suits you best?

Got A Beef With Meat? was last modified: December 1st, 2016 by Deb Nelson

Joe Biden’s Moonshot Needs More than $2 Billion

Timing, as they say, is everything. Last week I published a blog post – Is It Time to Rethink Our Approach to Cancer Treatment? – hours before President Obama’s state of the union address. During that address, the president announced that Vice President Joe Biden would lead a new initiative to end cancer.

Listening to the State of the Union address last week I wondered how President Obama would use this speech to influence his legacy. He made a number of points that we’d expect to hear supporting children, families, and the middle class. And then, from out of the blue (at least from my non-inner-circle perspective), he announced that the vice president would be taking charge of an initiative to end cancer: a new initiative in the Obama administration that was first introduced by the Nixon administration.

This appointment by President Obama was actually quite logical since the vice president had apparently called for a moonshot three months ago to cure cancer. It’s also a sentimental appointment on the heels of the death of Beau Biden, the vice president’s son, who lost his life to brain cancer last year.

This appointment came as no surprise to the vice president, who published a blog post following the SOTU and shared it via twitter. The blog shared the vice president’s plans to “accelerate our efforts to progress towards a cure.” He also indicated he wanted to hear from people if cancer had touched their lives. The vice president then went on to let us know that he intends to do two things:

  1. Increase resources — both private and public — to fight cancer.
  2. Break down silos and bring all the cancer fighters together — to work together, share information, and end cancer as we know it.

And that is when I sighed a heavy sigh. A sigh of cynicism, a sigh of sadness, a sigh of defeat. It sounds to me as though we are taking the same approach to dealing with cancer we’ve always taken. Now, simply because we’ve elevated the desire to deal with this disease we expect the same action to produce a different result.

Why, I wondered, were we continuing down the same road? The road of pouring seemingly endless amounts of money down a seemingly endless black hole? Increasing resources in my mind translates to more cash for the pharmaceutical companies. That might make sense to me if the results to date indicated this would be a promising route to take. Unfortunately, in 2015 cancer diagnoses in the US were expected top 1.5 million and cancer deaths were on track to surpass 500,000. It really makes me shake my head to think that $2 billion will be invested in the same fashion – more research conducted by the same people who have had access to billions upon billions of dollars in the past.

Is the vice president asking what will happen if we:

  • Explore the unconventional?
  • Invest in the science-based complementary treatments serving cancer patients so well?
  • Focus on at prevention?
  • Take a look at some “anecdotal” evidence?
  • Don’t invest $2 billion in research?

Since I’m not in the inner circle, I can’t say that these questions aren’t being asked. I’d be surprised, though, if discussion of any of these questions is on the agenda.

So…what did I do with my sighs of cynicism, sadness, and defeat? I let them take up a few moments of my time. Then I responded to the vice president’s request for information from anyone whose life had been touched by cancer by:

  • Leaving a response on his blog post.
  • Referencing his moonshot in a tweet or two.
  • Sending him a message via the White House website.

So far, no response. No worries. I’m off to write Vice President a note. After all, this moonshot could do us all a world of good if a few assumptions are kicked to the curb. My advice to the vice president is simple:

Be bold.
Be brave.
Ask difficult questions.

Joe Biden’s Moonshot Needs More than $2 Billion was last modified: December 1st, 2016 by Deb Nelson

Is it Time to Rethink Our Approach to Cancer Treatment?

Richard Nixon declared war on cancer as he signed the cancer act in 1971 stating, “for those who have cancer and who are looking for success in this field, they at least can have the assurance that everything that can be done by government, everything that can be done by voluntary agencies in this great, powerful, rich country, now will be done and that will give some hope, and we hope those hopes will not be disappointed.”

Good intentions here. Stop the suffering caused by cancer. Who could argue with that? Well, more than four decades later, it’s time to ask a few tough questions:

Is waging a war on cancer actually waging war on our own bodies? Conventional treatment includes three options:  cutting, poisoning, and burning cancer away via surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation. One of the issues with these treatments, of course, is that there is a delicate balance: give the patient enough treatment to kill the cancer cells without killing the patient. While this balancing act may read like a Stephen King novel, it’s a real-life nightmare for way too many people.

Is this what success in the war on cancer looks like? The National Cancer Institute’s website includes expectations for 2015: “In 2015, an estimated 1,658,370 new cases of cancer will be diagnosed in the United States and 589,430 people will die from the disease.” Conduct your own analysis here; however, it’s difficult to argue with the conclusion that these expectations indicate less than stellar success after 40+ years of research, experimentation, and treatment.

Einstein proposed that the definition of insanity is doing something over and over again and expecting a different result. Isn’t it time to do something different? We seem to think that in order to “beat” cancer the patient needs to go to battle and endure unimaginable suffering. How many times have we heard how close we are to a cure? And that all we need is more funding for research? More clinical trials? This brings up even more questions – questions that begin with What if…

What if stronger drugs aren’t the answer?

What if lifestyle and nutrition play key roles in prevention and healing of cancer?

What if we focus on prevention?

What if we stop referring to screening for cancer as prevention?

Who is benefiting from all of these fundraisers to eradicate cancer? How many billions of dollars have been raised for cancer research? And still, the National Cancer Institute expected more than 1.5 million new cancer diagnoses and more than 500,000 deaths due to cancer in 2015.

Is there a simpler solution? These questions have been asked before – for decades, actually. Dr. John McDougall has been working with cancer patients for more than 40 years. One of his favorite treatments: diet. While he does prescribe drugs for patients and recommends surgery as well, he puts his patients in control of their health by teaching them about the importance of a plant-based diet. Listen to the interview Chris Wark of chrisbeatcancer.com conducted with McDougall – none of the propositions about the relationship between diet and cancer are new; these connections were acknowledged decades ago.

T. Colin Campbell has conducted research showing the impact diet has on chronic diseases. Campbell published the results of his research in The China Study; these results were the opposite of what Campbell thought he’d find.

So what does this all mean?

Keep asking questions if you find yourself or a loved one facing a cancer diagnosis. I’ve written an eBook, 12 Bold Questions to Ask on Your Journey to Health, to serve as a starting point for a conversation for cancer patients and their healthcare teams.

Remember that knowledge is power. Conduct your own research, and know where your healthcare tea is getting its information from.

Listen to your inner voice.

Lots of questions remain. How do you approach the conversation surrounding cancer and other chronic illnesses?

Is it Time to Rethink Our Approach to Cancer Treatment? was last modified: December 1st, 2016 by Deb Nelson

Focus, Finish, Follow-Up: My Three Words for 2016

Perhaps Pablo Picasso said it best: “What one does counts. Not what one had the intention of doing.” I would hasten to add, however, that our dreams are much more likely to happen if we set and state our intentions.

Start to FinishIt seems that clean slates, fresh starts, and big dreams are the buzz as we enter the New Year filled with hope and high expectations. I’ve set resolutions in the past – broken them quite quickly – and moved on without hesitation.

So…why am I devoting my first blog post of 2016 to something akin to publicly announcing New Year’s resolutions? It’s all Chris Brogan’s fault. Brogan has set his three words for the year each January 1 since 2006 and encourages the rest of us to join him. It’s easy enough. (Easy meaning it’s a logical approach. Choosing words that fit my life and following through are up to me.) Here’s how it works:

Pick any three words that will guide you in the choices you intend to make for 2016. They should be words that let you challenge yourself as to motives and decisions. They should be words that help you guide your actions.

This seems a much better fit for me than resolutions. Semantics? Maybe, but the way I see it, selecting three words allows for missteps, pivots, and life in general throughout the year. The three words are chosen to guide activity through the year to meet goals. I’ve set intentions for the year in a number of areas of my life. Here is how I see My Three Words moving me forward in both my personal and professional lives this year.

Focus. I never have a shortage of ideas bouncing around in my head. The issue for me is which idea(s) to take action on. Then, of course, once action has been set into motion, there are sooo many shiny objects vying for my attention. It’s easy enough to stay on task: shut down social media windows (what?!?!?), turn off that phone, avoid those pesky distractions, and identify short-term tasks to be completed in support of long-term goals.

Finish. Once I select an idea to act on, I’ll outline what the finished product will look like. No stopping mid-way through project. Eye on the prize of completion. Since I’ve identified the areas I want to concentrate on, it’s easy to say no to proposals that won’t move me forward in reaching my goals. I’m looking forward to doing the happy dance in celebration of project milestones and completion!

Follow-Up.  Input along the way can also open up a variety of possibilities that can be incorporated into a project or put on hold for a later date. When a project / idea reaches the finish phase, follow-up on opportunities that have been presented (versus those distractions that have been kicked to the curb).

Since I’m writing this post on January 4, we’re four days into 2016; and, yes, I’ve begun to put these three words into practice. I’ve identified some goals for 2016 and have accountability partners to help keep me on track. I’ve moved the needle a bit in each of these areas over these four days:

  • Shifting business to health coaching
  • Publishing my book
  • Fitness

What’s your plan for 2016? What’s moving you forward this year? It’s not too late to choose three words to help you have a happy, productive 2016. What do you say?

Focus, Finish, Follow-Up: My Three Words for 2016 was last modified: January 4th, 2016 by Deb Nelson