Life Over Cancer Blog

Your A-Team

Cancer is not something you want to face alone. Processing complex information, making decisions, and taking appropriate action are just too overwhelming without support. As anyone with the disease knows, cancer can be such a stressful experience that patients often struggle to maintain clarity, equanimity, and inner peace. That is why assembling your personal A-Team should be among your top priorities. Whom you choose to help see you through your treatment and recovery process can affect not only your quality of life, but your chances of attaining and sustaining a full remission. 

The purpose of the A-Team is to help you meet the major challenges of cancer. They can relieve stress by providing meals, helping out with transportation or child care, scheduling relaxation or recreational time, helping you explore treatment options, and following up on diagnostic reports. Your A-Team can bring you clarity, coherence, and peace of mind as you move toward recovery.

The members of your A-Team must be capable of providing you with five basic forms of support: emotional, practical, informational, coaching, and decision-making. Here’s some information about what each form of support entails:

Understanding Agave

A few readers have recently asked us about agave, and why we rank it higher than honey in our “star” system ranking. We hope this will answer your questions:

Our star system for sweeteners works like this: 3-star sweeteners are the least concerning, 2-star sweeteners are less concerning, 1-star sweeteners are more concerning but OK for use once in a while, and ½ star sweeteners should be used for rare treats. We rate agave as a 3-star sweetener and honey as a ½ star sweetener. 

Honey is a natural product and is not that much more refined than agave is. However, it has a high glycemic index, in the range of 55-65 depending on the product. Glycemic index measures how much a specific food raises your blood glucose level. 

Agave, on the other hand, has a glycemic index of only about 13-19, depending on the specific product. The low glycemic index means that agave does not increase your blood sugar as much as honey or other high glycemic index foods will, and this is why we rank agave with 3 stars versus the ½ star for honey. 

Agave isn’t a perfect food, since it contains a lot of fructose, which has various harmful effects on the body. So we recommend that you use an average of no more than 1 teaspoon a day (of the maximum 5 teaspoons of sweetener per day that we recommend). We list other sweeteners in the 2 and 3 star categories that can make up the other 4 teaspoons. Agave is sweeter than sugar, so 1 teaspoon agave is equivalent to 1.5 teaspoons of sugar.

For more information on The Block Center for Integrative Cancer Treatment, visit BlockMD.com.

5 Common Cancer Beliefs - Fact or Fiction?

There’s a lot of information about cancer prevention and cancer treatment available on the internet. Sometimes it’s hard to tell what's fact or fiction.

Here we're addressing five common cancer beliefs - and shedding light on which are true, which are false, and which need a little more explanation.

1. If you’re trying to lose weight, lose the fat in your diet! Cutting all fat will speed weight loss and is a healthy way to lose weight.

Fiction. While you’ll lose weight if you cut out any calorie-rich group of foods (and fats have more calories per gram than either protein or carbohydrates), completely eliminating fat from your diet is a bad idea! Besides providing important calories for the energy you need to do your daily activities, fats provide essential fatty acids critical to many biological processes. Additionally, good fats line the membranes of cells, helping them provide much needed anti-inflammatory activity. Fats are also important for absorbing essential nutrients like fat-soluble vitamins. For a healthy diet, be sure to eliminate unnatural fats, called trans fat, found abundantly in margarine, hydrogenated oils, as well as many baked goods, processed and convenience foods In addition, reduce or eliminate saturated fats found in milk, cheese, butter, red meat, pork and poultry. 

Southwestern Fire-Roasted Tomato Soup

We're on a soup kick here at the Block Center. And with below-zero temperatures here in the Chicago area, can you really blame us?  

Soups are great during these winter months - serve with crusty whole wheat bread for a quick and comforting meal, and reheat leftovers for a delicious lunch the next day!

 

Southwestern Fire-Roasted Tomato Soup

Serves 6

2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil

2 onions, diced

1 green bell pepper, diced

1 red bell pepper, diced

3 Tbsp roasted garlic (jarred or homemade)

4 tsp ground cumin

3 (15 oz) cans diced tomatoes

2 (15 oz) cans fire-roasted diced tomatoes

1 (15oz) can diced tomatoes with green chiles

8 cups vegetable broth

½ cup cilantro, roughly chopped

 

1.     Heat olive oil over medium-low heat. Add onions and cook about 15 minutes until softened and beginning to caramelize.

2.     Add bell peppers, roasted garlic, and cumin.  Cook until peppers are softened, about 10 more minutes, stirring occasionally.

3.     With an immersion or conventional blender, puree cooked vegetable mixture until smooth.  

4.     Return puree to the pan and add broth, cilantro, and all diced tomatoes.  Stir to combine.  Simmer over low heat for 30 minutes.

5.     Season to taste with salt and pepper and serve.

 For more information on The Block Center for Integrative Cancer Treatment, visit BlockMD.com.

African Tomato Stew

African Tomato Stew

serves 6

Ingredients:

2 Tbsp canola or grapeseed oil

2 onions, chopped

6 garlic cloves, minced

1 Tbsp chili powder

2 tsp ground cumin

5 cups water

1-8 oz can tomato sauce

1-28 oz can diced tomatoes

2 cups collard greens, chopped

2 tsp sea salt           

¾ cup almond butter

 

Directions:

Heat oil in a large stockpot over medium-high heat.  Add onions and sauté for about 5 minutes or until transparent. Add garlic, chili powder, and cumin and sauté for one more minute.

Add the water, tomatoes, tomato sauce, collards, and salt.  Simmer for 10-15 minutes. 

Add almond butter and cook 3 to 4 minutes, stirring constantly to distribute the almond butter.  Serve and enjoy!

For more information on The Block Center for Integrative Cancer Treatment, visit BlockMD.com.

5 Tips to Boost your Immune System

As you are probably aware, this year’s flu season struck early and with a vengeance. And every news source is reporting on it in some way, shape or form.

But for patients whose immune function is compromised from chemotherapy, avoiding the flu is more than just a catchy headline -- it’s a necessity. This is because patients undergoing treatment for cancer are more vulnerable to complications like pneumonia if they do get the flu.

In Life Over Cancer, Dr. Block details his recommendations for an immune support program. At the foundation of this self-care program is, of course, the Life Over Cancer diet. Here are a few additional recommendations that can help support immune function all year long: