A friend recently gave me a Reader’s Digest cookbook called Eat Well, Stay Well. There is a two-page table in it that lists foods that fight illness. Of course, the foods that fight cancer are of interest to me, so I’ve listed them here:

• Orange and yellow vegetables, which include tomatoes, red bell peppers, and chilies.
• Dark leafy greens.
• Cabbage family vegetables (broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower).
• Garlic and onions.
• Orange fruits (apricots and nectarines), citrus (including red grapefruit).
• Berries, grapes, watermelon.
• Whole grains.
• Legumes (especially soy) and nuts.
• Seafood.
• Lean poultry.
• Low-fat dairy products.

According to the table, the foods on the above list supply beta-carotene, lycopene, indoles, ellagic acid, other phytochemicals, folate, vitamins C and E, calcium, selenium, and omega-3 fatty acids. I’m the first to admit that about the only thing that’s familiar to me in all this are the vitamins C and E, and calcium. Okay, I have heard of omega-3 fatty acids (found in fish). But as for the rest, I will look up indoles and ellagic acid at a later date.

Somehow, it doesn’t seem right. I’ve eaten copious quantities of most everything on the list (save for watermelon, yuck), and I’m not so fond of broccoli. But I’ve consumed more than my fair share of the rest. Never smoked, don’t drink, take walks every day. Eat healthy, live healthy, die anyway. Or get cancer anyway, as the case may be.

I think, had I known that I would end up with breast cancer in my middle age, I might have done some wilder things in my youth. Maybe I would have smoked pot or dropped acid. Naw, probably not. One can’t fight one’s own nature—especially if it’s a conservative nature. But I could have shopped more often, laughed more loudly, and done more things with wild abandon. Come to think of it, I still can. Once this cancer war is won, watch out world here I come!