We’ve all heard the Geico car insurance ad a million times, at least if we watch sports. So what does this saying have to do with prostate cancer? The answer is nothing and everything.
The research has just about reached the overwhelming stage that the Western diet, especially our American version - heavy on meat and dairy with their associated fat and toxic loads, is a major factor in prostate cancer development.
As a prostate cancer survivor, I’m pretty interested in ensuring that mine does not recur, so I started looking at the recurrence risk elements that are within my control. Basically, these factors are what I eat (my diet), what I do (exercise - or lack thereof), and what I think - laughter is great medicine.
On the food front, I decided to see how easily I could adopt a diet with no meat and dairy. But, I reasoned, it needs to be really EASY - there’s the caveman angle - because we guys (at least most of us) tend to graze on the first thing we see and things that are easy. Below is my first shot at doing green, the easy way.
I created what I think is a pretty passable salad using pre-washed vegetables - minimum preparation time. The ingredients: 1) pre-washed spinach; 2) pre-washed broccoli and romaine lettuce; 3) I peeled and diced some raw onions - it did require some peeling; and 4) I chopped in red peppers. Full disclosure; I did wash the red bell pepper. I drizzled extra virgin olive oil over the top along with some coarse sea salt, as I have a salt tooth. Et voila! A pretty good salad - very healthy - with almost no preparation. Make it as big as you like, there aren’t many calories but lots of great vitamins, minerals, phytonutrients, etc. A caveman really could do this because they had that all important opposable thumb. And all in about 11.5 minutes. Got brocolli?
