Meat causes cancer?!
I actually laughed out loud when i saw the headline on bing yesterday: “World health body says processed meat causes cancer“. Check out the article on CNN here.
I had to laugh, wanted to cry, and then get a little excited all at once. i laugh at this because, well, DUH. How is this headline news?! And it makes me want to cry because this information has been out there for years and could have saved countless lives and the meat industry is so big that this never gets to the general public. and then i got excited because it IS finally getting in the public eye. I mean… people may not change their behavior but at least now they’re armed with the information to make their own decisions. I was recently explaining to a friend that even if you are genetically predisposed to get a certain disease like type 2 diabetes you can prevent it by changing your diet. How cool is that?! He said it felt like that puts blame on people for getting sick but i explained that people don’t know this. IF you know that you’re genetically predisposed to get something and you also know that nutrition can play a key role in preventing and reversing disease THEN it’s on you to make the right choices to make the right choices in your food. BUT if you’re never taught that by your doctors, nutritionists, or mainstream media how in the world are you supposed to know any better? You’re told your whole life that beef: it’s what’s for dinner. and milk does a body good. So it makes me happy to see articles like this in mainstream media and making the front page of bing. but it makes me sad that it took so long to get out there. Anyone remember the billboard a few years ago in Chicago?
So if you can’t eat meat any more (or risk increasing your chances of getting cancer) what in the world should you eat?? A friend sent me this article which has some awesome suggestions that i agree with most of them. It recommends following a Mediterranean diet but i would caution against some of that. The diet encourages snacking on nuts and cooking with olive oil and both of these are pretty low in nutrition as compared to the calories they provide. They aren’t really going to fill you up relative to how many calories you’re taking in, so they probably should be avoided as much as possible. Not as bad as cancer causing foods of course and calories aren’t bad but you should always try to maximize the nutrition you’re getting per calorie you’re taking in. Get the most bang for your buck!
And of course if you’re looking for plant based food alternatives you can always download my free eBook full of five days of recipes and meal plans & shopping lists! Or feel free to email me or message me on FB any time and I’d love to work with you on coming up with a plan that works for YOU.
xoxo