gf2545's Blog

Cancer develops when cells in a part of the body begin to grow out of control. Although there are many kinds of cancer, they all start because of out-of-control growth of abnormal cells.

Normal body cells grow, divide, and die in an orderly fashion. During the early years of a person's life, normal cells divide more rapidly until the person becomes an adult. After that, cells in most parts of the body divide only to replace worn-out or dying cells and to repair injuries.

Because cancer cells continue to grow and divide, they are different from normal cells. Instead of dying, they outlive normal cells and continue to form new abnormal cells.

Cancer cells develop because of damage to DNA. This substance is in every cell and directs all activities. Most of the time when DNA becomes damaged the body is able to repair it. In cancer cells, the damaged DNA is not repaired. People can inherit damaged DNA, which accounts for inherited cancers. More often, though, a person's DNA becomes damaged by exposure to something in the environment, like smoking.

Cancer usually forms as a tumor. Some cancers, like leukemia, do not form tumors. Instead, these cancer cells involve the blood and blood-forming organs and circulate through other tissues where they grow.

Often, cancer cells travel to other parts of the body where they begin to grow and replace normal tissue. This process is called metastasis. Regardless of where a cancer may spread, however, it is always named for the place it began. For instance, breast cancer that spreads to the liver is still called breast cancer, not liver cancer.

Not all tumors are cancerous. Benign (noncancerous) tumors do not spread (metastasize) to other parts of the body and, with very rare exceptions, are not life threatening.

Different types of cancer can behave very differently. For example, lung cancer and breast cancer are very different diseases. They grow at different rates and respond to different treatments. That is why people with cancer need treatment that is aimed at their particular kind of cancer.

Cancer is the second leading cause of death in the United States. Half of all men and one third of all women in the United States will develop cancer during their lifetimes. Today, millions of people are living with cancer or have had cancer. The risk of developing most types of cancer can be reduced by changes in a person's lifestyle, for example, by quitting smoking and eating a better diet. The sooner a cancer is found and treatment begins, the better are the chances for living for many years.

Learn to drink non-fat milk. This one was a hard one for me since I had strong memories of my childhood when my mother made us drink non-fat milk made from powder. YUCK! But, since I drink a lot of milk, I knew that this would be an important one. And, surprisingly, after a week or so, I stopped noticing the difference. As a matter of fact, recently at a Music Festival I ordered milk, not thinking about it, and I was given whole milk. I couldn't drink it, it gagged me!

Use low-fat mayonnaise. Best Foods/Helmans Low-Fat Mayonnaise has 1 gram of fat per tablespoon. It is fine on sandwiches and mixed with strong tasting foods like tuna. A trick I learned was to mix equal parts low-fat mayonnaise with drained non-fat or low-fat yogurt. This really cuts the fat content of the mayonnaise and makes an excellent substitute for high fat mayonnaise in potato salad and other mayonnaise based salads.

Salad Dressings. Most of the creamy salad dressings, like ranch and blue cheese, can be successfully made with low-fat mayonnaise and non-fat sour cream. The only problem with them is that they do not hold well. I make just enough for one salad by using part of the dry ingredient from the packet and an approximate amount of the other ingredients. Oil and vinegar based salad dressings can be successful with half the oil called for in the recipe, using an equal amount of water for the oil you leave out, and then adding a small amount of sugar to compensate for the vinegar (taste as you add it). There are also some very good bottled salad dressings on the market (see product recommendations).

Balsamic Vinegar. Balsamic vinegar is a great salad dressing, all by itself. It is also great sprinkled on ripe tomatoes with shreds of basil on top.

Sour Cream. If we eat a dish where sour cream is an important taste ingredient (i.e. topping black beans), or in cooking, we use low-fat sour cream. If the sour cream is just an element (i.e. on a burrito), or an ingredient in non-cooked food, we use non-fat sour cream. Non-fat sour cream breaks down in cooking and essentially becomes water. Non-fat sour cream works well in dips if you mix it with equal parts drained yogurt. The yogurt gives the sour cream more texture.

Yogurt. Non-fat yogurt can become an essential ingredient in a low-fat lifestyle. Drained yogurt it is great for potato toppings, as a substitute for sour cream and as a "cheese" product. We purchased a "yogurt strainer", a V shaped object with fine mesh holes, that works great. We put the strainer over a 2 cup measuring cup, dump in the yogurt, and put in the refrigerator for 1-2 hours (for lightly drained yogurt), or over night (for yogurt cheese). Just be sure that you purchase yogurt made without gelatin. Yogurt with gelatin will not drain!

Roasted Garlic. We really missed butter on french bread when we first started living a low-fat lifestyle. Then I discovered that roasted garlic spread on french bread was just as good, if not better. And, when you have a few extra fat grams to spare and you want to really treat yourself, also spread on a dab of fresh goat cheese!

Low Fat Cheese. We find that most of the low fat cheeses (anywhere from 2.5-5 grams of fat per ounce) are an acceptable substitute for their high-fat counterparts. They work well in cooking and they melt well.

Non-Fat Cheese. We use non-fat cheeses when the cheese is a non-cooked ingredient in the recipe such as on burritos, etc. I usually buy it already shredded because I find trying to shred the stuff frustrating. It is like rubber!

Soft Cheeses. Soft cheeses like blue, gorgonzola, feta, etc. have less fat per ounce than hard cheeses (usually about 6-7 grams vs. 10 grams), and they generally are stronger tasting. We use these cheeses as taste accents because a little goes a long way. A favorite potato topping is 1/2 cup non-fat sour cream, 1/2 cup non or low-fat cottage cheese and about an ounce of gorgonzola blended in the blender. That makes about 1/2 cup topping each for two people, tastes great and is only about 3-4 grams of fat per serving.

Parmesan/Romano Cheeses. The hard grating cheeses again, are lower in fat, and because of their strong flavor go much further. A tablespoon of parmesan cheese is only about 2 grams of fat and adds a great taste boost to many foods.

Eat more vegetarian meals. Unless you use a lot of oil or load them up with cheese or cream sauces, it is very hard to make vegetarian meals anything other than low-fat!

Eggs. One egg contains 5 grams of fat. I have found that in most recipes that call for whole eggs, you can substitute an equal amount of egg whites (i.e. 1 egg usually equals about 2 egg whites). You can also use egg whites when a recipe calls for "egg substitute", since "egg substitute" is simply egg whites with some stabilizers and coloring in them! I have also found that when I really crave scrambled eggs, combining two egg whites with one whole egg produces scrambled eggs with very little taste difference.