Kris Carr was diagnosed with a rare, incurable stage IV cancer at the age of 31 (on Valentine’s Day 2003) and told that she may need a triple organ transplant, since the cancer had spread to her liver and lungs. She walked away from conventional treatment and focused on healing herself through a whole food plant based, anti-inflammatory diet. She made a documentary over the course of the first 4 years of living with cancer (Crazy, Sexy Cancer) and went on to write Crazy, Sexy Diet in 2011 and Crazy, Sexy Kitchen last year.
Watch this interview with Kris on the Good Life Project http://www.goodlifeproject.com/kris-carr-on-living-the-crazy-sexy-life-with-cancer/# – she is truly inspirational, and looks fabulous at 42, after living with cancer for the last 10 years!
Crazy, Sexy Kitchen was the first vegan cook book that I bought and it is full of great tips and recipes for preventing cancer as well as other chronic diseases. It is also very funny – definitely crazy and sexy!
This is not only a cookbook for people diagnosed with cancer – this is a cookbook (and health revolution) FOR ANYONE WHO WANTS TO PREVENT CANCER !
In the introduction to Crazy, Sexy Kitchen (which is, by the way one of my favourite books, thanks to it’s great advice, recipes, and gorgeous colourful photos), Kris says:
“Thankfully, many chronic diseases are preventable (and even reversible) with a nutrient-dense, varied, plant-based diet and healthy lifestyle practices. Now that’s something to chew on. Sure there are some medical life lemons that get passed down and some that are unavoidable. But more often than we’re led to believe, our genes are modified by our food and lifestyle choices, environment, stress, and nutrition. These nongenetic factors can literally switch health issues on and off. Once altered, your genes either support health or open the door to disease. There’s a high probability that you have some say in the matter.
There’s a bigger picture, too, beyond us as individuals. It’s no surprise that the food system today is as broken as our health-care system, since in many ways they’re two sides of the same coin. Big agribusiness wins, the small farmer loses, while the environment gets polluted and destroyed, and the average citizen is caught in the crossfire. It doesn’t have to be this way. Grab your spatulas ’cause we’re going to shake shit up and get this wellness party started!”
I was watching a programme on TV last night – Lisa Ling’s Our America – about the problem of childhood obesity in the US. It showed a 4 year old boy who was already over 100 lbs and a 12 year old girl already over 350 lbs, and what seemed apparent to me was that the parents clearly had no idea what healthy eating meant, and also did not have the willpower to say no to their children when they asked for more food. They did not understand the dangers of allowing their children to get to this weight – high blood pressure, high cholestrol, type 2 diabetes, clogged arteries – all before their children are fully grown. One boy talked about how he used to drink up to 24 cans of soda a day! Personally, I can’t believe that any parent would allow their children to drink so much soda, but it is clearly happening in towns all over the US, and to a lesser extent other countries. If it’s not soda, it’s pizza, McDonalds, fried chicken, chips, and all the other unhealthy foods and drinks which are so much a part of the culture here.
For me, it’s all about education, and that is the main reason I started this blog.
Until I began this journey last year, I had never heard that eating too much animal protein could be a significant trigger for cancer and other chronic diseases (heart disease, diabetes, arthritis, osteoporosis, etc). All the information I had heard prior to that seemed to indicate that high protein low-fat was the way to go for a healthy life – my family and I had been following this advice for the last few years, consuming large amounts of lean protein (chicken, fish, eggs, lean beef), and making sure that the majority of dairy products we consumed were low fat. I had also recently switched to buying all organic meat, but after watching Forks over Knives, and reading the China Study, I came to realise that this was not enough in order to prevent all the chronic diseases of the 21st century.
Having discovered so much information that was completely new to me, and which had such an enormous impact on both my husband, and myself, I wanted to share it with everyone I knew, in case they hadn’t heard it either. It seemed like some big secret that no one was telling us!
Kris Carr started her “Wellness Revolution” for the same reasons – to educate people on how best to avoid chronic disease. The government and health-care industry does not seem to be willing or capable of doing this effectively (neither in the US nor the rest of the world) – they are too afraid of the multi-million dollar food and pharmaceutical industries to risk encouraging people to stop buying meat and dairy products, or to suggest that good nutrition could be a better preventive measure than all those pills that doctors prescribe.
My mum accused me recently of trying to turn her into a vegetarian because I sent her a book about how to treat her arthritis symptoms through diet – the doctors are not doing anything to help her as they say her symptoms are not severe enough! I should mention for those who don’t know me, that this is in the UK, where healthcare is provided for free by the National Health Service (NHS) and where there are looooong waiting lists for none life-threatening operations. They gave her the options of doing nothing (can you believe it??), trying physiotherapy (which she had already tried for 3 months, with no relief), or getting a steroid injection (which she got, but which also didn’t seem to help at all). They said nothing about how too much dairy and animal protein can cause inflammation in the joints and lead to a slight acidic balance in the blood which has to then be neutralized by something alkaline (calcium- which is leached from the bones, often leading to weakened bones and osteoporosis). There are so many things that we eat and drink that can cause inflammation – just cutting down on the amount of meat and dairy we consume can make a huge difference. Read this article for more information on how diet can affect arthritis symptoms http://www.pcrm.org/search/?cid=125
You don’t HAVE to become a vegetarian or vegan to improve your health, but many studies show that vegetarians/vegans have much lower incidences of cancer, obesity, diabetes, heart disease, etc. http://www.pcrm.org/health/medNews/vegetarian-diet-reduces-risk-of-heart-disease
I would encourage everyone to start by cutting back on meat and dairy – try introducing one or two meat free days a week, try cutting out cow’s milk for a week or two and see if you feel any different. Try little steps, especially if your family is not receptive to the idea! It’s amazing how easy it is to stop eating meat and drinking milk, if you’re really on board with preventing future problems with your health. For more information on how I introduced a meat and dairy free diet to my family, go to https://campbellsj23.wordpress.com/about/the-transition/
Above all, my message today is EDUCATE YOURSELVES and then do something about it! Your health is in your hands, and your hands only 🙂
Journey to Veganism 