OK, like many other areas of life where I'm late to the party, I've just discovered the stir-fry.
It happened at UMass Amherst when we were at the Asian-food dining commons. My cousin's daughter, a Freshman who had been showing us around, had explained that you pile your plate with raw veg, then walk to the cooks and they make your stir-fry. But I missed something. I piled my plate with veg, then added blue cheese dressing. What? Oh? You mean...this is the veg for stir-fry? I thought it was salad! No? What do I do now?
What you do is you add bok choy to cover up the dressing and get on line.
Not only did the cook not notice, I didn't even taste the blue cheese when it was cooked. Anyway, here is what I learned: hot pan, hot oil. Garlic first, add onions. Then add your protein.Then dump in your chosen veg which for me was broccoli, mushrooms, and I forget what else. Cook for almost no time at all, stirring and tossing. Add sauces. They added 4 different sauces that made it pretty salty. But then they added cold rice noodles, heated them up in the pan and stirred it around with the veg.
What do you notice about the above scenario? What makes you all hot and excited? Could it be that you're only cooking broccoli for a short time for maximum benefit of the SULFORAPHANE????
If you've been paying attention at all, you know that overcooking broccoli will cause it to lose it's anti-cancer benefits. Stir-fry makes it tender with a crunch which is just perfect.
The beauty part is, of course, the element of choice. Any veg you want. Add ginger. Add sesame seeds. Add soaked and drained dried mushrooms.
So tonight I cut up cabbage, broccoli and cremini mushrooms, along with onions and garlic. Cooked it as above (it works best, I think, to cook one serving at a time) and brought it up to Francie. I've been serving Francie dinner in her room lately. I don't know why I do it. I like the look of surprise on her face I guess, and I like when she says, "Why are you so nice??"
Then I cooked mine. Interesting: the noodles I used were called Whole-Grain Rice Vermicelli. Very thin; cook it by pouring boiling water over it in a bowl and letting it set for three minutes.
Here it is:
The picture sucks because Lindy is still in Austin with the phone
and this was an Ipad picture.
Francie and I traveled to U. Mass/Amherst this weekend to check it out and make a final decision on attending there. Before we left, I made a quick bread I've been wanting to try. Whole Wheat Cinnamon Applesauce Bread. Take a look at the recipe. It says 1/2 teaspoon baking powder and 3 teaspoons baking soda, right?
Well, no, it doesn't, but I didn't learn that until later.
I wanted to substitute pureed dates for sugar and see how that worked. I had 4 apples that would never last until I got back from the Amherst trip so I made applesauce. Then added blueberries. Then a mango. Then the juice of a Cara Cara orange. Blended it and added it.
I didn't have bread pans (until Francie bought me some today at Goodwill!) so I baked it in a 10x10 glass dish. I didn't compensate on time, and it was way overbaked. So we called it Sawdust Cake and brought it to my sister's in Providence where we spent Sunday night. It wasn't bad (though I had a hard time getting people to taste it after they heard the name). My brother-in-law ate a bunch of it.
Today I made it again, exactly the same except finding out that I got the leavening wrong, I corrected that. I also put the applesauce mixture back into the blender and added a banana. This time I didn't overbake it and it came out really delicious.
I told Francie we can't call it Sawdust Cake anymore but because she is sentimental she wants to continue to call it that. So be it.
I'm about to go serve some to Francie with raspberries and whipped cream on top. Picture to come.
And here it is.
And Francie has decided on UMass Amherst after all.
Lisa
Addendum: Next time I'll use apple-blueberry-banana sauce.
Lindy is in Austin spending some time with his parents while his mother is ill. I don't like him being gone. I miss him a lot, and I can't feed him from here in Maine!
I'm a little concerned because he's having more trouble taking his supplements without going into hiccup attacks. Especially the really big pills, like the Omega-3 ones which I'll try to find in a smaller form. It causes me anxiety since I think the supplements are part of the reason his blood counts are decent; and they are my way of feeling secure that he's getting what he needs (even at 2K miles distance!)
Back to food: one guideline I'm working with is, of course, low-carb, high-calorie. So my assignment for today was to create creamed spinach and sauteed tofu. Leafy greens, always a good thing. Half and half, nice and rich. Onions and garlic, both anti-cancer (though garlic is only really anti-cancer when it is raw. I haven't figured out yet how to get raw garlic into Lindy on a regular basis). I'm not so sure about boiling the spinach, as that is supposed to lose lots of nutrients in the draining, but I thought...how much can it lose in 15 seconds of cooking?
Tofu is also anti-cancer. Lots of evidence on hormone-related cancer but some evidence that it has a promising impact on others as well.
Anyway, the tofu was really good.
Oh dear...you can see how worn out my kitchen counter is. How embarrassing.
Here is the recipe I used for the creamed spinach. It was divine: How To Make Creamed Spinach. Luckily I have Pecorino Romano on hand, as well as whole nutmeg. I don't have ground dried mustard so I threw in a scant half-teaspoon mustard seeds which I couldn't really taste.
It was as amazing as that amount of rich food can be.
As for the tofu, I didn't work with a recipe. I combined EV olive oil with (on a whim) coconut oil, about 2 tablespoons each. I fried up about 3 cloves diced garlic and about half an onion (leftover from the spinach dish.) I then added cubed tofu. It sputtered awhile because I didn't press any liquid out of the tofu. Fried them up awhile then added soy sauce and oyster sauce. Sprinkled sesame seeds over it, about a teaspoon. Stirred carefully to not break up the tofu. When they had cooked for about 10 minutes, I drizzled toasted sesame oil over it.
That was delicious too. Together, not a bad combination, surprisingly.
I had all those organic veggies that I need to cook (see Interesting Tidbit #2). I've used broccoli, cauliflower, red peppers, onions, garlic, ginger, shiitake mushrooms, and dried woodear mushrooms.
I used the process from this recipe, that I've posted about before: Vegan JaJangMyeong (but not vegan, since I used ordinary oyster sauce.) I replaced the veg in the recipe with stuff I had on hand, and added woodear mushrooms.
Before cooking
This dish is killer when it comes to the anti-cancer veg. Broccoli and cauliflower both cruciforms, and red pepper fills the bill for serving colorful veg, which I've heard is a guideline for covering your nutritional bases. Ginger and garlic all great; and lots of shiitake mushrooms.
I even added in the red pepper seeds, which I read somewhere have some kind of anti-cancer phytochemical. Don't ask me what. I eject those details from my head and just keep the information that's useful.
It was fun to get creative with what I have on hand.
All done
More pretty food -- berries and mango, with vanilla and maple syrup
flavored whipped cream.
New batch of granola. Same basic recipe as last time; added a bit more maple syrup this time,
and didn't add the dried fruit until after it baked.
Lately I have discovered a secret super power: I can find great hotels that have exactly what I want for a decent price. Of course, you have to put in the hours. It takes dedication, skill and love. Give me your requirements and I'll find you a deal.
From our first day there, in the wind and rain.
My requirements were few: I wanted an in-room jacuzzi in an interesting and beautiful place. And an in-room jacuzzi. Really, all I wanted was the jacuzzi, but we picked Cape Cod for the beauty and the seafood.
We're not overwhelmed with money...we carry lots of debt and live month-to-month, with one and soon two kids in college. I'm way underemployed with four violin students and an 8-hour/week message board monitoring job. And I'm working to create a business where I coach families with kids who are having a difficult time with their school experiences. It's been a struggle getting this business off the ground, and of course when we were hit with the diagnosis last December, the effort slowed down considerably. So we're not in a position for extravagance...but we have allowed ourselves an indulgence or two since the diagnosis.
Lindy and I both enjoy a good hotel room, eating out, and driving around. So I found a good deal at the Hyannis Harbor Hotel, $120/night with a jacuzzi. We went to see a terrific production of Lin-Manual Miranda's In The Heights at the Seacoast Repertory Theater in Portsmouth then went on to the Cape.
By the time we walked into the hotel, we were tired and cold (it was freezing and rainy) and I was so ready for a private hot dip in a rumbling jacuzzi. But a pipe had broken and there were no other available jacuzzi rooms.
I could have cried. My back and neck were killing me. They gave us an upgrade to a king room with couch, but the public jacuzzi was closed for the night! And in a different building from the room!
We should have gone over to the Tidewater Inn ($97 for the jacuzzi room, my second choice but Lindy liked the look of the Hyannis Harbor Hotel better) immediately, but spent the night there, and by 8:00 the next morning we had a refund and booked a room at the Tidewater and they let us in at 11:00! It was a more modest establishment but family-owned and friendly and the jacuzzi was to die for. I basically lived in it.
One bit of info from the first night: our room had a scale and while the hospital had told Lindy his weight was 154, that scale said he was 151. That was a wake-up call. We really have to get him to put some weight on! I decided to pull back on my absolute prohibition on refined carbs.
All 3 days that we were in Cape Cod we ate ourselves silly. Clams and oysters on the half-shell every day. The first night, pretty traditional stuffed sole for me and Frutte di Mare at Spanky's Clam Shack just down the block from our hotel in Hyannis. The next night we went for a more modern restaurant, The Naked Oyster, also in Hyannis and had amazing food, starting with oysters on the half shell from their own oyster farm. I had Ahi Tuna a la Basquaise and he had Grilled Swordfish, which h had ordered rare but came a bit more on the medium side...still juicy and delish but he was slightly disappointed. However, we ate ourselves silly again.
The Pilgrim Memorial toward in Provincetown
That first day was rainy and cold though we drove to a bunch of beaches and did some sightseeing. The next day was sunny and really wonderful. We did more beaches, and made a pilgrimage to Wellfleet (my favorite author, Marge Piercy lives there and I've always wanted to see it).
On to Provincetown. We walked around and marveled. What a great little town. Neither of us had been there before. It's a cuter, older, and much more funkified Bar Harbor. Tiny streets, narrow sidewalks, awesome stores. Not packed with people, but people and traffic enough to imagine what it's like in high summer!
We went to the Lobster Pot, a real coup because we knew nothing about it beforehand. But take a look at this menu. Cast your eyes toward the Signature Bouillabaisses and Stews. We were definitely drawn to those. Lindy had the Cajun Bouillabaisse and I had the Pork and Clams Osso Bucco. We were in heaven and we ate ourselves silly.
Oh, but before that -- before that -- we had the amazing Russian Oysters, raw oysters topped with sour cream and...wait for it...caviar. Heaven.
Of all the chocolate cakes and cheesecakes
I've had in my life, this may be the most
deliciously decadent thing I've ever eaten.
Cajun Boullabaisse
Clam and Pork Osso Bucco
After that we hit the road. We were already going to get back home to Jackson at 10 pm. Then there was an incredible traffic jam getting over the Cape Cod Canal. We rolled in at 11. Happy to be home.
Lindy likes his red wine. He's allowed to have 1 glass a day. It's not only enjoyable for him but organic red wine contains resveratrol, an anti-cancer polyphenol (may help prevent cancer cells from spreading) which is found in the skins of grapes. (Get organic. Grapes are on the Dirty Dozen list of fruit and veg that have the most pesticide in them, regardless of how well you wash them. Also, we have been told that pesticides have the effect of killing the resveratrol.)
But he has to eat something while he has his wine.
Ok, so they're inconsistent and some are too thin and
over-baked but I don't see Paul Hollywood anywhere.
I'm not sure where I got the idea of making digestive biscuits (here's the recipe I use). I made a few batches before the oven broke, but the best batch was the one where I used date sugar instead of brown sugar. Much lower glycemic index. It also has an awful lot of butter.
Now, here's where this cookie gets me into trouble. They say to wait until the butter is soft before integrating it with the dry ingredients. I didn't this time -- I was too impatient, and that's the way I make shortbread cookies. Then it says to refrigerate the batter for 15 minutes, and I've done that in the past until the batter was impossible to roll out (between 2 lengths of parchment or don't even bother.)
So, ok, the batter wasn't really a batter even after 2 tablespoons of milk. Or 3. Finally at 4 tablespoons it held together and I rolled it out, using a Ball jar top as a cookie cutter. Rolling it out is a PITA and probably why I won't make them more often.
Well, they're awesome. I love them, but more, I love that they successfully give Lindy something he enjoys to munch on when he has his nightly glass of red wine. This will blunt the spike in blood sugar that the wine gives him, avoiding in a spike in insulin along with something called Insulinlike Growth Factor. IGF stimulates cell growth. It also, along with insulin, promotes the factors of inflammation. Inflammation is fertilizer for tumors. Inflammation bad. Date sugar good.
Date sugar doesn't work with everything; it does well with these biscuits.
Addendum: I should add that a combination of whole grains also slows the absorption of the carbs, and this has both oatmeal and whole wheat.
Veggies have different nutritional benefits when you eat them cooked vs. raw. You really have to look into each one to figure out what's best. We have been eating lots of cooked spinach lately, so I thought two things: 1. how can I incorporate some raw, to get a slightly different nutritional benefit? and 2. how can I raise up the number of servings of veg he gets in a day?
The answer is simple: give him something he absolutely adores, make it absolute deliciousness. Pour it over some raw spinach and other salad greens. What is it? Homemade chunky blue cheese dressing.
I bought 5 oz. of the most expensive blue cheese I could find, and used this recipe. The only change I made is to add some cream (I've been using local Palmer Hill Farm cream which I got from Marsh River Co-op. Rich and thick and beautiful.)
Today for lunch I made Lindy brown basmati rice with onions and mushrooms. I broke up about 1/3 cup of dried porcinis and soaked them in a cup of boiling water. Sauteed an onion and a few ounces of cremini mushrooms until mushrooms just started to release their juice. Then I added 2 cups of water and 1 cup of the mushroom soaking liquid. Brought that to a boil and added 1.5 cups of brown basmati rice. (I don't rinse my rice. I prefer it a little more clumpy). I did salt it but I think it needed a little more. I'd also go for some kind of heat next time, although I did grind some black pepper into it.
I have been watching cooking competition shows, so I've been putting a little more thought into presentation lately. I "plated" the rice, with a nice Andouille sausage atop the rice, accompanied by a nice handful of salad greens tossed with my blue cheese dressing. I wish I had taken a picture of the plate because it was gorj.
I haven't posted in a few days and people (well, my brother and sister) are complaining.
I've made a few things.
This is the shiitake mushroom dish I mentioned earlier in the blog. It's a family favorite now, and I cook it because of the wonderous superfood that shiitake is; but also because it's got lots of cream, which is good for Lindy's weight-gain (and, unfortunately, mine.)
It calls for ground dried porcini. When I see dried porcini in a recipe, I know it's serious about mushrooms. I make it with really thick whole wheat pasta, which Francie really likes, but I'm not so crazy about. I prefer Bella Terra whole wheat capellini but I can only get that at Hannaford in Belfast, so I made do with what they had at the Marsh River Co-op in Brooks.
I also didn't have white wine this time, but I substituted chicken broth, and it was fine.
You can't see very many mushrooms in the picture above. I didn't have a whole pound of shiitake and the cremini's I was goign to substitute had frozen in the fridge. DON'T do this dish without the full amount of mushrooms! I mean, it was good, but could have been a lot better.
Natural Living Center in Bangor has a better selection of mushrooms than Belfast Co-op. I got dried shiitake there, and out of curiosity got some dried woodear mushrooms. I don't know what I'm going to do with them yet. Suggestions welcome.
Lindy loves a good bowl of Cheerios for breakfast. He also likes granola, but while our oven was broken, he had what I could find of organic whole-grain "cheerios" ... which sufficed but wasn't thrilling. Also it was just carbs for breakfast, spiking his insulin, when I'm struggling to bring more fruit and veg into his day. Granola, with dried apricots, raisins and dates, was a part-solution, but I wasn't able to make it for several weeks.
New stove! (I'll stop cheering about that very soon.) Today was the day! I'm going to give you the recipe that I used today, but that's just a guideline; it's what we enjoy, what Lindy needs, combined with what I happen to have on hand. If you always start with 4 cups of rolled oats, just add stuff you like, mix it up until it seems enough to you!
My Granola
4 cups rolled oats
handful each hazelnuts, walnuts, pecans, chopped together
Big handful raisins
5 or so dried organic Turkish apricots, chopped
4 Medjool dates, pitted and chopped. (these are very gooey. You can separate the pieces as you mix with the oatmeal.)
3/4 cup or so unsweetened flaked coconut
about 2 tablepoons ground flaxseeds (I buy the seeds and grind in my coffee grinder)
A few good shakes of cinnamon
A scant 1/4 teaspoon fresh-ground nutmeg (which is really strong, so go easy)
About 1/2 cup coconut oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 tablespoons maple syrup
Combine all the dry ingredients. Melt the coconut and pour into a measuring cup. Add the other liquid ingredients. It should add up to a little over 1/2 cup. Make a well in the center of the oatmeal mix, and pour in the liquid. Combine by drawing the outside mix into the center and rotating the bowl.
Spread a layer evenly on a baking sheet. I use a pizza pan. Don't pile too much. Use a rolling pin to flatten the mix. This makes it come out clumpy. I hesitate to tell you how long to cook it because if you set the timer and don't check it you might end up with burnt granola which I have had more times than I care to reveal. It takes about 10 minutes at 350F to cook until almost done, then keep an eagle eye on it until it's only very slightly brown.
If you want it to be good and clumpy, wait until the pan cools before sliding a spatula under the mix and lifting up.
Then transfer to a vessel for storage.
Change My Granola to your granola! You can use any nuts, you can use any flavoring like almond extract or lemon extract. You can use any dried fruits like craisins or dried cherries. You can sweeten as much or as little as you want. I was generous with the sweetener in this batch and one good thing about writing it down is if it's too sweet I can pull back next time.
Anti-cancer ingredients: Walnuts, pecans, hazelnuts have all been mentioned as serving some anti-cancer purpose. Flaxseeds add omega-3s. Apricots have carotenoids. And all the dried fruit together adds to the day's consumption of fruit.
Verdict: Today's granola is really good! I think some of the nice flavor is due to the fresh ground nutmeg.
The new stove is installed and I can't wait to produce more food...I've been cooking stovetop-only for weeks! I look forward to making granola, grain-rich crackers and cookies, casseroles, roasted veg, and more!
I've posted a couple of times about greens sauteed with onions and lemon. It's the simplest possible dish and very pleasing. Buy the big pack of organic baby spinach, you know, comes in those plastic tubs. Then a smaller pack of baby kale. Chop an onion, sautee just a little until they start to be translucent, then PACK YOUR SKILLET with all the greens that will fit. Push down until you can barely fit the top of the skillet on. Lower the flame and walk away for a few minutes. Gradually the volume will shrink and you can try turning the pile over. In less time than you can imagine, it will be a fraction of the original volume. Stir it around to integrate the onions with the greens. When they are completely wilted, it is done and your own taste can determine how wilted you want the greens to be.
Last time I made this, I squeezed almost half a lemon, then worried that it wasn't enough and added another wedge. Francie said it was too much lemon. Use your own judgment!
The next dish was an experiment...just trying to keep things interesting, both for my family and for me. It was late in the evening and we hadn't eaten yet so we decided on eggs. I had read about whipping whites and yolks separately and then folding them together to create what we call "Fluffy Eggs." I whipped up 5 eggs and folded them together. I sauteed garlic, jalapenos, and added few spoons of a black btean, corn, red pepper and tomato combo I'd made previously, so it was kind of Southwest-y. I put the veg in a bowl.
I think what I did wrong was doing too much at once. The egg mixture was huge. I sprinkled the veg and some cream cheese and cheddar cheese over top of the fluffy mixture in the pan. I waited a long time. It cooked and puffed up. It was kind of fun to watch. But then it came to flipping it, and I tried to do it like an omelet which resulted in this:
Next time I think I'll do it in smaller batches, and just cover it and cook it through on a very low flame without trying to fold it. It was messy but very delicious.
This is after we had an argument over whether he should have a sardine sandwich or sardine salad. I wanted him to have the salad because, you know, veg.
Then Francie and I left to go shopping, and when we got home he said he had a great cheese steak from House of Pizza in Unity.
My first response was typical me. I thought, "Why is he trying to hurt me?" I was truly deflated for about 15 minutes. And he was deeply disturbed by my reaction.
I need to trust his instinct. After his fourth chemo, he feels more "chemo-y" than previously, meaning he is more tired, feels more like dogmeat and even has a chemical taste in his mouth. So he looked inside himself and thought "Cheese steak," and drove 25 minutes to get it.
As Martha Stewart used to say, "That is a GOOD thing." I apologized after I realized how selfish I was being.
We don't know if the effects will be cumulative, that is, more pronounced, with each infusion. But right now, he's eating. It's protein. It's fat. It's calories. It's pleasing. I'm happy.
In all my reading (and remember, I'm an over-reader) I have not come across one sentence that reads anything like, "Eating meat will help you fight cancer." The only times "meat" and "cancer" are in the same sentence is when the writer urges us to avoid it.
There area few reasons for this, and as far as I can understand, maybe one or two exceptions.
The first point about meat goes back to what we've learned about the history of industrial agriculture, dating back to the post-World-War-II era. In the 50s, the demand for dairy products and beef grew to such a degree that farmers gradually eliminated pasture-feeding, and moved to a corn/soy/wheat diet. Unfortunately, this created a widespread imbalance between two fatty acids that the human body does not produce itself, but must acquire through food. (I'm not even going into the addition of antibiotics and other nasty stuff they give those cows in the picture).
This view is a screen capture from "The C Word", a documentary about the life and work of David Servan-Schreiber.
Here's the formula that is really all you need to know: Omega-3, good. Omega-6, bad.
Cows (and other meat animals) that eat grass are rich in omega-3. Cows that eat corn/soy/wheat (either organic or non-organic) are rich in omega-6.
Omega-3 is anti-inflammatory. Omega-6 is inflammatory. Cancer has skyrocketed since the 50's, in large part due to this change in cow diet.
You can still eat meat and have an anti-cancer diet, but my sources strongly recommend a sparing diet of pasture-raised, omega-3-rich meat. Simply stop eating industrial meat. No good can come from it. It's bad. It's poison. That's how I look at it. It's certainly been poisonous to public health.
The second point about meat is this: whenever you eat meat, you aren't eating vegetables. Veg contains protein. Enough to satisfy your daily requirements. And veg has what meat does not: cancer-fighting phytochemicals (which just meants chemicals derived from plants).
Every meal you eat is an opportunity to fight cancer, whether you are diagnosed or not. David Servan-Schreiber makes the point that everyone has cancer cells in them. They either develop into dangerous tumors or they don't, and the difference is often determined by what you eat. Remember, omega-6s are inflammatory, and inflammation is a huge culprit when it comes to turning a few cancer cells into a malignant tumor.
But these plants will fight those cells. They do it in many different ways, so it's important to mix it up:
Crucifers
Fruit and veg nervously waiting to be fed into
the juicer
Leafy-greens
Mushrooms
Green tea
Herbs and spices
Berries and nuts
Citrus
Carotenoid family -- carrots, yams, squash, etc.
Tomatoes
Ginger
Garlic, onions, leeks, etc.
Stone fruit -- plums, peaches, nectarines
Pomegranate juice
Red wine
Dark chocolate
Vitamin
Oily fish
Yogurt, kefir
So obviously ANY fruit or veg helps you fight cancer.
So there is all the stuff you're not having when you're having meat. I'm finding it very difficult to work through a rotation of all these nutrients over the course of a day or week. Lindy's appetite has been pretty low, so when he goes through a day having had a bowl of berries, leafy greens, some kind of cruciferous veg and a glass of veg juice (in addition to maybe some pasta, brown rice, fish etc.), it's a really good day for us.
So what are the exceptions? There are vitamins and minerals in beef, just not any that have been listed in the anti-cancer material that I've read. The body does need omega-3s, so grass-fed beef provides that. When Lindy's white and red blood counts were low, as you know, I fed him beef liver. Any kind of red meat will help boost those numbers.
Tonight I live in SNAFU City.
We were going to have a very normal meal of mac and cheese and a combo of baby spinach and baby kale. The mac and cheese would be a celebration of the arrival of our new stove (Thanks, Davieses!) But they couldn't install the stove after it was delivered so there is a big old box in the middle of our kitchen, and a still-broken oven.
So I thought I'd cook a pasta thing, with the cauliflower I had plus coconut milk. Nice recipe, with some cardamom and coriander. I very painstakingly cooked the cauliflower only enough to get a fork into so it wouldn't lose those nutrients. Cooked the coconut milk with the spices. While that was happening I sliced a few cloves of garlic nice and thin for the greens.
Cut up the cooked cauliflower, scooped it up from the cutting board and tossed it into the blender with the coconut milk.. Started blending. Back to the cutting board. Where's the garlic?
In the blender.
So, I swore a bunch. Tasted it. Sure enough, sharp taste of raw garlic among the cauliflower and coconut. Then thought about it. Maybe if I cooked the sauce the garlic would mellow out? Tried that. Added milk to soften the flavor a bit. When the pasta was done, I just thought, here goes nothing and tossed the sauce on it.
I put a small portion on a plate with the spinach/kale (which was awesome) and brought it up to Lindy, who is busy mailing out the Georgist Journal. I explained that the sauce was a bit...odd.
All he could smell was the cauliflower.
That's how chemo screws with our senses. It's like the garlic wasn't even there. From now on, no more sauce made out of cauliflower. I made a promise. Just cross that one right off the list.
He ate the pile of the greens with enjoyment, and I took some frozen berries out to thaw -- he is very sensitive to cold right now (it's the Oxaliplatin). I'll give him that when it's room temp, with some lightly-honeyed whipped cream and that will do us for the night.
There are no relevant illustrations for this
post, so here's a picture of us from about a year ago.
Lindy had his infusion yesterday. Plugged into Herceptin (trastuzumab), Eloxatin (oxaliplatin), and installed with a pump/drip setup for Xeloda (capecitabine). Tomorrow he'll have the gizmo removed. He has a port placed just below his left shoulder (in exactly that spot where a woman might like to lie her head under her husband's arm. Since I sleep on the left, this has proven inconvenient.) I know these names, I know the side effects, I know what foods support their action.
Lindy doesn't. I think he couldn't care less, and I prefer it that way. Maybe it's simply a matter of pride that I know these words and their characteristics by heart. Lindy only knows that he leaves oncology in a kind of fog, feeling, as we say, a bit oogie.
For three or four days he gets to eat what he wants. I make good food available, of the plant and animal variety, but it is simply foolish to try to influence him. Everyone tells me he needs protein for strength. What he will accept and what he will reject is anyone's guess, but adding heat to anything makes it more palatable for him. The only predictable thing is that he will eat less.
Considering all the frightening stories we hear about the effects of chemo (indeed, people preferring to die than go through it again), Lindy's reaction seems mild. If he feels nauseous he takes an anti-nausea pill, but he hasn't had to since the first round. He takes valium at night to counteract the steroid they give him at chemo. We have figured out how to arrange his tubes and pump so that he can sleep. Still, it's liberating when he gets the damn thing removed after 2 days.
Lindy at his crankiest, the day of
brain surgery
He is more cranky than usual, and more tired. He hits a wall in the afternoon, much like I did when I was pregnant. It's the sleep imperative. But he still works, conducts his business on the phone, and is slightly less available to the various people he works with.
I don't know if this is going to get worse. I'd like to know if the effects are cumulative.
He had a brain MRI last week that came up with nothing new from the post-surgery scan. That's good news. I might put off investigating frankincense and brain cancer, but I do want to continue to see what I can learn about tangerine peel.
What bothers Lindy most is the uncertainty about what is actually happening to the tumor. We expect a CAT scan sometimes over the next month. Then we'll see.
Oh: his white and red blood cell counts are slightly up. Was it the liver?
There is a ton already written about the impact of sugar on public health. I'd like to look at it from the perspective of the cancer patient, or more specifically, the cancer patient's wife.
Lindy's policy on the past is pretty clear: no self-recriminations, no blaming, no examination of why he got cancer. Sure, he smoked for 20 years. Sure, he drank a lot of red wine; both major causes of esophageal cancer. But there are folks who did both and didn't get cancer. It's just impossible to target the causes precisely, so we don't even try. (The one time I said, in my despair, "I should have taken better care of you," I thought he would explode.)
But the broad view, the cultural/societal view, the examination of the WHY, is critical. It's the only way to start to build the case for major change. And I'm a Baby Boomer which means I'm in this to change the world, no matter how ridiculous that idea is, especially to my GenX friends. (I look at generations the way others look at the Zodiac. It defines who we are and why, but is also produces generalizations that are just as often wrong as right. Still, it has a basis in history, so if you are not a typical GenXer, that in itself is interesting. But I digress.)
I have never been exactly ignorant of the food industry's culpability for problems of public health, but becoming a cancer patient's wife has made me dig into the details. Knowing about the food past helped me frame up what I wanted for his food present. I've noted the book Anti-Cancer so frequently you're probably sick of hearing about it, but it was truly inspirational. Then I found this talk that the author, David Servan-Schreiber, gave about the history of the food industry and the impact on public health.
So watch the video above.
I have also heard about the "sugar conspiracy," the successful attempt to villify fat as the cause of the increase of heart disease in the 1950s, but this video (above) gave me more details and is fun to watch.
There is no controversy about one thing: obesity causes cancer. So cutting back on sugar is just a good health practice.
This might be a good time to mention that I have something of an eating disorder, myself. I'm a compulsive eater, especially foods high in sugar. So this information should have a much bigger impact on me than on Lindy, who could live without sugar quite happily. However, when we get into the area of refined carbs, white flour, white bread, crackers, breakfast cereal, he is a bit more annoyed by the new restrictions.
Yesterday he got himself a bottle of organic wine (that in itself is a triumph for me) and I asked him to eat it with food, to slow the spike of his blood sugar. He came home with organic Ritz crackers. Facepalm! You don't slow absorption of sugar with something that is also going to spike your blood sugar. I didn't say anything, which I think is heroic of me. He'll read this and find out.
So, why can't people with cancer eat sugar? Well, it's controversial, like everything else involving the intersection between conventional medicine and "alternative" approaches. I've read things that say STOP STOP STOP EATING ALL CARBS RIGHT NOW OR YOU WILL DIE! and I've read things that say, avoiding sugar has no impact on tumors. What to do!
Well, it all comes down to what you've chosen to believe. Who you trust, what their reasons are for saying what they do, what their perspective is, and how good you think the science behind what they say is.
For example, the Dana-Farber oncologist who talked to us before we started chemo said Lindy really had to gain weight, so let him have all the ice cream he wanted. Conventional medical sites say there is no evidence that avoiding sugar will help. But it comes down to this for me and for many others. In the words of David Servan-Schreiber,
"When we eat sugar or white flour -- foods with a high "glycemic index" -- blood levels of glucose rise rapidly. The body immediately releases a dose of insulin to enable the glucose to enter cells. The secretion of insulin is accompanied by the release of another molecule, called IGF (insulinlike growth factor), whose role is to stimulate cell growth. In short, sugar nourishes tissues and makes them grow faster. Furthermore, insulin and IGF have another effect in common: they promote the factors of inflammation, which ... also stimulate cell growth and act, in turn, as fertilizer for tumors."
There's more, but I don't want to type in the whole book. This is just one of the ways in which Servan-Schreiber says sugar helps cancer cells.
There is a strategy for coping with all this conflicting information. Eat mostly the stuff you know is good. Accentuate the positive, and if not eliminate, reduce the negative.
I have to say this about my own eating disorder: since Lindy was diagnosed, I am no longer anxious about my own weight, and I don't stress about what I eat. I don't weigh myself. Maybe that's entirely because I'm focused on him, but I think it's more than that. I think I feel better.
I did pig out on the organic Ritz crackers, my excuse being the more I eat the less HE will eat. And that's fine. Whatever. I have simply added into my diet much, much more of what is good, leaving less room in my day and in my belly for what is bad.
So decide for yourself what is believable and what to take action on. Remember, another uncontroversial fact is that stress DOES feed cancer. Whatever you choose, make peace with it, make it work, make it a positive and happy change in your life.
Always in pursuit of the Cruciferous Veg, a couple days ago I made a dish from The Cancer-Fighting Kitchen. I don't want to publish a copyrighted recipe -- suffice it to say it had all the right stuff, bok choy, shiitake mushrooms, and lots of Asian flavorings like sesame oil. It really hit the spot. Very delicious and Lindy liked it. He's getting the leftovers today for lunch along with -- wait for it -- the rest of the liver.
So why cruciferous (or cruciform) veg?
The extent of the benefits of cruciferous veg, combined with the amount of information available on it, makes it hard to summarize. The star of the show seems to be sulphoraphane. This phytochemical, among others,
"are capable of detoxifying certain carcinogenic substances. They prevent precancerous cells from develping into malignant tumors. They also promote the suicide of cancer cells and block angiogenesis."
Angiogenesis is the process of building blood vessel systems that support cancer tumors.
There's also this thing called glucosinolates, whose function is more complicated. If you read up on this, you have to get through paragraphs like this. If you have a good translation, please leave it in the comments:
"Glucosinolates that were stored in one of the compartments of broccoli cells are thus exposed to myrosinase, an enzyme found in another compartment whose role is to cleave off some parts of the glucosinolate molecules. When broccoli is chewed, the vegetable's main isothiocyanate, glucoraphanin, suddenly finds itself in the presence of myrosinase,and is immediately turned into sulforaphane, a powerful anticancer molecule. To put it another way, the anticancer molecules in cruciferous vegatables occur in an inactive state in whole vegetables, but chewing these vegetables releases active compounds that can then carry out the anticancer functions described later."
"Don’t boil cauliflower in water because that loses the most antioxidants. Water-boiling and blanching causes the worst loss of minerals and antioxidant compounds in cauliflower because many of the nutrients get leached into the water. Steam or sous vide cauliflower to maintain nutrients."
As for broccoli, "Sous vide or steamed broccoli to keep antioxidants. Steamed broccoli retains color and texture. Boiling broccoli for 9-15 minutes loses up to 60 percent of nutrients, which become leached into the water. Stir-frying loses the most vitamin C and nutrients."
Check out the article for more info on how to cook veg without losing their useful phytochemicals.
I'm pouring out hundreds, thousands, on organic fruits and veg, all because of the idea that clean eating is necessary for someone fighting cancer.
Actually, it's necessary for all of us. And I have had to overcome serious attitude problems with organic veg in order to do it. Francie pointed out to me the other day that I have, in the past, been seriously derisive of people who do all their shopping at the Co-op. "Nice for some," I'd say. I called people, "More organic than thou." I'd shake my head at how self-involved they are, how careful of their own bodies, while others who couldn't afford it made do with cheap, dirty food. Oh, how the righteously indignant have fallen.
I've mentioned this before on this blog, but haven't emphasized enough my current self-recrimination. I care about stuff when it affects me personally. Digression to illustrate: years ago, we had a Superintendent in our district (I serve on the RSU 3 school board) who alienated almost everyone. I defended her because she hadn't yet alienated ME. Then one night at a meeting she called me stupid. Not is so many words, but the implication was clear. I then got on the bandwagon; I didn't see it until it was pointed at me.
Maybe lots of people are like that, but it's a repeated pattern in my life. When Lindy was diagnosed with cancer, I looked into food issues big-time. David Servan-Schreiber said, eat organic. He explained why. And I complied. I got it, finally.
But what really cemented my commitment to organic food was this video of a talk given by Servan-Schreiber. He taught me how the food industry changed from the 1940s to the present, and how all the changes seemed to add cancer risk upon cancer risk. Not "seemed," actually. Did.
So it turns out all the "more organic than thou" people were trying to do is eat as though it was before 1940.
Still, every time I buy organic food, either at the Belfast Co-op, the Marsh River Co-op or at our local Hannafords which offers some selection of organic in every food aisle and has some choices of organic produce, my hair stands on end for a moment when cashing out. OUCH. THAT HURTS.
I met a friend at the Co-op once, in the produce section, who is also not overloaded with money, and I vented about the cost. He said, "You'll get used to it. You just don't notice after awhile." Well, it's been three months and I still notice.
I had a discussion with Lindy once, one of our typical clashes over our new regimen. "Can't I just eat normal food once in awhile?" What an opening! "What we regard as "normal" is the result of over 60 years of manipulation by the food industry and special interests like beef, corn and sugar. What's packed in our "normal" stores is dirty food. That's not normal. Organic is normal." Shut him up fast.
Actually, I'm not that dismissive. I'm trying very hard not to make light of Lindy's desire for "normalcy," which to him means, "life before taken over by this catastrophic disease." But it continues to clash with my own admittedly extreme measures to clean up our food and help his body fight back. We haven't reached a happy place there yet.
My lovely husband Lindy has always prided himself on being part-Hobbit. It's not his character or his hairy feet; it's the mushrooms.
Imagine my joy when I found out how beneficial Asian mushrooms are!
All mushrooms build immunity to some degree, but Asian mushrooms seem to be a genuine superfood. Here's the kind of sentence that grabs my attention, from the Beliveau book Foods To Fight Cancer:
Lentinen, a compound found in shiitake, is a polysaccharide whose anti-tumor activity is well-documented. In patients with stomach or colon cancer, adding lentinan to chemotherapy causes a significant regression in tumors and prolongs survival when compared with chemoherapy alone, suggesting that this pollysaccharide has anticancer activity."
The beautiful Maitake
It goes on from there, adding benefit upon benefit. I get organic shiitake (about $17/pound) from our local co-op. Imagine my joy when I walked into my co-op and saw this baby, $20/pound. (right).
I cooked that puppy up with some garlic, soy sauce and a little sesame oil. The next time I got maitake, I cooked it with purple cabbage. Unfortunately, Lindy was in one of those chemo stages when food unexpectedly repels him. Poor Hobbit. He ate everything on his plate but the maitake and cabbage that day.
In Japan, the shiitake, maitake, kawaratake and enokitake mushrooms are staple foods. They are now also found in hospitals where they are provided to patients during chemotherapy treatment.
Here is the mushroom supplement that Lindy currently takes. Our naturopath recommended another, more powerful mushroom supplement. She said this one is perfectly good, but the more powerful (and powerfully expensive) mushroom supplement that she recommends is much more effective. I think it's time to get that one, don't you?
Beliveau says, by the way, that ALL mushrooms have immune support benefits and I cook with cremini, white and porcini all the time.
I cook with shiitake at least once a week, but have held off on the maitake in case Lindy's aversion continues.
Here's what the Sloan-Kettering database that I posted about yesterday has to say about the shiitake and the maitake.
