Now THAT'S what I call a food fight! Beating disease with nutrition.

The "right" foods boost our immune system to help us fight disease. This is a widely-accepted truth. Then why, myself included, do we resist buying things that we know are good for us, and continue to purchase processed foods and eat the "wrong" stuff? Three core reasons: cost, availability and convenience. But really, at the end the end of the day, what have we gained, except probably some weight? And what did we lose? Maybe a few dollars more for healthier options, and maybe thirty minutes of time not spent peeling, chopping and dicing. Is it worth it to go that extra mile and spend a little more? The answer, it seems, is a resounding YES!

A woman I know with RA, who is in full remission, medication-free and symptom-free, recently said to me, "If everyone ate as if they has cancer, RA and diabetes, then no one would have cancer, RA and diabetes." That being said, there's a lot to be learned from nutritional science, whether you are healthy right now or not, and prevention is the best form of medicine.

Case in point: In 1995, my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer. She had a lumpectomy and thought she'd beaten it. But she didn't change her lifestyle after the fact. She didn't start eating better, she didn't try to get more exercise. In 2000, she was told that the cancer had metastasized to her brain, resulting in two inoperable tumours. She was given six months to a year to live. At the time, I read the book "Spontaneous Healing " written by Andrew Weil, M.D., and encouraged her to try some of his therapies, which focus heavily on nutrition. This Harvard graduate physician claims to have seen patients completely recover from cancer. I don't just mean full remission; I mean that they found NO TRACE of cancer in these patients after following his regimen, their tumours had completely vanished. A powerful claim, to be sure. Read his book for yourself. I found it quite convincing, but my mother poo-poo'd his theories. She passed away in May of 2001. I'm not saying she would have necessarily beaten cancer if she had made positive changes to her diet and lifestyle, but then again, who knows? I still wonder.

Here's my own recent experience: I was diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis in June, 2009. RA is the result of a collapse in the immune system. Obviously, if my own immune system is attacking me, I have to figure out why and how to correct it. Yes, I was put on triple medication therapy, and of course it has a lot to do with my recovery, but it hasn't answered the question of how I got this ill in the first place. I did a lot of reading about this disease and discovered that food allergies, while not a proven cause, had long been suspected as a trigger. No one root cause has been identified as a precursor to the development of RA yet, but it seems most likely that a combination of factors come into play, including a genetic predisposition, fed by stress, possibly food allergies and other nutritional factors, and smoking has been said to increase propensity of the illness (as with all illnesses), etc. Somehow, my genetic code, combined with less-than-ideal lifestyle choices concocted a dangerous RA cocktail. The other key ingredient: I wasn't getting enough exercise, which has been proven to reduce RA symptoms. Although, I have to say in my own defense, I have permanent damage to my feet, which makes it more challenging. Some days, it's painful for me to walk, even for five minutes, and my preferred (and cost-free) workouts are running or walking. Some days, both are out of the question. Best solution? Stationary bicycle. Problem A: I don't have one. Problem B: If I can't afford food, do you think I can afford a gym membership? Hell no.

By the way, for my regular readers, I'm FINALLY off prednisone, so hopefully I can now lose the 10 lbs that the steroids added to my waistline. I read one theory that people gain weight on prednisone because it causes them to eat more, but that wasn't true in my case. Believe me, with hardly any food on hand, eating more was NOT my issue. I packed on the pounds while eating less, although the content of my diet, at times, may have been partly to blame. I maintain that even when I stuck to tuna and veggies, I gained weight anyway. C'mon, they are steroids after all. ANOTHER great reason to get more exercise!

So back to food choices: I read a ton of research on the role of nutrition in fighting RA. When I adopted an "RA-recommended diet," my symptoms eased. I eliminated wheat and dairy, incorporated all organic veggies and tried new foods, such as fennel and kale. Although I taxed my joints with all the food preparation. Chopping can be problematic for RA sufferers. But by far the biggest snag for me was: eating all-organic can be expensive. Since I couldn't work due to my RA (although I am much recovered and able to return to work now) I was on medical EI. Money was so tight, I often had to rely on the Vancouver Food Bank, as my regular readers know. Most, if not all, items with a long shelf life are, of course, processed foods. The Food Bank, bless their well-intentioned hearts, gave me egg noodles, eggs, mac & cheese, etc. Furthermore, what's cheap and on sale at supermarkets? Canned foods, cup-o-noodles type meals, pasta and sauces (BTW, tomatoes and peppers are on the RA no-no list). You get the picture. My symptoms flared. I then realized I was eating a diet which was almost exclusive to wheat products and processed foods. Yes, vegetables are inexpensive, so why didn't I eat more of that? Because it's not what I was given, for starters. Long story short, I had come full circle and was once again eating all the "wrong stuff."

I gave myself a stern talking to, and am now back eating veggies and tuna as much as possible. Salmon is on the RA must-have list, but far more expensive, so tuna is the next best thing. It's hard to stick to a healthy eating plan, and I think part of the problem is that I tried to make a complete 180 and change absolutely everything I ate. That's hard to stick to. It's the classic failure switch for all diets. Cravings kick in. For me, bread was a big one. I still think of toast as a comfort food, probably because the food bank never had any! Plus, I have a few die-hard weaknesses: white sugar and real milk in my tea, for one. Coffee with cream and sugar for two, I can't take it black. Cheese. Oh, how I love cheese. I've tried the soy varieties, and while the Swiss-flavored one is palatable, the rest are, well, gross.

Here's where I'm at now: The solution (for me) is to make one positive change in my eating habits per week. You know what they say about the journey of a thousand miles beginning with the first step. I'm going to make one small change per week, one little step in the right direction. They will add up quickly. And, I'm going to tweet, every Friday, what my weekly step is going to be. For example, starting tomorrow, I am going to switch permanently to honey as a sweetener for my tea and coffee. There's a terrific blog post at http://www.amazing-green-tea.com/honey-health-benefits.html, about the benefits of honey, considered one of the best "healthy" sugar options, and from what I've read, has far more to offer than stevia. I'm also going to walk as far as I can stand on the days my feet aren't so bad, and once I'm gainfully employed again (which might be soon, I had two interviews this week!), yes I will join a gym and get my butt on a stationary bike!

If you'd care to join me in my "Step in the right direction," every week, follow me on twitter and we can do this together. I would love some company on this road to healthier eating and some warriors joining me in the fight. As always, I welcome any comments.