F Cancer - The F Connection

F  CANCER and the Food Connection

I saw this posted on my Facebook Feed this past week and it struck me immediately because I remember when I was a kid it was rare to hear that someone you knew had Cancer.  Just this past year I have had many people that are very young that are in my life that have been through various stages of Cancer.   Cancer has taken away many members of my family.  My father had Cancer and all of my aunts and uncles died from various Cancers.  I spent 14 years at Sunnybrook Hospital and I can honestly tell you that Cancer is not pretty and affects more than just the person going through it.

My friend Lynn Manwar had Breast Cancer and went through the usual chemotherapy and radiation and then surgery and then she was clear of that only to find out that she now had to deal with seizures and then had to have surgery on her brain to get rid of the seizures.   She is working towards recovery.  She is eager to get back to her very social life.  This is a recent article about her. http://www.myvirtualpaper.com/doc/Desi-News-Corp/edesimarch2014/2014030501/#40 
I introduced Lynn to another friend of mine that also had Cancer in the past and was working on a documentary about Raw foods.  She introduced Lynn to Raw foods which Lynn credits for her surviving the Cancer.
This photo of Lynn and I is from a few years ago at a party at my house before she went through her Cancer surgeries.


Another friend that I know from my Film Festival life has a husband who is only 40 years old and is going through stage 4 Cancer after feeling stomach cramps. This is their story. http://www.citynews.ca/2014/02/27/new-father-battles-disease-at-centre-of-provocative-ad-campaign/#ad-image-0

This past week Film Critic, Journalist and Author Richard Crouse just revealed that he had gone through Cancer treatments, but in his case nobody knew about it until now.  I have known Richard for many years as I used to do the makeup for the Rogers Television show Real to Real when he was one of the hosts.  Richard's revelation was a surprise to many people including myself because he continued on with his very busy entertainment schedule while he was undergoing treatments.  I run into him about town every now and then and I never noticed anything different about him and that's the way he wanted it.  He didn't want "pity" from anyone and chose to have a good attitude and continue living a healthy life.
I am sure Richard will inspire and help a lot of people.   Richard wants to save your life so he has decided to tell his story.   Read about him here:  http://www.richardcrouse.ca/tag/colon-cancer/

What all of these 3 people have in common is their love of movies, life, people and they all lead a very healthy normal lifestyle.    So why did they all get Cancer?  None of these people smoke.  None lead high risk lives.  There has to be more to this connection.  Why is the funding for Cancer going up and the cases of people getting Cancer going up along with it?  Most of the news says that more people are surviving from many cancer diagnosis.

But here's the thing that I think may be one of the reason's that things have changed over the past 100 years.  We can now diagnose it earlier and more people talk about it.  Drug companies are constantly pumping out cancer drugs and I think that they don't really want to find a cure because they make billions off of Cancer drugs.  There is a whole machine that runs around the world of Cancer.   My mom had Dementia and nobody talked about it and there wasn't really much out there for her.   There is a walk for Memories but it is a blip on the media radar compared to all the Cancer walks and fundraising activities.  This past year I even participated in fundraising for A Cook for the Cure.   I don't know if the $200 that I raised will make a difference but I hope some of it does.

What I think is probably the thing that most affects and helps Cancer is our FOOD.  We are eating more processed food because of our busy lifestyles and also because sometimes it's just cheaper and more convenient.  We don't know what's in this stuff and the long term affects it has on our bodies.

We don't know what to eat anymore because the EXPERTS tell us different things everyday.   You shouldn't eat Beef,  you shouldn't eat dairy,  you shouldn't eat Fat, you shouldn't eat white foods.   But then you hear about people getting sick eating lettuce or other so called healthy foods.   If eating the right foods is key to preventing or helping Cancer then how do we know if these foods are actually what they claim to be and are actually healthy for us.   With companies like MONSANTO making money off ruining our health by creating GMO corn and other products and producing TOXIC pesticides that are sprayed on our farms and then the run off waters then are consumed by animals and by us.  How can we reverse this process?  I believe that if you look at a chart of when food changed and align it with the Cancer rates you will see a connection.  Michael Pollan researches this in his books.

Here's the thing.  Eating Organic food that is Local and Seasonal is probably the best thing we can do for ourselves but let's face it most people can't do 100% Organic food in Ontario.  The cost is prohibitive and because of our long winters it's not realistic.  It's almost impossible to sustain a 100 mile diet unless you don't like food.  Unless you live on a farm and have a full abundance of all kinds of varieties of chickens, cows, pigs and goats you are probably at risk of eating something that has not had the care and attention to it's processing that it should have.  We breath in Toxic air and eat food that is covered in toxic pesticides and eat food that could possibly be genetically modified.

So what can we do?  Well we can do the best we can to try and know where our food comes from.  I love to go to farmer's markets in the summer and prefer the ones where the actual producer is selling the food.  But what can we do the rest of the year?   Eat as much Organic Food as you can afford.   But especially the Dirty Dozen. Here is the link to find out what they are: http://www.ewg.org/foodnews/summary.php   The more we support Local Organic food the more the big producers will change their ways.  While it's probably not realistic to expect everyone to have enough food from small independent farmers it will send a message to the big producers that we don't want their chemicals and we want REAL FOOD the way it should be.

90% of Cancers are curable if caught in Stage One.
Here's an idea.  Why don't we figure out how to prevent it from getting to Stage ONE.
http://www.letsfcancer.com/

Update:   I am sad to say that Joel Urnom lost his battle with pancreatic cancer on May 2nd.  His wife Brandi and his daughter Viva will keep his memory alive and will keep fighting to get more attention on this Cancer to save people in the future.

Brandi's update can be found here:  http://www.680news.com/2014/05/16/woman-focuses-on-charity-after-losing-husband-to-pancreatic-cancer/

My memory of Joel.
Every year I would see Joel and Brandi host our annual Oscar Party with our group of people that volunteer together at the Toronto International Film Festival.  We would normally have it at an Uptown restaurant called Safari but one year we had it in Joel and Brandi's condo party room.  This was the last Oscar party he was able to attend.  A year later we went back to Safari and Joel was too sick to attend so we sent them photos while they watched quietly at home.
This photo is Joel holding my fake Oscar on the fake red carpet that I brought to jazz up the party room.  This is how I would like to remember him.

R.I.P. Joel Urnom - February 15, 1973 - May 02, 2014

Milestone's random act of kindness

This is my friend Lynn waiting for her dinner at Milestone's restaurant the other day.   Notice the fact that Lynn's hair is really short.  That's because Lynn has just finished chemotherapy treatments for Breast cancer.  What you can't see from this photo is the fact that she doesn't have eyebrows or eyelashes either.  The reason you can't see that is because I just finished taking photos of Lynn at my apartment for a record of how she looks before surgery and had to paint on her eyebrows and lashes.  Lynn just finished her chemo treatments a couple of weeks ago and will probably be getting a mastectomy next month.  She wanted to document this point in time before her surgery, so I offered to help her with the photos.  What she forgot was the fact that I did makeup for 30 years.   But this was a different makeup job than I would have normally done.  Because Lynn's immune system has been compromised by the chemo I had to be very careful about the makeup and tools I used on her face, so I opted to use a couple of never used brushes and cotton pads, q tips and minimal tugging on the eyes. What does this have to do with food you ask?  Nothing, but the reason we ended up at Milestone's in North York.   Last week Lynn had a post chemo party at her house and friends gave her gift cards.  One of those gift cards was for Milestone's restaurant.  She wanted to thank me for taking her photos of her so she asked me if I wanted to go to Milestone's for dinner with her.  Since the Milestone's is within walking distance of my place and it was just about time for dinner I thought it was a great idea.

When we sat down Lynn told the really nice waiter that we just finished taking photos and then asked if a chicken dish was spicy.  He said it was kind of spicy so she told him that she had to be careful of spicy foods because she just finished chemotherapy.  The manager walked by and he asked for confirmation on how spicy it would be.  They both suggested another chicken dish for her.

As soon as the waiter left the lady at the table beside us came over and said that she noticed her coming in and the cancer haircut.  She said her daughter just went through cancer treatments so she understood that look and what she was going through.  They talked for a bit and I think it made Lynn feel good to be acknowledged and have her share her story.    I snapped this photo while Lynn was sending a text message to someone telling them about doing the photo shoot so i thought it would be fun to take a photo while she was texting that.  That's why she is looking down.

Anyway.. back to the food aspect.   I ordered the original chicken dish she asked about called the Harissa Chicken.  It was on brown rice with a yoghurt sauce and green beans and carrots.   Super healthy and perfectly seasoned.  It did have a bit of heat but not too much for me to handle but might have been different for Lynn's compromised taste buds.  It was delicious and look how beautiful it was presented.

After our chicken entrees we ordered the shooter glass desserts.  They were super rich and Lynn contemplated ordering another dish since she couldn't eat her chick peas that we in her chicken dish, but after having those desserts we were pretty full.

She put down her gift card and a bit of money in case it went over and went to the bathroom.   The waiter came by and cleared the table but didn't take the gift card/money.   At first I thought that was odd and then I though maybe he will just come back to deal with the bill.   Lynn came back to the table a few minutes later and then the manager came over and bent over and quietly told Lynn that since it was her first nice meal out after her treatments that he wanted to comp our meal.  He was really sweet about it and tried to be very discreet and respectful.   A few minutes later the waiter came over and asked if we heard the good news.   We thanked them both for being so kind and generous.  Lynn told them that it made her day.    She still has her gift card and plans to go back again soon.

I have always liked Milestone's because they try and give you great service and try and change up the menus every now and then while keeping a few favourites on the menu.   What I also like about Milestone's is that I used to have monthly sunday brunches and Milestone's was one of the only restaurants that welcomed a big group and didn't rush us out the door but let us enjoy our brunch conversations.   It truly is a great place to celebrate Milestone's even if one of them is finishing chemotherapy.

I really love the decor and atmosphere in most of the Milestone's restaurants.  It's upscale casual and I always feel comfortable there.  I have gone for many birthdays and other occasions but this time their service really excelled and the food matched the service.   This is how restaurants should do it.    We don't expect to get free meals but it's nice when servers and managers listen to their customers needs and try and accommodate to their needs.    If I was a restaurant critic with a star system I would give them 5 stars for this visit. 

Other restaurants could learn from this example.   Lynn had a few rough days of making the big decision between a lumpectomy and a mastectomy so things like someone going out of their way to make her feel good really put her in a good frame of mind.

It's not always about the food.   The service and atmosphere is just as important for the whole experience of dining out.

Thank you Milestone's North York.  We will be back.