Book Review: Food To Fight Cancer

Foods to Fight Cancer by Richard Béliveau

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I love this book, because the very last chapter quotes; "variety is the spice of life", and things like; "moderation", which I am such a believer in, especially when it comes to food.



I bought this book because in May 2010 my sister (who was 22 years old) was diagnosed with Leukaemia.



It turned our family upside down - let alone my sister's life - and I didn't know how to help.  



I've always believed that diet is important in life, possibly with constant brain washing from my father who is very health conscious, that what goes in must come out (i.e. you can't feed kids crap/processed foods and then complain they have behavioural issues.  You can't eat a packet of biscuits a day and not expect to put on weight), and wanted to see if food could help with her fight against cancer.



When I say diet, I don't mean 'dieting' to lose weight, I mean, what we eat day to day, every day, for the rest of our lives.  Our diet.  Like a cow's diet is grass, humans should have a balanced diet.  I'm not a believer in 'dieting', in Weight Watchers, Slim Fast, Atkins... (those are the ones that stick in my mind, but I'm sure there are more).  I believe in everything in moderation - and exercise (which the book also endorses).   



This book is not telling you to become a vegan, or vegetarian, it's emphasising the importance of a well balanced diet made up of whole foods, cooking recipes from scratch, not turning to "industrially prepared and processed foods" (that have lost all their goodness and contain too much fat, salt and sugar).  The odd treat, to feed our craving for foods rich in fat and sugar is okay - occasionally! - but generally, to eat healthily and to include the foods they've researched (plus all other fruit and vegetables), proven to contain anti-cancer molecules, into your diet.  Red wine and good-quality dark chocolate are included in this list!



The first chapter is shocking.  Why are people afraid of flying when they are at greater risk of dying of cancer? (You have a 1 in 3 chance of dying from cancer, where as there is a 1 in 3,000,000 chance of dying in a plane crash).



The last section looks at supplements and how it's the actual food that helps prevent cancer.  I particularly liked this;



"You cannot eat just anything and then get off the hook by taking a pill".



Good point!  There is more to fruit and vegetables than their vitamins!



This book does have some 'science' speak to it (it's written by scientists), but it is perfectly understandable, as long as you don't have to try and read the 'big words' out loud.  I found it fascinating, the history of some of the food and it's origins - brilliantly researched book.



If you are interested in diet and health generally, this is a book for you.  If you are in remission from cancer (in any shape or form - it describes leukaemia as a liquid tumour) and want to increase "every possible chance to prevent the disease's recurrence", this is a book for you.



If you're currently fighting cancer, this is a book for you.  It might just help...  Surely, it's worth the try?



I think everybody should read this book, whether you're afraid of cancer or not - it's an eye-opener to the Western world and its very poor diet. 



(n.b. Text in quote marks have been taken from the book).



View all my reviews

Book Review: Want To Know A Secret? by Sue Moorcroft

Want to Know a Secret? by Sue Moorcroft

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Sue really does create delicious heroes.  James is the support mechanism in his family, and you find yourself really empathising with him.  



The secrets just keep coming...  Diane gets a wake up call in life basically.  She learns to fight back and take charge, though still managing to put her family first, like James, which creates a great conflict for their relationship.  And we all LOVE conflict!  But I loved Diane, enjoyed watching her get stronger and stronger.



As I've seen someone else review, Sue does keep the story real.  We're reading characters that we can relate to (with a touch of fantasy as obviously we want to escape real life, too).  And her little plot twists are great.



I really enjoyed reading this book, Sue has a wonderful way of telling a story, lovely descriptions without over doing it.  Again, there are some ups and downs, and laugh out loud moments (well I laughed heartily at times).



I have to admit, Starting Over is still my favourite of Sue's novels (yet to read All That Mullarkey, but it's on my bookshelf waiting) but this is a close second.  I loved Starting Over for different reasons.



James doesn't ever get fully described (apart from his eyes and killer smile), which is good, because you get to put your own image in there, and his actions show how he's an attractive man really.  But I felt he was not on the page as much as Ratty was in Starting Over...  And Ratty was a bit devious, which I liked (because every girl loves a bad boy). 



We get to see inside Tamzin's head occasionally, and though it was good for the story, I missed not being with Diane or James.  Though, Sue's sub-hero, George is just great, too.  (Two heroes for the price of one - yay!)



(Gosh this was rather hard to write without putting any spoilers in!  I try not to spoiler, just want to tell you how good it was and recommend to read).



View all my reviews

Book Review: Stephen King On Writing

On Writing by Stephen King

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This is the first ever Stephen King book I've read, and in some ways I really want to go and read his stuff, and in other ways, knowing how he described his accident, I don't.  I felt sick  - and scared.


Some really good advice given that I will try to remember.  He had a great way of explaining things, and it's full of encouragement.



Thoroughly recommend it.  Interesting to see how he started out in life.  It's an autobiography plus a writing guide.  The autobiography really explains how he got his ideas through life experiences.  It won't give you the 'how to write like Stephen King' but it will give you what you want to hear - it's okay to write!


I have to say, the short story at the end (Jumper by Gareth Addams)... well, if you've ever worked in retail you'll understand it.


View all my reviews

Oh and book total up to SEVEN!

I'm Making Up For It By Baking

Half term is proving not to be very productive on the writing front.  Boys are home, and although they've been playing rather well, of course they still need entertaining.

Yesterday we were out with Grandad Ron for the afternoon.  I thought we'd go to the Helicopter Museum and I'd be able to use it as my last piece towards my 7th assignment - it could be classed as an exhibition!  However that was closed (so I am still stuck on my bloomin' assignment), so we walked the seafront instead, and went to the new play area.  It got some fresh air into the boys lungs! 

Today, around the housework that needed to be done, I made some cakes with the boys that they decorated, and then a Victoria sponge.

I've been reading a lot in the evenings, (as you may tell by my Twitter and Facebook updates) but last night I did manage to finish a ghost story, which I'll consider entering into Writing Magazine's short story competition.  Though I'm not confident about it, not sure if it's spooky or original enough. 

My RSI seems to still be niggling, (hence a lot of reading) and I've found that Windows has speech recognition software - thanks to a friend!  I plugged in the headset I got from some software I bought years ago, (which is not likely to work with Vista) and was off.  However, it needs training more to my voice, because it's not understanding me, and is taking longer than if I typed.  But it's a start!

I'm really struggling at the moment, one thing or the other, I'm not putting enough into writing.  I'm failing with the magazine reading - the ones I need to research for my assignments - I'd much rather be reading a good book.  I've just got mixed feeling about it all - what should I be doing to improve my chances of publishing and all that.  Born worrier that I am, I suppose I'm anxious that I want to make sure I'm doing everything I can to get there. 

Fearing that non-fiction isn't really my niche I have bought some magazines (that I need to research) for the short story market.  But I keep thinking, get these four assignments out of the way, and I'll be on my way to study fiction - so I've not made time yet to even look at these.

Stephen King (On Writing) says it shouldn't be for the money.  I'll never give up writing.  I love it, and have enough stories I can fall back to in my fan fic realm.  However, I do want to become a writer as a job - I've realised now what I want to do in life!  So yes, I want the money.  I don't expect to be the next J K Rowling, or even Stephen King, but a small income doing something I enjoy would be a dream come true.

Book Review: Storm's Heart by Rachel Lyndhurst

Storm's Heart by Rachel Lyndhurst

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Rachel's début novel is a right storm!  The minute Kizzy and Andreas are on the page together, it gets interesting.



I did enjoy their fiery battles - I do love good conflict in romance; Andreas being an arrogant bastard at times and Kizzy defending herself - quite rightly so.  But Andreas does redeem himself, realising his actions are unacceptable, he just needs to learn that throwing money at Kizzy isn't really what she wants.  And I was glad to see he saw through Kizzy's change in confidence, otherwise it felt a tiny bit unrealistic.



A sizzling read with Andreas' determination to get Kizzy in his bed.



The switching of POVs in the first couple of chapters I found a little jarring, which sorted itself out, and there was a tendency to overuse a 'volcanic' description.  Those things may have stuck out for me because I'm a writer, and read books very differently myself.  That said, not enough to put me off the book.  I didn't really want to put it down - but real life at times demanded it!



Great story if you fancy being swept off your feet to Greece by a gorgeous, Greek billionaire and be taken through an emotional ending.



View all my reviews