Bernadette Bohan’s The Choice: The Programme: The simple health plan that saved Bernadette’s life – and could help save yours too. Bernadette Bohan

susceptible to this deadly disease?

      

What made my immune system so weak that it had lost the ability to protect itself?

      

Why has conventional medicine avoided the whole area of diet and nutrition?

      

Why wasn’t there a more integrated approach combining Western medicine with complementary therapies?

      I was desperately looking to find answers to these questions. Surely there was some rational explanation? Despite not having the answers, I decided I would pursue the subject in depth. I soon discovered that there was information everywhere I looked, and surprisingly it was not all that incomprehensible or particularly complicated.

      I learned that this disease is caused by deficiency and toxicity. Each of us have cancers growing inside of us from time to time. What stops their growth getting out of hand is a healthy immune system. I also learned that, given the correct tools, our own body has the remarkable ability to heal itself, but that if we don’t provide our body with the correct building blocks we can seriously impede its function. Symptoms get worse with time and eventually our health will degenerate. The body will fail to protect itself from disease when we do not provide it with the correct nourishment to make healthy cells. So in order to help the body recover and thrive, it is imperative to provide a regular supply of food that is not stripped of its immune-boosting nutrients. Fresh, raw, unprocessed foods provide us with the best essential components for health and are the finest medicine that nature can provide.

      I was so determined in my quest to beat the cancer that I immediately set about making some corrective changes. These changes were intended to support myself through the six months of chemotherapy, the 25 radiation treatments, and the operation that now faced me. I was also hoping these changes would insure against future recurrences of the cancer. Whatever the outcome was to be, I was not about to sit around and wait until I got to the point of no return. I had to find a way to help myself.

      Initially I realized that these treatments were going to be very debilitating and I worked hard to try to counteract the effects on my immune system. What happened next amazed me! I had never experienced healing to this extent on a physical level before. As I switched to more nourishing foods, I first began to notice the disappearance of the arthritis in my right hand and shoulder that had plagued me for many years. This was really significant for me, as I could see the benefits happening in front of my eyes. I wore reading glasses and I realized I was picking them up less and less. As an added bonus I also lost my middle-aged spread!

      I will freely admit that having arthritis and wearing reading glasses are not such major problems when one has been diagnosed with cancer. But my positive attitude and actions were rewarding me with some very positive feedback from my body. So I began to look seriously at the bigger picture. I was hoping to heal myself from cancer and the side-effects of its treatments. Of course I couldn’t see the cancer itself, but I could see these welcome and apparent changes to my body. This was confirmation to me that when you give the body what it needs, it will speed recovery and reward you by supporting the natural state of health. I realized then that by boosting the immune system my body was back in charge.

      I remember thinking to myself: ‘If only I had learned all of this information earlier in my life! Why had I waited till my choice was so desperate?’ I was truly amazed at the incredible intelligence inherent in the human body…when we take care of it.

      In this book I will share with you the simple changes I made to support, sustain and improve my health throughout this challenging and difficult time. It appeared that the only option open to me where I could make a difference was with what was going into my shopping basket. After all, I had no time to waste wondering if it was the environment or some other unknown reason that was giving me the cancer. Neither my mother, who lived to the ripe old age of 93, nor either of my sisters had ever developed cancer – surely it could not be hereditary?

      It was very frustrating and disappointing to discover that none of my doctors was able to give me the answer to why I had developed this disease for a second time, or indeed why I had developed it in the first place! It still baffles me how so much money has been spent on cancer research and yet the medical profession cannot tell us what the cause is! How can this be? Thankfully, evidence is now available that clearly points to a connection between diet and cancer. This evidence is available from the Bristol Cancer Centres database.

      Encouraged by these positive changes to my body and coupled with the strong notion that nutrition was the bottom line when it comes to good health, it seemed a logical and natural step for me to investigate this area and learn how to improve my diet. How difficult could it be to switch to foods which, according to what I was reading, could fight this disease? I will admit that at times I found a lot of the information I got from reading and attending lectures confusing and a minefield of contradictions, nevertheless I was determined to press ahead. After all, when on holiday don’t we experiment with different foods all the time? I also know that for many of us, when we think of health foods we automatically assume they will be tasteless and awful. One reason for this is possibly because we don’t know how to prepare them. This was another area where I was keen to learn more. I wanted to find delicious and better ways to prepare food.

      From all the lectures I attended and experts I spoke to, the most astounding fact I learned was that when food is cooked or steamed above 43°C (115°F) it destroys almost 100 per cent of the enzymes in these foods. I also discovered that the enzymes destroyed in cooking are vital for breaking down foods into smaller, more usable nutrients, and this in turn helps the body absorb these nutrients from the foods more efficiently. Our health pays a significant price when we eat foods without these enzymes. This was when I realized that there are some foods we eat largely for comfort and others we eat largely for nourishment.

      As I learned more and began to prepare these foods, it was natural for me to want to pass this on to my family. Like every wife and mother I wanted to give the best nourishment to my husband and children. Let me assure you this was not met with open arms and there was an argument almost every evening around our kitchen table. Changing eating habits can be very challenging, especially for teenagers and children. This is why adding good foods, rather than eliminating poor ones, can be a better way of proceeding. You don’t spend all your time feeling hungry or thinking about the foods you cannot have, and – trust me – as you progress you naturally begin to stop buying expensive, convenience junk foods.

      Although not an easy task, in the end I decided to get sneaky and find ways of disguising these nourishing foods and sparing myself the arguments and the opposition. I even managed to make Sunday dinner with gravy that contained millet without them noticing. It may not sound very appetizing, but believe me it certainly passed the test with my bunch. They already suspect that I sneak as many nourishing ingredients as I can get away with into their food, but now that my secret is out it may not be so easy in the future.

      Where foods and nourishment are concerned, the evidence is neither black nor white. I often think of the millions that are spent on general education for our children, and yet very little of that time and money is put into educating them on the one thing they must do for the rest of their lives – EAT. Must we wait until scientific evidence proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that poor diet leaves us with a vulnerable immune system which can allow disease to develop?

      Some of us may simply not have the luxury of that time and cannot afford to sit around and wait until there is conclusive scientific proof. Waiting until we’re ill can sometimes be too little too late. Of course I understand that it is difficult to make large amounts of money from encouraging people to eat fruits and vegetables, and I strongly suspect that the financial motivation does not exist to fund research that proves the simple connection between good foods and health.

      One of the most important steps we can make towards better health is to take responsibility for our own nourishment.