In 2009, I had a major wakeup call. Although I was only 21, I ended up in the hospital with a golf ball-sized lump sticking out of the right side of my neck. Looking for appropriate guidance, I saw three doctors in all. After doing a biopsy of this solid mass, the first doctor told me I had a stage 1 cancer. The second said I had stage 0 cancer. Both doctors offered me conventional medical treatment, beginning with surgery. The third doctor told me the lump was precancerous and benign, and suggested it was the symptom of a cat allergy—even though I’ve never been allergic to cats before or since—and she offered me a prescription for pills to take for that supposed allergy. The whole diagnostic experience was confusing. From undergoing these visits, I became skeptical about the medical industry; it seemed as if the job of the doctors I was meeting was to sell me on surgery, chemotherapy, vaccinations, and pharmaceutical drugs. But I was not disheartened, as something in my background gave me confidence that I could heal the tumor on my own.

​I had grown up in Alice Springs, Australia, an area that’s home to a large community of Aboriginals who eat in a manner that’s unlike the modern American diet: with more plants, less meat, and very little processed food. Largely because of what they eat, these indigenous people enjoy excellent health. They taught me that food is medicine. Knowing it was possible for food to be used as medicine, even as the medical doctors were giving me conflicting opinions, my mind was on the lookout for an alternative approach.

Following the third doctor visit, I made a bold decision about my course of action. None of the doctors’ proposed treatments for the lump in my neck sounded appealing. In fact, to me they sounded like torture. I had already put my body through five years of agony by engaging in a self-destructive cycle of binge eating toxic junk food followed by starvation. I had no doubt that my sickness was related to my disordered eating, which had spiraled out of control when I left home. So, I decided to opt out of conventional treatments—at least for several months. Instead I would heal myself using all-natural methods because that was what intuitively felt right for me to do. I met with a naturopath and she also had confidence that I could heal the lump by detoxifying my body. And that is just what I did. I learned how to turn my kitchen into a pharmacy.

Let me be clear, in my book, I am not suggesting that you refuse conventional treatments for cancer if they are warranted, only that you eat healthily and are proactive in deciding what is right for your body and condition. As a health and nutrition coach, my aim is to help people improve their eating habits. On many occasions, the people I’ve counseled about food have undergone surgery for cancer or done rounds of chemotherapy or radiation. I’ve also worked with people like me, who took an exclusively natural approach to healing cancer. What you decide to do is really up to you and should be based on your physical condition, your personal beliefs, the advice you get, and your intuition about what is the right protocol for you.
No matter what you decide to do, you should think of food as your original medicine. If you choose to undergo one or more conventional treatments for cancer, the recipes in Cancer-Free with Food can be a great adjunct to those treatments. It will complement them. Good nutrition is the foundation of good health. Science is constantly revealing incredible insights on this.
In Cancer-Free with Food, I am not promising you a “miracle cure” for a serious health issue. My goal is to offer you comfort, inspiration, and hope that you can reverse the progression of cancer in your body or prevent cancer from taking root in the first place.

The delicious recipes in the book are so nutrient rich and wholesome that you’ll boost your immunity and resilience, as well as reduce your exposure to toxins, steering your body toward optimal health.

Frequently, I am asked exactly how I healed my body. People want to know everything that was involved in my recovery. In a nutshell, I did:
·      No chemo.
·      No radiation.
·      No surgery.
·      No pharmaceutical medication.
 
This strategy was my choice because I wanted to address the deeper causes of my tumor, not just react to the surface-level symptoms. I saw the illness as an opportunity to heal myself and become healthy on every level—mind, body, and spirit—in a way I had forgotten or lost.
Instead of conventional treatment, I:
·      Changed my diet and consumed a lot of nutrients.
·      Juiced up to six times a day.
·      Bathed in bentonite clay and used it as a poultice to draw out toxins—also drank it.
·      Had sessions of alternative therapies, like reflexology and massage.
·      Received a colonic or a coffee enema every day for two months.
·      Rested, relaxed, and did everything I could to reduce stress.
 
The lump started to get smaller and smaller, and within three months of commencing this regimen, it had completely disappeared from my neck. It entirely dissolved. I have been cancer free for ten years, since then.

One of the things I did to create accountability for my new lifestyle was to start a daily blog. At the end of a year, I collected recipes from the blog and published them in a book, The Earth Diet. This opened doors for me with thought leaders—doctors, nutritionists, healers, natural food purveyors, restauranteurs, and authors—who welcomed me as a fellow traveler and were generous in sharing their expertise. I’ve interviewed these cutting-edge thinkers. I’ve done research. I wrote a second recipe book, 10-Minute Recipes. I’ve lectured and done cooking demonstrations at conferences around the world. And I’ve coached many, many people on their eating plans. The best of what I learned and know as it pertains to cellular health, disease prevention, healing, and supporting the body to cope with the side effects of cancer treatment is included in this book.
 
How The Book Is Organized
The book is structured in a super simple way so that you could read the sections of it relevant to your situation and learn what food you need to eat and what to avoid in a day if you wanted—just in case you got diagnosed with cancer today. My heart goes out to you, if that’s the case. But you should know, I have confidence in you and your ability to heal. You are powerful!
In Part One, “Food as Medicine,” I will teach you the exact things to eat to strengthen your immune system, foods like vibrantly colored plants with antioxidant properties and cold-water fish high in omega-3 fatty acids. Also, I’ll explain what not to eat because it could weaken your immune system.

In Chapter 1, “Ten Key Principles for Overcoming Cancer,” I sum up the ten principles that every single expert, doctor, naturopath, and nutritionist are saying will increase our chances of beating cancer. One extremely important way to prevent and/or treat cancer is nutritionally, through eating a nutrient-dense diet. Another is avoiding things that are known to increase our cancer risk, like sugar, alcohol, and cigarettes. Unfortunately, until food manufacturers are forced to clean up the ingredients they use in their products, it’s up to us to avoid the worst kinds and to choose cancer-fighting foods. It’s up to us to reduce our exposure to chemicals.

To relieve some of the confusion you may feel about what to eat, in Chapter 2, “Top 15 Cancer-Healing Foods,” I’ll give you a breakdown of the science behind my recommendations for the most healing ingredients—everything from broccoli sprouts and turmeric, to blueberries, quinoa, cacao, and flaxseed. I had no idea before starting my research how potent broccoli sprouts are! And I have long eaten cacao pretty much every day, but I didn’t know there had been countless studies on their positive health effects and for exactly what until recently. The science is overwhelming! You’ll learn how much and how often to eat each ingredient and the types of cancer it is especially useful for. One of the things you’ll hear me repeat time and again is that you want to make your body inhospitable to cancer. These foods will help with that.

In Chapter 3, “Anticancer Supplements,” I sum up the top supplements you could get and always keep on hand to prevent cancer or even kill cancer cells. Some are concentrated forms of the foods you were introduced to in Chapter 1. For instance, you could eat turmeric in a curry recipe you prepare, or you could take a turmeric or curcumin capsule. You have options.

In Chapter 4, “The Most Toxic Foods on the Planet,” You’ll learn which crazily toxic foods and substances to cut out of your life beginning today—and why they can drain your energy and affect your nervous system, leaving you feeling anxious.

In Chapter 5, “Foods Upgrades and Cancer Hacks,” I’ll teach you the mindset I adopted that changed everything for me. You will learn how to fulfill every single craving you have.

In Chapter 6, “Nutrition for Cancer—Advice from Some Experts,” we’ll take a look at what doctors on the forefront of nutritional medicine are saying causes cancer and heals it.

In Chapter 7, “Nutrition-Focused and Alternative Cancer Therapies,” I put together an A-Z list of all the treatments available to you, so that you never feel stuck! If you have cancer, these are options that may complement the conventional medical protocol of surgery followed by chemo and/or radiation, or which you might consider as an alternative. This chapter also explains alternative treatments to prevent cancer—everything from detoxification strategies like chelation, to stress reduction and vitamin IV drips.

In Chapter 8, “Nutritional Support for Side Effects of Chemotherapy, Radiation, and Surgery,” I provide helpful tips and tools for overcoming negative side effects of conventional medical treatments, such as nausea, fatigue, insomnia, among other things. I interviewed many cancer survivors who told me these are things they wish they’d known during treatment.

Then, in Chapter 9, “Healing Guide for Specific Cancers,” I’ll give you quick tips on what foods are best to eat when you have one of the ten most prevalent cancers (for instance, breast cancer, prostate cancer, lung cancer, colon cancer). Beyond the nutritional science, we’ll look at a few complementary treatments you might want to consider.

Chapter 10, “Mental, Emotional, and Spiritual Nourishment,” is dedicated to healing tips and tools to detoxify the mind, soothe the emotions, and deepen your connection to God. Healing must be done physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. Reducing stress is imperative.
And this is all easier than you think, so don’t be overwhelmed, you are in the right place right now to receive the support you need! If you ever feel overwhelmed as you read this book, repeat the following affirmation to help bring you back to peace immediately: “I am peaceful. I feel peaceful. All is well in my world. All is well with my soul.”

In Part Two, “Cancer Free with Food Recipes,” you’ll find over 200 recipes for immune-boosting juices, brain-protecting smoothies, life-extending lunches and dinners, comforting soups and broths, alkalizing vegetable dishes, nutrient-rich desserts and sweet snacks (my favorite), strength-building meals, delicious sides, sauces, and condiments, and much more.

At the end of the book, to make things super simple for you if a health-care practitioner advises you, for example, to emphasize protein or fat in your diet, or you decide on your own that you want to bump up your consumption of fiber or ingredients that reduce inflammation, you’ll find a series of Quick Guides that will help you chart your way to the appropriate recipes for your objectives. There is even a list of the recipes highest in vitamin C—because if you have cancer, the immune system is compromised and needs every possible boost it can get. The “Quick Guide for Preparing Your Weekly Menu” will help you devise an ideal shopping list.

Get the book here or check out the Cancer-Free with Food Video Course which also includes a copy of the book with purchase.

Cancer Free with Food is an outstanding book that provides delicious recipes, health tips, advice from doctors and other experts, and an empowering perspective that you can easily adopt to help you prevent and heal from cancer and manage the unpleasant side effects of treatment. Liana Werner-Gray writes about the latest scientific discoveries on the role of specific ingredients in making the body an inhospitable environment for cancer and highlights the shift the medical community is making toward a more functional, systems-based, and environmental approach to treatment. This is an extraordinarily relevant book given the poor quality of what most people eat. By teaching us that food can be used as medicine, Liana is pointing us in the right direction. It’s the new medicine for the 21st century.

In my oncology rotation in medical school, I asked my professor what percentage of cancer was related to diet. Expecting a gracious, but insignificant nod to the role of diet as a cause of cancer, I was surprised when he said that 70 percent of all cancers are related to diet. Given this, in her book Liana answers the incredibly important question: If I’ve got or want to avoid cancer, what should I eat?

Ultimately, Cancer Free with Food is a recipe book that answers this question—one that is also filled with an abundance of evidence that diet, exercise, thoughts, feelings, and environmental toxins all can play a role in the initiation, growth, and progression of cancer. We are not at the mercy of our genetic predispositions. There is a lot we can do to stay healthy. If a nutrient-poor diet full of sugar and chemicals, lack of exercise, chronic stress, persistent exposure to pollutants, like heavy metals, can cause cancer, doesn’t it make sense that a nutrient-dense, plant-based diet, physical activity, changing thoughts and reactions to stress, and detoxification can prevent and help heal cancer? To me, it does.

I love that this book is full of great-tasting recipes that are quick and easy to make while packed with high doses of antioxidants and protein, two of the foundational elements of any eating plan whose aim is preventing and treating cancer. Liana’s genius is finding satisfying ways to enhance immune function and facilitate the body’s elimination of cancer-causing compounds. For years, I’ve been preaching the dangers of the typical contemporary refined-carbohydrate diet, like out-of-control inflammation and hormonal imbalance to name just two that are leading reasons people get cancer. By following Liana’s advice and using her wholesome recipes, you can avoid these and other dangers.

One of the key principles for overcoming cancer offered in Cancer Free with Food is never to consume white or refined sugar or artificial sweeteners again. Small amounts of real sugar, as found in ingredients like fruit, honey, and maple syrup, are fine to eat, but not the 152 pounds a year per person averaged in America. Liana admits that she formerly thought of sugar as a kind of recreational drug. But then she developed fulfilling recipes that fulfilled her sweet tooth and was able to stop making herself sick. Cancer loves sugar. You can learn from Liana’s example how to get off it and stay off it by responding to your cravings with genuine nourishment. And if sugar isn’t your “drug” of choice, she shows how to satisfy other types of cravings you may have that could potentially lead you into trouble health-wise. Liana is a real person who has traveled the path before you. You can trust her insights.
​
Food is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to making ourselves prone to developing cancer. The 2008–2009 report from the President’s Cancer Panel found that as a society we have grossly underestimated the link between environmental toxins, plastics, chemicals, and cancer risk. And the authorities have yet to acknowledge how thoughts, emotions, and overall stress also impact and add to the risk—but acknowledgment is sure to come. Liana is ahead of her time in presenting facts that should motivate us all to take a deeper look at how we nourish ourselves mentally, emotionally, and spiritually, as well as physically. Her approach to nourishment is comprehensive. 

​Register here for the free summit to listen to the entire lesson:

My lesson on the Heal Your Life Summit launches May 16th. In my new book Cancer-Free with Food, I also talk about liver health. I found this incredibly fascinating and thought you might too, Tigernuts have been studied and proven to be an effective liver protector! One study showed that tigernut milk can be useful for preventing liver damage from the pain reliever acetaminophen! Researchers concluded that the phytochemicals in tigernut milk significantly prevented liver injury. So drink tigernut milk for its liver-protecting properties during chemotherapy, when your liver is in danger of being overwhelmed with toxins. 

Eating tigernuts is good for the environment as well as your body. Tigernut Milk can be made simply by tossing a quarter cup of tigernuts in four cups of water and giving them a spin in a blender. By contrast, almond trees require a lot of water and are often farmed using pesticides. Plus, store-bought almond milk is often pasteurized, which changes its nutritional value. Tigernut milk is naturally sweet—no cane sugar is generally added to the store-bought variety, like it is to many brands of nut milk.

Here is the recipe for you:

IRON BOOSTING TIGERNUT MILK
Total time: 5 minutes (Makes 4 servings)
Ingredients:
1 cup tigernuts
4 cups filtered water
4 seedless dates or 1 teaspoon
maple syrup
Pinch of sea salt
teaspoon vanilla extract

​Actions:

1. Put all the ingredients in a blender.
2. Mix together until a smooth, milky consistency is achieved.

Variation: Add 2 tablespoons cacao powder for Chocolate Tigernut Milk.

Calories: 155.5 | Protein: 2.5g | Carbs: 25g | Dietary Fiber: 0.1g | Fat: 8.7g | Vitamin C: 2.3mg | Vitamin D: 0 IU | Vitamin E: 0mg | Calcium: 46.1mg | Iron: 2.3mg | Magnesium: 39.2mg | Potassium: 12.9mg 

Excerpt from Cancer Free with Food 

Vitamin D is a necessary vitamin, as it helps us to absorb minerals, like magnesium and calcium, in our intestines. We get Vitamin D from sunshine and from some foods. Vitamin D3 and D2 are compounds from food. D2 is found in fungi (mushrooms). Vitamin D3 is found in fish and grass-fed beef or calf liver. Some foods in the supermarket are fortified with vitamin D.

Foods that contain vitamin D:

• Mushrooms (button, cremini, portobello, shiitake)
• Fish liver oils, such as cod liver oil
• Wild fish (salmon, tuna, sardines, mackerel)
• Shell fish (shrimp, oysters)
• Egg yolks (another reason we should be eating the entire egg and not just the whites!)
• Beef liver
• Cheese

​Vitamin D supplements are promoted to offer anticancer properties. Observational studies have shown that low vitamin D levels raise the risk of developing certain cancers including colon cancer. But getting sufficient sunshine may be key, rather than elevating blood serum levels. One study showed
that breast cancer death rates tended to be higher in areas with low winter sunlight levels and lower in sunny areas. 
If you live in a place with little sunshine, chances are good that you are vitamin D deficient. I have heard from many people that when they took vitamin D supplements (based on blood work showing they were deficient), a lot of their health issues improved. Maybe this is why we typically feel better in spring and summer?

​Suggested dosage: Have your doctor check your vitamin D levels through a blood test and prescribe a proper amount of supplemental vitamin D. Get 10 to 15 minutes of sun on bare skin daily.

Order Cancer Free with Food at Amazon or Barnes & Noble. ​

Sea salt is produced by the evaporation of seawater. Some is a residual of evaporation that happened long ago. For example, Himalayan salt, which is pink and comes from an inland mountain range, is harvested from terrain that was once covered in ocean water millions of years ago. The container may be labeled Celtic sea salt (aka sel gris, or “gray salt”), fleur de sel (“flower of salt”), or Hawaiian (black or red) salt. High-quality sea salts typically contain 60 to 84 trace minerals—zinc, iron, and potassium among them—making them healthful, and much better than bleached-white table salt. I strongly believe no one should ever consume white table salt. And why would we need to when sea salt is available to us?

Many people are still afraid of salt, fat, and carbohydrates because of all the crazy articles they read decades ago. The problem is not with salt, per se; we just need the right salts. People who are deprived of salts can suffer many health issues. You can include sea salts in your cooking, smoothies, or even just mix some in water and it will give you those trace minerals you need. Salt helps the human body function at its best.

Although seas salt may contain trace iodine, it is not the best source of iodine. Iodine-rich foods include seaweed, cod fish, shrimp, tuna, eggs, organic dairy, and prunes. Iodine is an essential mineral, needed for proper thyroid functioning. With too little, our metabolism slows down. In children, a deficiency can affect brain and bone development. Dr. Christiane Northrup recommends dried dulse flakes (a sea vegetable) as a source of iodine. 

One way to heal the body is to detox it by consuming curcuminoids, a family of active compounds that includes curcumin, demethoxycurcumin, and bisdemethoxycurcumin. Curcuminoids are responsible for the healing properties of turmeric.

Remember there are many many many ways to heal, so it’s finding the one that works best for you. This is an excerpt from my new book “Cancer-Free with Food” which is available for pre-order on @barnesandnoble and @amazon now you guys!

You consume curcuminoids when you eat turmeric. Turmeric root is perhaps the most studied and talked about food for preventing and fighting cancer. In fact, it is so powerful that MD Anderson Cancer Centerformed a Center for Cancer Prevention by Dietary Botanicals specifically to evaluate the efficacy of using ginger, black pepper, and turmeric—a trio of spices routinely used in Indian food—to heal and prevent colorectal cancer. Okay, so we hear about turmeric all the time, but why is it so good? To break it down, turmeric is an anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, anticancer, and brain-protecting superfood. The spice made from turmeric root that gives curry its bright yellow color, it has its superpowers because it contains three potent compounds: curcumin, demethoxycurcumin, and bisdemethoxycurcumin. No matter how you do it, consuming turmeric is a no-brainer! The curcuminoid compounds in turmeric have been shown to decrease tumor size in cases of colon, prostate, and breast cancer. Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center published a study with rats who were exposed to cancer-causing substances. They then treated them with turmeric and found they were protected from colon, stomach, and skin cancers. How amazing is that? Furthermore, in this same study, the replication of tumor cells stopped when turmeric was applied directly to them in the laboratory. Other laboratory experiments have shown that curcuminoids protect the body in a few more ways: They enhance the activity of a crucial detoxifying enzyme and act as antioxidants by neutralizing free radicals (which cause DNA damage).13 Detoxifying the body is one of the beneficial healing strategies discussed in Chapter 5. There is hope for healing colon cancer with turmeric. Functional medicine expert Dr. Mark Hyman recommends turmeric root to reduce gut-based inflammation.14 Michael Greger, M.D.,founding member of the American Academy of Lifestyle Medicine and author of How Not to Die, states that the low incidence of bowel cancer in India is often attributed to natural antioxidants such as curcumin (the yellow pigment in the spice turmeric used in curry powder), which the majority of Indians consume on a daily basis.15 And in one small study in 2006, patients at high risk for colon cancer who received 480 milligrams of curcumin and 20 milligrams of quercetin (found in red onions and grapes) three times a day realized a decrease in the number and size of polyps in their colons.16

My new book available for pre-order now.

12. “Turmeric,” Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (accessed June 26,
2018), https://www.mskcc.org/cancer-care/integrative-medicine/herbs/
turmeric.
16. M. Cruz-Correa, D.A. Shoskes, P. Sanchez, et. Al. “Combination Treatment
with Curcumin and Quercetin of Adenomas in Familial Adenomatous
Polyposis,” Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology, vol. 4, no. 8 (August
2006), pp. 1035–8, http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16757216.
​
@ancientnutrition has some great turmeric supplements, turmeric oil, and turmeric bone broth! (founded by @drjoshaxe and Jordan Rubin. I get mine at Vitacost.com use code: earthdiet for 10% off