Paleo Nutrition

My mother is battling kidney cancer, and has been for a couple years now. She is overweight and has been almost her entire adult life. She is following a high carbohydrate, low fat vegetarian diet as she believes this is healthy. (I will not go into why this is not–at least on this post anyway.) But she is trying to lose weight and put her body into balance, so that the cancer will disappear. But the most insane thing I have ever heard was when she told me what her primary care physician told her: “Don’t try to lose too much weight while you’re on the chemo, because your immune system will not work properly.” HUH?? My jaw hit the floor!

But it gets better…one of her friends agreed and said the same thing! So I asked her, “What does your friend do?” “Oh, she’s a therapist.” Okay, so I was thinking maybe a physical therapist…or some type of therapist who would actually know about the body and how it worked. Nope…her friend is a psychological therapist! A doctor of the mind–not the body. While we all know that the mind and the body are deeply connected, the above statement made to my mother had nothing to do with psychology and her friend has absolutely no training in that area.

What I want to know is–how does a doctor come to the above conclusion, when the entire medical community preaches that obesity has been linked to a host of diseases, such as cancer, diabetes and heart disease? Why would he tell her that? In many cases, when people are being treated with chemotherapy, they tend to lose interest in eating, and will simply not eat as a result. This is very dangerous, as the body needs extra nutrition during this time of extreme treatment. Many people will waste away and become even more ill as the body tries to repair itself.

And yet…while someone in the clutches of the doctors’ extreme measures needs the extra nutrition, do they need to keep the extra weight? People who were treated for cancer who were overweight experienced recurrences of the cancer shortly after being treated. My mother has had the cancer twice–the first time, it was completely removed by surgery. The second time–well, she still is battling it. And she is still overweight, and maybe in the obese category.  One would think that the doctor, instead of telling her not to lose weight, would actually tell her how to eat in a way that will provide her with the nutrition she needs, while being able to lose weight. Oh wait–no, I don’t think he would even know the correct nutrition that she needs…he is operating a disease management system, not a health care system!

(Tomorrow’s post will contain what she needs to get rid of the cancer, and how she can lose weight effectively, while at the same time, keep her immune system at top performance. Don’t miss what will be the most controversial post yet!)