My Diary well Im a veggie from today

1 minute read time.

3 Feb 2010

I say it out loud and share the fact i might stay to it.

A vegetarian diet helps prevent cancer. Studies show death rates from cancer in vegetarians are 25 to 50 percent lower than the general population’s cancer-death rates. Breast cancer rates are dramatically lower in countries where typical diets are plant-based. When women from those countries adopt a Western, meat-based diet, their rates of breast cancer soar. Vegetarians also have significantly lower rates of colon cancer than meat eaters. Colon cancer is more closely linked to meat consumption than any other dietary factor.

Why Vegetarian Diets Help Protect Against Cancer

Firstly, they are lower in fat and higher in fibre than meat-based diets. But other factors are also important. Plants contain other cancer-fighting substances called phytochemicals, such as betacarotene and lycopene, and vegetarians usually consume more of these plant pigments. This might help explain why they have less lung and prostate cancers. Other studies have suggested diets low in dairy produce may reduce the risk of prostate and ovarian cancers.

Some anticancer properties of a vegetarian diet have not yet been fully explained. For example, researchers are not quite sure why vegetarians have more NK cells, white blood cells called natural killer cells, which are able to seek out and destroy cancer cells.

http://nutrition.suite101.com/article.cfm/health_benefits_of_a_vegetarian_diet

I have also been to the health shop and got Vitamin C and Antioxidants Nutrients and Echinacea.

I tried to buy a vegge cook book but Waterstones only had one and another shop didnt have any.

So I have ordered the BBC Vegiterian cook book on-line from the BBC Shop.

Way loves his meat so this is going to be hard as the dog as well will be having meat--I will drowl as i cook it.

: canterbury cathedral

We had a good time in Canterbury shopping today which made a change as Im normally on hospital appointments and havent got the time to slowly walk around the shops.

We went to Tesco's on the way home and stocked up with vegetables and noodles etc.

For dinner Ray had Chicken Korma and I had noodles and mixed vegetables all with a stir fry sweet and sour sauce.

We shall see how I go.

locovan over 15 years ago

If you want to add fish do so it seems to me its about eating more veg and fruit really and cut the red meats but as debbie says now and again is fine.

I love fish especially smoked haddock and kippers that they smoke here at whitstable harbour fresh mmmm

So i will still have fish

Love mavis
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FormerMember over 15 years ago

hi mavis

yes a veggie diet is good in many ways - health, enviment, cost, and sentment - i cannot look at a cow and say 'mmm i'm gonna eat you'! but cheese is an issue as dairy cows get a bum deal. the males are slaughtered as calves, the femles are slaughtered after several pregnancis and made into cheap burgers. so milk doesn't avoid killing for food. complicated innit? but if you don't want to do your head in avoiding meat is a good option. just ensure you have iron - liver is still far the best for this. i've looked into this as i was anaemic. and you have eat mountains of spnach to get as much iron. i eat one liver and bacon ready meal per week and some spinich and i think this is ok. oh yes and a multi vitamin pill.
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locovan over 15 years ago

must admit I have tried to change my meat eating before over the years.

I look at the lambs and cows in a field and wonder why I do but then I cook a nice steak and I get over it.

I love Liver and Bacon so i could copy you there and once a week I could easy eat a ready meal.

I love Spinach raw in a salad so that wont be hard to eat.

Thanks for the tips it give's me something else to take my mind off of my illness.

Love mavis
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FormerMember over 15 years ago

Hi

I've also cut down on eating red meat - not too difficult as I was only eating it once a fortnight anyway - but I can't go without my roast lamb every now & then!

My weekly diet now consists of oily fish (mainly salmon) 3 or 4 times a week, chicken and at least one vegetarian dish. I have at least 2 veg with my evening meals - mainly from the cabbage & onion family (leeks, sprouts, broccoli, spinach etc). I also try and have a salad of tofu or fish with spinach salad leaves for lunch twice a week. Combined with my breakfast of half a grapefruit, green tea, cereal with blueberries & a glass of fruit juice I try to get all my minerals, vitamins & antioxidants naturally instead of using supplements.

A good book to read, especially re eating oily fish, is Foods to Fight Cancer by Professor Richard Beliveau & Dr Denis Gingras. It also covers red wine & dark chocolate which are rich in antioxidants & VERY ENJOYABLE!

One warning though, I love smoked foods, especially smoked fish, but the book recommends that very little smoked & pickled foods are eaten as the process of smoking & pickling destroys the antioxidants and smoking is carconogenic - such a pity cos I love my smoked salmon so it now has to be a treat!

As everyone else has already said, a good diet won't cure us but it will give us chance to fight for longer!

Love Angie
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locovan over 15 years ago

Thanks Angie I have read this and made a note.

Im doing fine on the change but i have to think more at the moment as it is so easy to cook meat and to veg and now I have to think of Pulses.

Love mavis
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