Health and Nutrition Strategies For Cancer Survivors and Everybody Else -- by Warren Green

WHAT’S IN YOUR DIET?

Warren Green can be reached
at warreng9241@hotmail.com

A friend and cancer survivor colleague inquired about my January/February optimizing strategy, so I thought I'd devote a few sentences to my strategy. I have my annual scans(bone and cat) and quarterly blood work in March. About blood work, I find it beneficial to keep all of my lab reports and I've done so since my cancer diagnosis in 2005. My reasoning was that my PSA labs never exceeded 4.0 and were not flagged by the lab. So, my former internal medicine doctor never bothered to inform me. Upon second opinion, The Urology of Indiana team advised me of a very aggressive cancer and that watchful waiting/active surveillance wasn't an option. Consequently, I learned how to read and interpret my lab data and subsequently all of the published data regarding studies and clinical trials.

I get regular press releases from the USDA/FSIS. I recently received a policy change regarding beef hearts use in ground beef and subsequently hamburgers. For over 35 years we (FSIS) operated under the policy that beef hearts were a variety meat/ meat by product and were not permitted in ground beef.

I refer you to 9 CFR 319.15(a) and (b).In contrast beef heart is any portion of the heart cap with or without attached ventricles. Beef heart is not meat, and is defined as a meat by-product in 9 CFR 301.2.

Meat by-products are not permitted components of chopped beef, ground beef or hamburger. The USDA is now asserting that the regulation was misinterpreted and therefore beef hearts can be used in any of the aforementioned products without additional labeling and with no limitations.

That means pink slime (Partially deffated chopped beef) ,beef hearts, that means your hamburger can be to the made entirely of components that were never permitted. More to come.

Finally, sales of organic food products more than tripled between 2005 and 2015, from 13.8 billion to 43.3 billion, according to the Organic Trade Association. Grocers like Kroger,Walmart, and major restaurants have gotten the message and are marketing organic causing a major demand. Northeast North Carolina has the best transportation logistics in the country. We have the longest growing period within 500 miles of the largest consumer markets in the world.

You are what you eat.