Eating Organic
I have always been a pretty active and healthy person. So, it was a shock when I was diagnosed with Ovarian cancer at such a young age. After diagnosis, I knew I wanted to do everything I could to recover my health. One part of my fight against cancer was chemotherapy. Basically this is a form of cancer treatment that uses powerful chemicals to target fast-growing cancer cells. During treatment, your immune system is compromised and that can impact how you eat, sleep, and feel during the day. Generally the advice is to eat a healthy, nutritious diet to help you fight the cancer and cope with the side effects of treatment. I’d always been interested in eating well and this seemed like a good opportunity to learn a little more about the food I was eating. Where was it grown? How did it get to my plate? And were there certain things I could eat that might help me feel better during and after treatment? To answer these questions, I turned to books like You can Conquer Cancer by Ian Gawler and Shattering the Cancer Myth by Katrina Ellis. I also asked my naturopath lots of questions!
After all this research, I decided that one change I could make was to eat organic produce. Organic fruit and vegetables have been treated with little or no synthetic chemicals and are not genetically modified. Once I started eating organic I also noticed a difference in the taste - fruits and vegetables tasted richer and fresher! They were so good on their own that I could skip complicated recipes and keep my meals simple without sacrificing flavor.
Research into whether eating organic can help prevent cancer is inconclusive but studies do show that eating more fresh fruits and vegetables (conventional or organic) may lower your risk of certain cancers. In addition, when you eat organic, you reduce the amount of synthetic chemicals that agricultural workers and wildlife are exposed to. And if you buy organic AND local, that supports the small farmers in your community.
Organic products are usually more expensive than conventional ones so don’t skip fruits and vegetables if you can’t buy organic. Instead just try adding a few organic foods that are thought to have the highest pesticide residue.
These include: strawberries, apples, nectarines, peaches, celery, grapes, cherries, spinach, tomatoes, red peppers, cherry tomatoes, cucumbers and kale.
If you eat eggs, dairy and meat, I also recommend sourcing these from ethical, local farms and butchers whenever possible.
You can buy organic food from:
Some supermarkets
Some green grocers
Health food shops
Some fresh food and farmer’s markets
Certified organic retailers.
Changing your nutrition and lifestyle is a personal journey and I suggest you experiment and find out what works best for you. Start with a couple of health or wellness goals and engage the help of an expert if you need some guidance and support.
If you have any comments or questions please send me a message!
NB: if you would like to know more about women’s cancers, I recommend this resource https://counterpart.org.au/navigators/. When this app was being built, I had a volunteer role which included providing feedback before this was officially launched. It can also be viewed online.