How do you eat better?
When I was 21 I was and living in Alice Springs and I made good friends with a Botanist. My knowledge of the science of Botany was zilch, my experience as a field naturalist, about the same.
I met an English guy in the same hostel as I was living. He had had little education, but was a very smart guy. He had come to Australia when he was sixteen, as an indentured migrant. He was committed to work on an outback station for two years to pay back his debt to our Government, I suppose. He had plenty of pluck, could see no advantage where he was summarily plonked, and took himself off to the Territory. To improve his education I suppose again.
I don’t remember finding much more about his past. In conversation I knew he had spent time with aborigines, and I suggested to my Botanist mate that they should get together. They got on like a house on fire. Talked for hours in technical terms and left me way behind. I learnt nothing, but my Botanist friend was astonished at this mans understanding of Aboriginal bush-tucker and his intimate knowledge of food and nutritious plants and herbs in the Northern Territory.
What does this have to do with the Practical Issues of Cancer? Just that our Aboriginal people were an exceptionally healthy lot, eating a well balanced diet, across the breadth of Australia in all it’s vast ecological niche areas. Many white men starved amidst aboriginal plenty. Burke and Wills spring to mind. We still would starve today. Unfortunately a lot of present day aboriginals would too. Now they have our diet and all our western degenerative diseases, and in bigger loads.
Here is an inspiring article on how to be healthy. Traditional Foods – The Aboriginal Diet http://tamingthemonkeymind.com/writings/Nature%20Care%20Stuff/Nutrition/Traditional%20Foods%20-%20The%20Aboriginal%20Diet.pdf They did it and we can’t follow it then or now, but it’s a good starting point to wonder why we have cancer and suggests ways we might change our lives, even a bit, to live and eat more naturally. I was surprised when I perused the references of this article to see mention of P Latz in two places. Peter was another Botanist, or maybe a Zoologist, and a friend and fellow student of my friend at Adelaide Uni. Together with athird scientist we went on many field trips in my beaten up VW and sometimes in Peters more beaten up VW. Peter was virtually a native, having grown up on Hermannsburg mission south of the Alice. He was quite a bushman, and I am pleased to find him sharing his knowledge and it being shared in turn. That way we all learn.
And while your at it check out this site "Resistant starch"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resistant_starch on a source of dietary fibre I had never heard of until I chatted to this guy in the chemo room in the neighbouring chair.