5-10 Fruits and Vegetables A Day

My father was recently diagnosed with Stage 4 Lung Cancer, The prognosis given by the medical team is not a positive one.

Since the diagnosis, my sister, who works in a Natural Health food store and who cured herself from Rheumatoid Arthritis in her early 20’s through diet, has been on a mission to get my father to eat a healthy whole foods diet, including lots of organic produce, juices and supplements. We are all hopeful.

A vegetable-filled whole foods diet is not one that is easily embraced by my father. 15+ years ago when he was diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes I tried to convince him to manage his diabetes through his diet. The film Forks Over Knives presents amazing case studies that show the power of food and food choices.

Over the years its been hard for my father to change his lifestyle. I understand. We all have our habits that we steadfastly hold on to. For me my two cups of coffee in the morning are precious, almost sacred. One year when we were canoe camping I ran out of coffee for the last day of our trip. I was in a panic, my brain occupied with how to find some coffee while camping. I took it upon myself to ask passerbys, fellow campers, who likely also had a limited stash of the black gold, and I found enough for one cup. Phew. Now I always make sure to pack extra coffee!

Having a major illness is debilitating. I have so much sympathy for the pain and struggle anyone with a major illness is going through. It’s a journey you take mostly on your own, as others cannot experience your pain and suffering as you do. As a loved one watching one with a major illness I feel sympathy and compassion. I also keep asking myself, what can I do, to try and avoid this for myself in the future?

Cancer statistics are alarming, every 8 minutes in Ontario someone is diagnosed with cancer. The most recent stats state that 1 in 3 Canadians will be diagnosed with cancer at some point in their lives.

Those are pretty bad odds. .

Research suggests that a healthy lifestyle including lots of fruits and vegetables, whole foods, low meat consumption, avoiding processed foods, combined with exercise and a positive outlook should help in minimizing the chances of illness, or better still, increasing the odds for wellness. Further, I personally believe that avoiding pesticides and other chemicals that are added to or sprayed on foods, can’t hurt. For this reason, and for the health of the farmers and the land, it’s worth choosing organic.

At goodfood2u we offer the ease of ordering local and organic produce and groceries from the comfort of your homes, and we deliver it to your door. We do this because our lives are busy and because we believe it is so important for us all to eat healthy foods. We aren’t offering medical advice, or making assurances, but we do believe that a healthy diet including LOTS of produce will help in contributing to wellness. We always offer a combination of produce that ensures variety and colour with your health in mind. You can see this weeks produce offer here. Challenge yourself to eat more produce and to try produce you don’t normally eat.

So what does eating well look like? It looks like 10 servings of fruits and vegetables a day. It looks like regular servings of darky leafy greens like kale, collards or spinach. It looks like lots of bright orange vegetables like carrots, squash or sweet potatoes. It looks like vegetables for snacks, and vegetables in each meal.

Each week in our newsletter we highlight the health benefits of the produce offered each week. We also offer recipes both in our newsletter and here on our website to give you some ideas.