Reminds me of the old Texas slogan, “Big Hat, No Cattle.”

Recently, I noticed one of the NY Times “most emailed” articles of the week—one written by a breast cancer survivor. So, while resting next to Stonington Harbor during the middle of my daily walk, I read it on my iPhone. So, how’s our war on cancer going in the USA? Here’s a factoid of interest that was mentioned in the article entitled: Our Feel-Good War on Breast Cancer:

One hundred and eight American women die of breast cancer each day. Some can live for a decade or more with metastatic disease, but the median life span is 26 months.

Not knowing what I was in for at the beginning of the article, I kept thinking that this somewhat skeptical “survivor” was going to reveal some important information. After all, the New York Times devoted quite a bit of space to her 6,000-word article. On top of that, there are now 577 comments, which probably adds another 30,000 words—in case you’ve got an extra day or two to devote to reading about our nation’s totally dysfunctional cancer situation.

I didn’t read any of the 577 comments but I did read the entire article. I was searching for a glimmer of hope from the author—some life-saving information about how to avoid this horrible disease in the first place.

As I plodded through the article which must’ve been more than 200 pages on my iPhone 5, I only found one paragraph that even hinted at the crux of the problem—the fact that we’re spending practically nothing on prevention. That paragraph was about 3/4 of the way through the 6,000 words. As you can see, they mentioned the word “prevent” but the word diet did not appear—anywhere in the 6,000 words. Here’s the prevention paragraph:

Women are now well aware of breast cancer. So what’s next? Eradicating the disease (or at least substantially reducing its incidence and devastation) may be less a matter of raising more money than allocating it more wisely. When I asked scientists and advocates how at least some of that awareness money could be spent differently, their answers were broad and varied. Many brought up the meager funding for work on prevention. In February, for instance, a Congressional panel made up of advocates, scientists and government officials called for increasing the share of resources spent studying environmental links to breast cancer. They defined the term liberally to include behaviors like alcohol consumption, exposure to chemicals, radiation and socioeconomic disparities.

My new car is also a 4Leaf-er. A “green” Fiat 500 that gets over 40 mpg on regular gasoline.

While reading this article, I kept thinking about the blog I wrote about how the 42-year-old search for the cure now “has a life of its own.” (See link below) In that blog, I drew the analogy between taking care of one’s automobile and taking care of one’s body.

But unlike our automobiles, we only get one body per customer. Even so, most Americans devote much more attention to the type of fuel they put in their cars than the fuel they put into their own bodies. Searching for the cure—now has a life of its own.

The Bottom Line. Since the 6,000-word article in the NY Times provided no useful information when it comes to preventing cancer, I have decided to share seven points from The China Study. This is an excerpt from my special page on Cancer in general (See link below).

Guess the author of the 6,000 word article never read this great book.

So why aren’t we being told about the ability of a whole foods, plant-based diet to prevent most cancers? I will let Dr. T. Colin Campbell (of Cornell) answer that question—with a few lines from The China Study (Chapters 1, 3 & 8)

1. Despite thirty years of the massively funded War on Cancer, we have made little progress. Contrary to what many believe, cancer is not a natural event.

2. Adopting a healthy diet and lifestyle can prevent the majority of cancers in the United States. Old age can and should be graceful and peaceful.

3. [C]asein (the protein in cow’s milk) and very likely all animal proteins, may be the most relevant cancer-causing substances that we consume.

4. There is enough evidence now that the U.S. government should be discussing the idea that the toxicity of our diet is the single biggest cause of cancer.

5. There is enough evidence now that doctors should be discussing the option of pursuing dietary change as a potential path to cancer prevention and treatment.

6. Our institutions and information providers are failing us. Even cancer organizations, at both the national and local level, are reluctant to discuss or even believe this evidence.

7. Food as a key to health represents a powerful challenge to conventional medicine, which is fundamentally built on drugs and surgery.

Counting this one, I have now posted a total of fifty blogs on cancer in the past two years. One of them ended up with a “survivor” firing me as a friend. Maybe someday, she and the millions of other cancer victims out there will understand that our nation’s “search for the cure” has done practically nothing to prevent the occurrence in the first place.

My goal here is to help the masses who remain completely uninformed about the simplicity of cancer prevention—providing them with the simple message that they will never get from the nation’s prominent cancer organizations. (See #6 in the above list.) Want to learn more about our nation’s HUGE cancer business? Check out the last blog listed below.

• Source article. Our Feel-Good War On Breast Cancer, NY Times Magazine
• My special page on Cancer. Cancer (All kinds) and a few more of my earlier blogs:
• Cancer “Breakthroughs” that Cost Too Much and Do Too Little (10-4-12)
• Who can you trust when it comes to what causes cancer? (12-13-12)
• Drugs for preventing cancer — now everyone can be a customer! (6-6-11)
• Searching for the cure—now has a life of its own. (5-18-12)
• Screening for cancer…a very big business (2-21-11)
• Riding the cancer train to fame and fortune (10-6-12)

Handy 4-piece take-charge-of-your-health kit—from Amazon.com

• The movie that’s changing the lives of millions: Forks Over Knives DVD 
• Healthy Eating, Healthy World, The “big picture” about food (our book)
• An essential scientific resource: The China Study by Dr. T. Colin Campbell
• Dr. McDougall’s new book, The Starch Solution, with lots of great recipes.

Want to find out how healthy your family is eating? Take our free 4Leaf Survey. It takes less than five minutes and you can score it yourself. After taking the survey, please give me your feedback as it will be helpful in the development of our future 4Leaf app for smartphones. Send feedback to jmorrishicks@me.com

International. We’re now reaching people in over 100 countries. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter or get daily blog notices by “following” us in the top of the right-hand column. For occasional updates, join our periodic mailing list.

J. Morris Hicks, working daily to promote health, hope and harmony on planet Earth.

For help in your own quest to take charge of your health, you might find some useful information at our 4Leaf page or some great recipes at Lisa’s 4Leaf Kitchen.

Got a question? Let me hear from you at jmorrishicks@me.com. Or give me a call on my cell at 917-399-9700.

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—J. Morris Hicks, board member, T. Colin Campbell Foundation