You've had it shoved down your throat this week, processed meat causes cancer! And my response to the plethora of articles, tweets, and Facebook shares is - DUH. Did people really think that meat that has been taken from animals in who knows what condition (maybe pumped full of steroids), then cooked and loaded with preservatives to improve shelf life, didn't have the potential to have cancer-causing chemicals in it?
Fact - In this great year of 2015, we know that practically everything has the potential to contain cancer-causing chemicals (carcinogens). Your [animal] cruelty-free makeup, the sun screen that's supposed to protect you from burning and getting skin cancer, the store-bought soil that you filled your garden with so you could grow organic vegetables and feed your family more healthily.
Fact - A Canadian's current chance of getting cancer in their lifetime is 2/5, and their chance of dying from cancer is 1/4. Those odds are already not good.
Fact - Never eating bacon (or other processed and red meats) again will decrease your rate of colon cancer by 18%. But there's still hundreds of other cancers that are not affected by that choice, so don't live your life in fear and deny yourself delicious foods in moderation, if that's what you want to eat.
Fact - Eating as healthy as possible including organic fruits and vegetables, whole grains, and lean protein will improve your health, and improve your body's ability to fight off cancer and other diseases.
Fact - Staying fit and mentally healthy will also improve your chances of living a long healthy life cancer free, but that is true of any disease.
Fact - Prevention is the first step to curing cancer. There are lots of other things you can do to improve these statistics. Don't smoke, don't drink to excess, wear the right sun screens (and hats and use umbrellas), eat healthy, avoid processed foods, drink lots of water, exercise daily, meditate to take care of your mind and soul, reduce stress and focus on the good, and get regular check-ups at your doctor for early screening tests to improve outcomes. If you want to see what your risk factors are and how to improve your chances check out It's My Life.
Fact - Even if you do all of these things right, you can still get cancer. Or arthritis, or heart disease, or Alzheimers, or or or... There is no 100% effective way to ensure you never become sick, but these few changes will help your odds.
Fact - You can make a difference by helping to fund cure research. Think about the types of cancers (or other diseases) that have affected you in your life, or the life of someone you love. Then be sure to research the organizations that fundraise for those cancers. Be sure that the money is going to cure research, and that it's not all being funnelled into employee pockets, or other random places (*cough* Susan G Komen *cough*).
If you're a long time reader, you know that I fundraise for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society of Canada through their Light The Night walk each year. To date my team has raised $17583 over our four years, with $7895 of that in this year alone. Every $500 raised funds two days of innovative cure research by Canadian scientists - so we have personally funded over two months of cure research. That may not seem like a lot in the grand scheme of things, but we are seeing breakthroughs all the time, and knowing we had a hand in that is incredible. If everyone reading this post went out and raised $100 for a cure-minded organization, we could obliterate cancer before it has a chance to take anyone else we love from us.
If you'd like to help our team hit $8000 raised before December 31st, you can donate to my page
here. Otherwise, please think about all the facts in this article and make some changes. Don't just quit eating bacon and think cancer won't get you now. Be smart, do your research, live a healthy life, and help those who need it.
Labels: bl, Cancer, cancer prevention, cancer research, charity, cure, Dear Jack, Dear Jack Foundation, DJF, fundraising, Leukemia, Light The Night, Lymphoma, mental health, not for profit, philanthropy, soul
