Lifestyle Factors - A hard look at mine...(Part 1-Diet)

"Okay, Aunty..did you say 5 portions of fruits a day?Yummy,I love this but it's hard to get in Ldon! Can you ship some over?Thank youuuuuu!"

April 25 (Day 15 post-first chemo)


I completed reading the "Green Issues" in VANITY FAIR (May issue, UK Edition).
A number of relevant topics which made me think of my own carbon footprints and what I can do/resolve to do to reduce them. I have been "going green" whenever I can but there is always that additional "one more step" that I can take. Or to be taken by others, I suppose.

Http://www.Vanityfair.com/magazine can offer a peek at all the other green issues being discussed. The magazine is really cool and despite the title, contains a number of worthy public interest issues, put together by brilliant writing.

In the meantime, I was shedding hair and quite honestly I am worse than Ashley who leaves a trail of fine,grey fur along her path. I found strands, well a lot of strands, of hair on my pillows and sheets ( white cotton so it is easier to pluck them up). I couldn't sleep with the headgear on or maybe I should get used to it?
Anyway, I have lots of hair still but slowly but surely it is thinning and I must get a "before" and "after" shot to capture for posterity. SMM who dropped by yesterday mentioned that I look nice with the bandanna, but I thought my head looked really flat. In anycase, I am still me. Love me, love my no-hair.

I was going to tackle next the "Internal Factors" that could contribute to cancer (specifically my breast cancer) but realised that I need to get some information relating to the gene pool that I came from. So I will look at "Lifestyle Factors" first. Scientists believe that lifestyle(an unhealthy one) contribute to most forms of cancer.

Lifestyle Factors pour moi:Part 1-Diet

I love food. People who know me know that my favourite word is "Sedaaaaap!". Food is a passion. It is one of the delights that is not illegal, sinful or immoral so I indulge in food with....a passion! It is not an obsession but eating is a past time that I really relish. I look forward to entertain friends and family by going out to eat (at nice places befitting the occassion) or simply by putting on my apron and whipping up an adventure in the kitchen. My kitchen is there to be used and abused and not meant to just look nice like a show kitchen. I don't have a wet and dry kitchen. I have a kitchen with stoves that work and have been put to work.

I eat well and am knowledgeable about healthful eating and healthy food preparation. I know my food pyramid and what a balanced diet means. I take supplements and love raw ulam and salads. I munch fruits to balance my sweet tooth ( chocolates are my "drug" and give me a high). I looked after my aging parents and supervise their meals so that they get the best meal combination and nutrients to sustain their health and energy levels.

When I was young, like most of my peers, we grew up on simple, delicious and freshly prepared home cooked meals-by our mothers. I remember my Mum "suap-ing" us ( I cannot think of a suitable or equivalent English word for this).
Everyday just before stuffing us into Pak Chik Harun's car to take us to school, the 3 of us siblings will be "suap-ed" our pre-school lunch by my Mum. Almost always there will be a fish dish and a vegetable dish and soup. For example lunch could be ikan kembung masak kicap, fried long beans and tofu,fucuk and suhun soup. Mum will feed us, not with a spoon, no. With her loving fingers, one mouthful for me, another mouthful to my brother and then another mouthful to my sister until we had enough. Dessert was a tablespoon each of Scott's Cod Liver Emulsion which I tried to hide from, unsuccessfully. Dinner was similar, an animal protein, vegetables and fruits (whatever in season but I remember there was always bananas in the house) but we get to sit and eat by ourselves, no suap-ing. She was very practical, my Mum. And very knowledgeable about healthy eating. Her favourite chore is taking us to the Family Clinic where she would inquire from the Sister (Nurse) on what to feed her growing children so they are "smart". Breakfast was bread and Planta, tea was kueh of the day. No excesses but enough to energise us for a boisterous childhood. Snacks and titbits were not as common as it is for the kids today. Little treats would be corn-on-the cob or kacang putih or even gula tarik, once in a while, because it is too sugary.
Coca cola or FN orange were given as special treats, and not always available in the house. Only during Hari Raya. Otherwise it was Milo (hot or cold) and Ribena.

When I went to boarding school in Seremban for all of my teenage years, I am certain that the Matron made sure the menu was healthful. Our meals were indeed very regimented. This was TKC in the mid 60's to early 70's. Breakfast, Lunch, Tea and Dinner were regulated by the bell. We were fed typical boarding school fare, I guess. Eggs, Bread and spread, and a slice of fruit for breakfast. Lunch and dinner would be a gulai of fish, eggs, chicken or beef , with a vegetable soup or stir-fry and sambal something or other. There is always dessert, either bananas, apples, oranges or a slice of pineapple or melon. Tea was usually bubur something or other or kueh Melayu. School break (recess)could have been hazardous to my health, the "Merdeka Bars"- icecream blocks sandwhiched between wafers, Flying saucers (greasy cucur but oh, so delicious with sweet chilli sauce), Tunnocks Wafers, Mutton Balls (not what you think but deep fried cucur with mutton and potato curry fillings), and a list of other tasty morsels that only home-away and homesick teenagers would buy to seek comfort.

The weekends would be another round of treats, not planned by our Matron but left to our fancy. I could write a book about our life in school and the interesting characters we have there, from fellow students (from all over the country, my first exposure to what it means to be Malaysian )to our school teachers to the administrative staff there (the Matron or Housekeeper and her army of guards) but will save that for a rainy day. For now, back to the food. Saturdays in boarding school means each dormitory will have a representative to go out shopping for things/food in Seremban town that we couldn't have possibly got from the school canteen or Dining Hall. So another round of treats like ABC from Lemon Street, Apam Balik, Rojak Mamak, Mee Rojak, Assortment of biscuits from the Milk Bar, all kinds of nuts, a favourite was Kacang Botak or Milk Means. Coconut biscuit, Sultana biscuits and the list went on. And of course sometimes fruits (apples and oranges). We had to prioritise to make sure our monthly allowance lasted.

So far, it looks like I was no different from the kids today, and probably considering my age range then, was doing better than some of the kids today who now have more exposure to junk food. We did not have too many choice over junk in those days in school , only when we came out of boarding but even then, it was very rarely that we ate out. School holidays mean healthy home cooking and my Mum made sure she cooked all my favourite foods. A trip to A&W or KFC were on rare occasions for the Coney Dog and rootbeer and a Lunch plate of fried chicken. Not often enough to develop into a habit or addiction. Meals were square meals at home, freshly prepared and well balanced. Boarding school made me fat though and I was rather chubby for my height.

Then it was student days in the UK. Hmmm...this can be a bit tricky. For 3 years as a student, I lived in a self catering Hall or a Boarding House where we did our own cooking. I thought I ate healthily. All those food and stuff that I had only seen in magazines I could now buy from the supermarts and grocers. I o'd on fresh fruits,buying bagfuls of apples, pears, cherries , strawberries and whatever was in season from my favorite greengrocer on the way back from lectures. I also o'd on vegetables -cauliflower, carrots, beets, cresses, parsnips, kale,and yes, brussel sprouts. I had so much brussel sprouts too often that I felt that they sprouted out of my ears until I couldn't stand the sight of them. And stopped taking them for a while. Now they tell me that brussel sprouts are good for me and bad for cancer cells ( they can cause the cancerous cells to apoptosise ie kill themselves), so I have started to take a lot again.

Student days also meant a lot of experimentation in the kitchen. Trying out new foods, impressing foreign friends with "Malaysian" dishes that I have never before cooked in my life but trying them out anyhow. Always, it involved improvisation as not all the home ingredients were available fresh, unless I made an effort to get them from Chinatown whenever I was up in London. Lunch then was mostly taken at the cafetaria-Fish and Chips, pies, soups and assortment of sandwiches (I usually chose cheese and tomato or egg fillings). I thought that should be fine as there was always a salad or vegetable to accompany my selected dish. Dessert may be the killer. This was the period when I "honed" my taste buds to like all kinds of sweet stuff, and really creamy stuff. Fruit crumbles with sauces, bread and butter puddings, all kinds of cakes and icecreams. Meals were not considered ended unless a dessert was taken to mark the end of each meal. I raided Marks & Spencers for their fruit yoghurts and frozen desserts and must have tried every assortment they had.

Dinner was always a group affair. The Malaysian students in Southampton were a resourceful lot. We took turns to cook within our groups, even the boys (infact they all were better cooks!). It was always a Malaysian dinner with halal meat from Derby Road, and usually it was chicken. Probably loaded with growth hormones too. We did not prepare as much fish, probably it was too fussy to prepare and nobody liked the fishy smells. Vegetables were plentiful and really if I recall correctly we had a lot of vegetables usually garnished with shrimps, and a curry ( again if it was chicken, it would be accompanied with a generous assortment of vegetables-carrots,green pepper, egg plant). So I would say, we ate sensibly for dinner.

Occasionally, whenever I went up to London (once a month courtesy of British Rail and the NUS card which means half-priced train tickets)to meet up with friends and the "love of my life" at 44 Bryanston Square (Malaysia Hall), I would have my meals there. Good Malaysian food,always a good spread (for a student on a budget, at least) and always at a fair price.

So far so good. I may have been delinquent on the desserts but on balance I did take foods which were supposed to be good for me as well. And of course, student days in England in early 70's meant looking forward to the Milkman ( yes, milk was sold in bottles-gold top, slurp, very rich and creamy perfect for your Alpen in the mornings, and silver top if you don't like it rich. I lurved it rrrriiichh!). The red milkvan will come around at about 7.30 in the mornings to our Hall of residence or to the boarding house, and we would queue to get our daily fix. Orange Juice was in cartons, but milk was in bottles. I had chosen gold top because the thinking then was I need to build up my calcium intake and rich dairy products were supposed to be the best source. The richer the better,until I heard of skimmed milk. Low fat milk came later. There was skimmed milk but it tasted just awful to my young and gung-ho taste buds.

Supplements were not as loudly hailed then as they are now. At most I took multi-vitamins from Boots and tried to get all my nutrients from natural foods. In keeping with the health trend then, salads were popular, so were cheeses. Now we are being told that rich, dairy products may not be as good as they were once thought to be due to high fat content. Perhaps not for Asians? No matter, my diet there did not make me fat, perhaps due to the fact that we were always busy and on the move, my puppy-fat from my teenage days disappeared and I maintained an ideal weight for my size.

Back in Malaysia, working life and a career meant I needed to make sure that I ate well to be fit and healthy to meet and fulfil my obligations. No longer living at home with my parents ( my Dad retired and he and my Mum relocated to Melaka), I tended to eat out a lot. On workdays and evenings when I had games or other extra-curricular activities, lunch and dinners were never at home but I tried to choose healthy combinations. But who knows what oils were used and if the standard of hygiene during food preparation would meet minimum health standards. And MSG, while there was no MSG at home, I couldn't control what went into the lovely dishes eaten outside. The indicator was if I felt parched and thirsty coming home from eating out, I could be sure MSG was liberally used.

I cooked occasionally as I loved to entertain friends at home. It was a way to unwind and have around me people whose company I enjoyed and in the comfort of my own surroundings. The menus were specially thought out and I would stop at nothing to make the evening a success and the meals healthy and memorable. Friday evenings would be the evening of choice and if I wasn't too pooped out, I would invite friends over for dinner.

Most weekends I would drive down to Melaka to join my parents for the weekend. Usually a friend or 2 would accompany me to unwind in the kampung setting. So my weekend diet would be really healthy kampung fare. My Mum knew I loved ayam kampung goreng and at least 2 virgin ayam kampungs would be slaughtered for our benefit. My parents led a very heathy laid-back life after my Dad's retirement and even if they didn't go to market , they could very well indeed live on what was around them. My Dad loves fishing so there was always fresh fish and they had a fine time between them trying out their green thumb. All kinds of vegetables and fruits and ulams abound, all we need to do is take a walk around and gather them. My friends enjoyed those weekend sojourns.

Working life also meant regular business lunches/dinners and business trips. I am not trying to place the blame of indiscriminate eating to the Organisation that paid for my upkeep all these while but aah those business lunches and dinners! "Nice" food at nice places, how can you resist? Very difficult to really, temptation got the better of me most times. I surprised myself and those with me for they wonder where all the food went! Still I would be very sensible over the starters (usually raw foods-salads, oysters) and the main meal, trying to keep them lean, mean and healthy. Once in a while I got naughty and discretely asked the carver of a roast wagon to get me the crispy and fatty bits of whatever was roasted be it lamb or beef. Just for taste, you understand, and just a small piece.

Then there was Dessert. It was the desserts that might be my downfall. I never missed dessert and loved to try anything new once. If I liked them I would have them again the next time. But I always tried to balance it with fresh fruits as well. The guilt over a slice of cheesecake or tiramisu might be washed down with a fresh fruit juice or combination fruit salad. I thought balance is the key.

But I also like to nibble. Chocolates, all kinds of nuts and dried fruits. Mainly chocolates because these were easier to manage. Nuts would be soya coated with chilli (from Isetan) and dried fruits would be raisins and dates, or dried figs if available. Maybe I nibbled too much and did not realise it. It was and is a habit of mine to have a plate of nuts or munchies by my side whenever I read ( and I read a lot) or when I am on the computer. I felt that the goodness would go directly to my brains and helped me to concentrate, a habit I started since schooldays. I really need to assess this one out.

When I decided to leave my job exactly a year after my Mum's passing, I lived for a year or so in the Kampung. One of the best years in my life. I knew that I had eaten healthily during that period, as I was also supervising my Dad's diet. We ate foods that were grown or raised locally and organically from around the area. We had food that were pretty similar to what my Mum would have prepared for us if she were around. The maid soon picked up to prepare food the healhy way,ie low salt and oil, no MSG. Fruits were from our own trees and I know we did not use pesticides on the fruits (Durians, bananas, nona, rambutans,jambu,jackfruit, cempedak, langsat, mangoes,startfruit).

In KL on my own from mid 2006, I tended to eat out quite a lot as my mealtimes (lunch or dinner) often found me in town or away from home. Again, I would imagine I ate healthily. I would try out new places and would opt for healthy alternatives which include plenty of vegetables and proteins. But yet still, although I did consume a lot of fruits and vegetables, I was still a great, great fan of rich desserts and coffees(the various concoctions but always took them "skinny" ie with low fat milk). In other words the sweet tooth that I developed since my student days in England stayed with me and actually grew into sweet fangs! Dessert was always the part of the meal that I look forward to.

Based on what I had read on breast cancer, although there was no scientific evidence, it is possible that my sweet tooth and love for dairy products(butter cakes, ice-creams, rich cakes) and cheeses (also dairy)may have made me a prime candidate for cancer. It seems cancer cells (if you have them in your body) thrive on sugar.

Assuming that is true (and I am willing to assume anything reasonable to make sure the cancer does not recur), then I would really need to re-train my tastebuds. I need to wean myself from this ritual of heavy rich cakes and desserts, without which my meals will be incomplete. I am so lucky that Baking is not my forte. I don't have the patience and precision required for baking cakes and desserts. Otherwise it might have been worse! I gave up baking since my Domestic Science days in Form 2 resulted in Rock Buns which were really rock hard. Most of my classmates would remember that incident to this day.

So moving on, where Food is concerned, it would certainly do me good to try do the following:

-continue to eat healthily, organic where possible and as close to it's natural state as possible ie lightly cooked or raw. Learn to manage my cravings so that these will not be detrimental to my health.

-seriously retrain my system to just take fresh fruits and nuts for dessert, no more rich cakes and certainly no cakes for breakfast just because I see one staring at me first thing in the morning when I open the fridge. I will need to put a sticky on the fridge door to scare and remind me that this could be a life and death matter and that if it is not cancer,it could be diabetes, Na'u zubillah if I continue with my sweet tooth. I need to remind myself that I have just hit menopause and therefore my metabolism is now sluggish and not as efficient as before, so need to go easy on the sugars.

-Adopt juicing as a way of life, always,not in spurts. Get a new juicer that is easier to use and clean. Get fresh organice produce to juice.

-Continue to drink up a lot of pure water or green tea, at least 2 litres a day. Absolutely no coffee until after my treatment cycles are over as caffeine can be very dehydrating.

-Limit eating out. Eat freshly cooked food whenever possible and try not to re-heat leftovers in the microwave. And certainly not in plastic containers that might release dioxins which are unkind to body cell structure and can cause DNA damage. This in turn could lead to new cancers developing, and God forbid, metastising. Broccolli, Brussel Sprouts, Kacang Botol (cooked) are good news. And according to Prof Has, a very knowledgeable cancer survivor that I got to "know" in Blogosphere, Midin is good too. I need to figure out where I can get this.

-Ensure adeqate supplements are taken as a program, not whenever I remember. The Multi-vites, calcium are a must. Get updated on what else is good to boost my health - antioxidants, immune-boosters and other supplements that have been proven to be good at fighting cancer or keeping cancer at bay. Especially after my last chemo, I will need to really help my body to repair itself and then aspire to keep it strong with the right nutrients.

-Snack if I must, but make it healthy fruits, dried fruits and nuts. The Quran says good things about olives, dates, pomegranate and honey. Health Food stores stock up on these items and even have them in juice form (dates,pomegranate). Cranberries are also supposed to be good and taste quite nice too. All kinds of nuts, yes, but in moderation.

And I must keep myself abreast ( what a funny word to use in this present context) with the latest in what-to-eat-if-you-have-cancer. I must also educate others close to me and whom I socialise with to eat as though they have cancer-so that they don't have cancer. Prevention is always better than cure. I hope everyone will practice what they know about healthy eating and not just read about it to be postponed to another day. Time and Cancer wait for no man. I should know.

Insya Allah, God willing, if I keep up the fight by fortifying myself with the right foods, and avoiding all known carcinogens, my body cells will be well protected that they will not be forced to mutate or suffer DNA damage and hurt me in the process. I take care of them, they will take care of me.

Insya Allah, I will try my best and give it my all. And I seek God's blessings as it is God who will determine where I go from here. Amin.