Almost a decade ago, I found myself in the emergency room writhing in pain. Within 24 hours I had undergone two invasive medical procedures. One of which was a major surgery to remove my gallbladder. I was in shock. I asked my doctor what happened? I ate my fresh produce every day, I had supplements and modified functional food. I was a tea drinker. Red meat was an occasional treat. My guilty pleasure would be some occasional sweet treats, often a bite-sized chocolate bar or half a slice of cake. I exercised and did yoga twice a week. What went wrong?

My doctor said, “It’s in your genes, it’s your age, and you’re female.” I couldn’t accept those reasons. I reflected on my eating pattern. While I didn’t eat meat every day, I got my protein from egg, cheese, and cow’s milk every day. To make matters worse, I was a workaholic. I would even see patients in my clinic during lunch break. Relying on dairy based medical nutritional drinks for sustenance. I had difficulty saying no. My sleeping pattern was erratic. There will be days when I would sleep for 10 hours straight followed by nights with only five hours of sleep. It was exhausting to juggle work and social activities. I didn’t realize that until I was discharged from the hospital and reflected on my lifestyle and behavior.

Removing dairy and almost all fat from my diet, loading up on vegetables, fruits, and whole grains with some fish, I regained my strength with rest and went back to work in two weeks. I was more intentional about my sleep and work schedule this time around. 

Then the pandemic happened. Nothing prepared me psychologically for the gravity of having to manage patient cases online, dealing with deaths and even wearing PPE during clinic consultations while being paranoid that I could get infected, or worse, my loved ones get sick. I once again found myself in the hospital after having diarrhea for three weeks. When I woke up post sedation and procedure, my doctor exclaimed, “You’re stressed out, Cheshire! That’s the cause of your problem. Enjoy life!”

You see, even seemingly healthy people get sick. Even vegans, like Steve Jobs, died of cancer. Does that mean we should just all eat whatever we want? Smoke, drink alcohol, and not exercise? If there is one thing as sure as monthly bills and menopause in this world, it’s death. So why bother living a healthy lifestyle?

Dr. John McDougall, a board-certified internist and recognized as a nutrition expert earning a position in the Great Nutrition Debate 2000 presented by the US Department of Agriculture, caused polarizing opinions when he discussed why Steve Jobs died. The co-founder of Apple Inc. was a known vegan but died of pancreatic cancer in 2011 at the age of 56. Pancreatic cancer is one of the deadliest forms of cancer in the world. 

Dr. McDougall’s opinion on how Jobs developed cancer focused on his exposure to toxins by working in Silicon Valley (the center for high technology and innovation in Northern California) in his late teens or early twenties. “His vegan diet likely slowed the cancer.” He could have perished at a younger age, 30 years prior to his demise. 

We have a natural doctor inside our body, the immune system. It fights off infection and cancer cells. When our immune system malfunctions, we are rendered vulnerable to all types of disease, especially cancer. 

Science proves that a healthy diet, specifically a wholesome plant-based diet, can not only reverse disease conditions but also prevent cancer. It promotes a healthy immune system. There is also no question that exercise is medicine. But why do people who eat relatively healthy and exercise regularly still get cancer?

Cancer is caused by many factors. It could be genetic, which is a small percentage compared to the impact of one’s lifestyle including diet and being sedentary, as well as, smoking and substance abuse, exposure to pollution, toxins, and chemicals every day, stress and your inability to cope with it, lack of quality sleep...  All these can compromise the immune system. Can you absolutely control the quality of air that you breathe? Can you assure that your food isn’t at all contaminated with some toxins or chemicals?

While you can’t be 100 percent sure that you will be spared from getting cancer by eating healthy and exercising considering other factors, they will definitely increase your chances of surviving it or adding more quality years to your life. Such as the case of Steve Jobs as presented by Dr. McDougall. 

Getting sick does not mean you have to regret eating life-giving food from plants sources. Look at the other factors that rendered your immune system from being unable to fight the attack of cancer. Stress, being physically inactive, lack of quality sleep, exposure to toxins, intake of red meat from pork, beef, lamb. Intake of dairy products which increases your hormone IGF-1 that promotes tumor formation and abnormal growth in cells. Refined sugars, trans, and saturated fats from highly processed food cause imbalance in your gut microbiome that impacts production of immune cells. 

“It's not about one food or diet, but rather a dietary pattern that emphasizes a predominant plant-based diet that is high in fiber, shares Dr. Dawn Mussallem, an integrative physician in Mayo Clinic “It's the dietary pattern that the organizations, such as the American Institute for Cancer Research and the American Cancer Society, recommend is a plant-predominant diet that has an emphasis on whole foods. Processed meat is considered a carcinogen. And to replace some of that red meat component where folks get protein, you want to lean in on consumption of pulses.”

Pulses are legumes, beans, lentils and peas. Soybeans contain complete protein that is tantamount to the protein provided by meat without the added inflammatory side effects that promote cancer.  When you have been a 100 percent healthy in all aspects of your life yet you still fall victim to cancer or other serious illnesses, when you can’t explain things anymore, then perhaps you can consider this a spiritual phenomenon. Jesus said in John 16:33, “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

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