Allow me to introduce you to Doreen, whom I met and married over 56 years ago while I was working as a biologist in British Columbia. Coming from good Celtic stock, coupled with a two-generation veneer of presumably healthy Canadian environmental influences, we considered Doreen’s prospects for a healthy life quite good. Alas, the dream was shattered, when at the age of 47, she was diagnosed with achalasia. Promising surgery followed, only to be the precursor of GERD-like anomalies since. Then, two years later, she was diagnosed with theca cell ovarian cancer. Following surgery, she underwent 36 cobalt treatments and 9 months of chemotherapy. Needless to say, both of the latter treatments exacerbated the already troubled upper-alimentary tract problem and added chronic nausea and intermittent intestinal blockages, both of which are chronic.

The foregoing introduction is necessary to understand how abruptly and radically one’s diet must be changed to accommodate an altered previously normal biochemistry. In short, soon after the first surgery, certain foods and beverages (Any acidic foods, e.g.) were found to aggravate the lower esophagus. But following radiation and chemo, an imposing number of foodstuffs and beverages had to be eliminated ------- all raw vegetables, coarse animal tissues, animal fats, spices and condiments, most raw or processed fruits, coarse grains, nuts, chocolate, alcohol, caffeine, carbonated beverages, etc.

Working within the constraints imposed by these limitations, by trial and error, Doreen has worked out a restricted diet that she adheres to at home, and works around when eating outside the home. Most friends and acquaintances are aware of her problem and generally try to address her needs. Foodstuffs that are agreeable include, farina, rolled oats, white or stone ground wheat breads, fish, shrimp, scallops, chicken, turkey, occasional extra-lean ground beef, rice, pasta, potatoes, cooked carrots, peas or broccoli, soups (limited to clam chowder, noodle, vegetable), limited servings of plain cookies or cake. Interestingly, every time she has a restaurant meal, no matter what the entre, she suffers distress (MSG, miscellaneous bacteria, contaminated seasoning, who knows?).

It is evident from the foregoing list of foodstuffs that a healthy diet can be adopted quickly and adhered to indefinitely when necessary. You will note that industrially processed foods are absent from this list.

My best regards, FCJ

In 1984, my 64^th year, I suffered an MI (obviously bad genes) while on my 8.5 Km walk. All alone, at ca 5:45AM, in pitch darkness and 2.5 km from home, I had to make my way back over hills, carrying a damaged heart.

In short, I recovered, and the experience changed my cavalier views on foodstuffs and diet. I anticipated your sensible recommendations to people near fifty and have been a conscientious advocate since. (I don’t recall your mention of the hazards of smoking, but just to be on the safe side, I had given up those delightful cigars and tobacco pipe-fulls seven years earlier)

Now to go on, I dropped from my diet those wonderful cheeses, cinnamon rolls, apple-lemon meringue-pumpkin-rhubarb-pies prepared by those chubby Dutch mothers who enticed me into their coffee shops located in the nearby community of Lynden. I also gave up those German soul-satisfying sausages (how I hated to delete the warm liverwurst and fried onions on rye bread from my lunch menu. I dropped those redolent plates of ham, sausage, or bacon with eggs, and fried potatoes often topped off with a piece of pie or cake, from my breakfast fare, and switched to oat bran mixed with a few grams of All-Bran, a hand-full of raisons and a half banana. I continued this routinely and only this past winter ventured some variation with wheat bran, rolled oats and multi-grains. Five days a week, lunch consists of pink salmon and a slice of onion on rye, flax- or multi-grain bread. On off days, homemade soups, tuna fish or sardines are fillers. Dinner inputs, include salad, home-baked beans, rice, vegetables , salmon or some other fish a couple of times a week, home made soups, pasta w/vegetable-tomato sauce, chicken and occasionally some pork, beef, venison, elk, or antelope (latter three items supplied by a hunter friend). I sometimes spread a ring of turkey sausage over a month or more, mixed in a roll with cole slaw. Lots of fruits and juices, mostly grape to up the "resveratrol input", join the above items. And recently, I’ve added a glass of wine several times a week to the evening repasts.

So there! Not all of us 50-plusses are unaware of your efforts to educate the populi. And besides - I still walk at least 5 Km/day, sun, rain, snow, wind, ice, downhill towards the water, but uphill on the homeward leg. Now that golf season is here I alternatively walk 18 holes on a hilly course, twice a week. I also do  15 min. of aerobics on alternate days.

FCJ