TV
TV pretends to show us life. Okay, mostly it tells us to buy things. But I was watching House, my new favorite medical show about the world famous diagnostician who doesn't actually want to ever see any patients. ("Patients lie," he says. Which is stupid because even if they do, their fingernails don't. Neither does their skin color, the way they walk, or a thousand other things a good diagnostician notices. But Hugh Laurie plays Dr. House and he's fabulous, so it's like reading Spiderman comics--spider powers make no sense, but after you swallow that this is a world in which they do, everything else is fun.)
Still, Dr. House correctly diagnosed that one of his associate's father had cancer because the guy was eating a macrobiotic diet and had the blue dot tattoo on his neck for aiming radiation therapy. The guy admitted that he had metastatic lung cancer and a prognosis of three months.
Okay, I buy the blue dot. But a macrobiotic diet? Don't get me wrong, I had friends on the macrobiotic diet in the eighties (and to be honest, they looked unhealthy, but maybe being unhealthy was why they got on a macrobiotic diet in the first place.) But this guy was supposed to be a well-respected rheumatologist. I don't think macrobiotic is the cancer diet these days and I'm really not sure that a rheumatologist with three months to live would think macrobiotics was going to add significantly to quantity or quality of life. And they were eating at the hospital cafeteria. Not a hot bed of sprouts and brown rice, right?
I don't know what is a good cancer diet other than women with estrogen-sensitive cancers should avoid meats with added hormones. And I've heard that dairy can affect certain cancers (which again, makes sense because milk is a substance whose purpose is to help a cow gain a half ton of weight in a year--milk naturally has hormones in it.) I figure House defaulted to macrobiotic because it was a kind of short hand. Macrobiotic = extreme + healthy.
I think that there are ways to eat more healthy when you're sick. But as usual, TV has failed to tell me what they are. So it's back to lots of fruits and veggies and anti-oxidants. And maybe some Hagaan Daz now and then.
Still, Dr. House correctly diagnosed that one of his associate's father had cancer because the guy was eating a macrobiotic diet and had the blue dot tattoo on his neck for aiming radiation therapy. The guy admitted that he had metastatic lung cancer and a prognosis of three months.
Okay, I buy the blue dot. But a macrobiotic diet? Don't get me wrong, I had friends on the macrobiotic diet in the eighties (and to be honest, they looked unhealthy, but maybe being unhealthy was why they got on a macrobiotic diet in the first place.) But this guy was supposed to be a well-respected rheumatologist. I don't think macrobiotic is the cancer diet these days and I'm really not sure that a rheumatologist with three months to live would think macrobiotics was going to add significantly to quantity or quality of life. And they were eating at the hospital cafeteria. Not a hot bed of sprouts and brown rice, right?
I don't know what is a good cancer diet other than women with estrogen-sensitive cancers should avoid meats with added hormones. And I've heard that dairy can affect certain cancers (which again, makes sense because milk is a substance whose purpose is to help a cow gain a half ton of weight in a year--milk naturally has hormones in it.) I figure House defaulted to macrobiotic because it was a kind of short hand. Macrobiotic = extreme + healthy.
I think that there are ways to eat more healthy when you're sick. But as usual, TV has failed to tell me what they are. So it's back to lots of fruits and veggies and anti-oxidants. And maybe some Hagaan Daz now and then.
posted by Maureen McHugh at 8:44 PM
9 Comments:
Only slightly off topic: I adore Hugh Laurie. I think I fell in love with him in Sense and Sensibility, when he played the dreadful Mrs. Jenkins' son-in-law. He's wonderful.
If a good diet caters not only to the body but to the soul, Haagen Dasz is definitely on it.
"Ugh! Goo! Chew! Munch! Eat!"
"Are you still eating that Macro-biotic food..? ...Anybody will tell you its UNHEALTHY!! The guy that invented this diet dropped dead at a cocktail party!!"
"I know.. I'm eating this junk in memoriam .. not every man has the integrity to die of his own philosophy.."
From "The Collective Unconscience of Odd Bodkins", by Hugh Dan O'Neill
Yum, ice cream -- I've always found it to be the cure for whatever ails me.
Good luck on the walk. I don't know if the weather is quite ready for you though--here we went from 60 down to 19 in about 3 hours, we're freezing! Spring feels like it's far, far away.
Yoga scares me, but I'm not that flexible. If you try it, I hope you like it!
Michelle
A person with metastatic cancer and three months to live is not eating macrobiotic. A person with metastatic cancer and three months to live is eating hot fudge sundaes. Believe me, I have thought about this.
I was recently on a conventional panel devoted to musing about who New Line Cinema should cast now that they have purchased Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, and everyone agreed that since Alan Rickman is too old for it, Hugh Laurie would be perfect for Strange.
(I didn't create this digression, Madeleine did.)
I will take the rap for this digression--I'm the one who said I love Hugh Laurie.
But yeah, three months to live? Hot fudge sundaes and really good scotch.
Hi Maureen,
I have been really struggling the past few weeks and haven't posted in a while but have been catching up with your blog every few days.
As for House, I watch that show too and I totally thought the same thing about that diet. I've been told by my nurses to eat "comfort foods" so I felt guilty when watching the show as mac-n-cheese is sooooo not on a macrobiotic diet. My mother would love to see me eating like that but most of the time I'm just happy to be eating at all.
I hope you're doing well as we go into chemo week.
Love,
Heather
Not to dis ice cream (which I love as much as I love Hugh Laurie, of course), but I know a couple of people (my sister in law, in particular) who would eat macrobiotic to the last moment if they thought it gave them an ounce of control in an utterly uncontrollable situation. People are comforted by strange things.
Me--hot fudge sundaes, lobster, single malt.
The spouse watches House with the same sort of Peggy Fleming mentality that I exhibit when I watch ice skating. He finds it irritating, because they do a lot of stuff nobody would ever do (or admit to it).
PS - I like macrobiotic food. Sometimes, a very pleasant soup is involved.
Cancer diet? I'm thinking totally organic, even meat, like giraffe and ostrich--if not totally vegetarian. And avoidance the Demon Sugar. Though I would make an exception for Kerbey Lane Organic Restaurant's Mocha Tofu Vegan Cheezcake.
Sorry for the grammar. Editor by day, language butcher by night. The wordsmith's version of the drunken, promiscuous priest.
No way anyone with 3 months to live is eating macrobiotic. Except for those seeking distraction from the inevitable. I suspect we die, alas, as we've lived. But I can live with not knowing. No rush at all.
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