61: Discover the Top Cancer-Fighting Foods That Experts Swear By with Liana Werner-Gray

Hello and welcome to the Kenya breasts podcast with Dr. Jen. The show dedicated to empowering women through knowledge, tools and resources to take control of your breast health journey. I'm your host, Dr. Jen Simmons, and I'm thrilled to have you join me on this insightful and inspiring journey. As a breast cancer surgeon turned functional medicine physician, I'm on a mission to empower women to live their breasts and need best lives. This podcast dives deep into all topics related to breast health, including prevention, diagnosis, treatment and holistic approaches to support overall well being. You know what I say, Breast health is health.

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Breast cancer survivor, newly diagnosed in treatment, living with metastatic disease, or you're simply seeking to improve your breast health, this podcast is for you. Join us on this transformative path towards better breast health and a thriving life. And now, let's get to today's episode.

One of the most common question, if not the most common question that I get after someone has a breast cancer diagnosis and comes to see me or they're reaching out to me on social media is what should I eat? What diet should I follow? This is by far and away the most controversial of topics in my area of the world. In the breast cancer world and really in everyone's niche. The talk and the conversation about what is the right diet, what should people eat, how should people eat, when should people eat? This is definitely a a controversial topic. And if you're wondering what you should and can eat, what is going to help you to reverse your disease, what is going to help you to achieve health, then you've come to the right place and you ought to stick around. Because today I am so delighted to welcome Liana Warner Gray. She is a nutritionist, she is a natural food chef, she is a four time best selling author of the Earth Diet Cancer Free with Food, which is is one of the top 100 books of all time, 10 minute recipes and her latest book, Anxiety Free with Food. But I am just so delighted to welcome you here to share your wisdom. You've done amazing things. You continue to do amazing things in the world of health and nutrition. So I am so looking forward to learning from you and sharing you with my audience. Liana, welcome.

Thank you so much, Dr. Chen. I'm so grateful to be here and have this amazing conversation.

So I'm sure that you get this all the time. But for my listeners, you started off with the Earth Diet blog which went viral. So tell me why, why did you start that blog?

Well, I saved it. I started it to Save my own life. I was severely sick. I was 21. I had a 3.7 centimeter tumor in my lymphatic system, size of a golf ball. Early stages of cancer. My digestive system was not functioning, was rarely going to the bathroom, was bloated all the time. My blood work showed I was on the verge of leukemia. My immune system was shot. I was diagnosed with chronic fatigue. I was. I went through so much trauma as a child, and I really believe it just manifested into all this sickness when I was 21. And I was. The worst part was I was addicted. So addicted to ultra processed foods and fast foods and junk foods. And that was the hardest part for me because I knew logically how wrong it was to eat these foods and how it was damaging my body. I couldn't help it. I was so addicted. And every single day for five years, I would just binge eat. And I was a binge eater. And I just put way too many toxins into my body. My body could not process all the toxins. So I ended up getting sick. It was a big wake up call for me. So.

How old are you at this time?

21.

Oh, my goodness. That is way too young to be dealing with this kind of sickness.

Oh, yeah. But wow, you know, it's a blessing because if it didn't happen, then I would have just stayed on that path of, you know, I was in a vicious cycle of just eating all these processed foods and all these junk foods, and I really needed this big wake up call. You know, sometimes in life, like, our pain leads us to the end of the road where we're like, okay, I cannot do this anymore. I've come to the end of myself. And that was the first time I really prayed to God and was like, God, I really need your help. Like, I need to feel you, need to hear from you, like, show up in my life. And then God answered and gave me the idea to create the Earth Diet. And the idea was, and this came when I was, you know, just praying. And the idea was to create a concept called the Earth Diet and to go back to nature and eat only foods from the Earth for 365 days. And every time I would have a craving for something, to think, okay, how can I fulfill this craving in the most natural way possible? So that's what I did. And every time I had a craving for something like burger, fries, cheesecake, chocolate, I just got in the kitchen and I started to make recipes. And they tasted incredible. Like, I would make chocolate chocolate balls and I would make cheesecake out of cashews and ice cream out of cashews, like whip up some cashews. And I was mind blown how good it was tasting.

So you actually used real food to create things that felt indulgent?

Exactly, yes. And Nowadays, you know, 16 years later, psychologists are calling this replacement therapy. And it's incredible. And it really helps people who are, you know, stuck in an addiction or have that emotional eating, overeating to refined sugars. And yeah, it was amazing. And I started to heal from. From doing that.

And is that all you did to heal, is change your diet?

So I. I worked with a naturopath and a functional doctor. I, after I got my biopsy done, I left the hospital. I said no to conventional methods because I. The way I grew up in Outback Australia, I grew up in Alice Springs, which is right in the center of Australia. I went to an Aboriginal school. And so half the kids were white, half the kids were Aboriginal. So we learned about Aboriginal culture, healing, and about nutrition from, I can remember from age 5. And so when I went to the hospital, I was way more terrified of surgery and chemo and doing all of that then going the natural route. I wanted to go back to nature and apply everything that I learned. I was growing up. So I worked with a naturopath and a functional doctor, and they told me that if I focus on healing my gut and detoxing my gut, that the tumor would drain out of my lymphatic system and that my body would heal itself. And so I actually did a colonic and a coffee enema every other day for two months. So. Wow, that's a lot of detox.

You know, that's a lot of detox.

It's really extreme. But what I had done to my body was also really extreme. And I was really sick. So it really worked and started to clean me out detox. And then I also started juicing. So I learned that the fastest way to restore proper nutrition straight into our body, other than getting an IV injection.

Right.

Of vitamins and minerals.

Right.

Which I couldn't afford at the time. I looked into getting vitamin C injections, and I just could not afford it. So I learned that the fastest, next best way is through juicing because it doesn't have the fiber, the body just absorbs it. So I started drinking about six juices a day. So every hour I was drinking a green juice, a beet juice, a green juice, a beet juice. And I knew I had nutritionally deprived myself for five years while I was binge Eating all this junk food. And so this was the fastest way to restore nutrition back into my body. So I also had a visualization that every time I drank the juice, I would visualize, okay, new cells are going into my body, the old cells are dying. So I'm creating a new body every time I'm drinking a juice. So new cells in, old cells out, nutrition in, toxins out, nutrition in, cancer out. And that was a very powerful visual for me. So I did that. And then I also started drinking bentonite clay. So bentonite clay became a daily thing that I would drink. I also would apply it on my neck to absorb the toxins also out of my neck. From the outside?

Yeah. Go at it from every angle.

Yeah, absolutely.

I love that. And it's amazing how powerful visual visualization is. And I think that that is such an underappreciated tool. And all the time, when, when I get asked, will this medicine work for me? Will this medicine work for me? I say, what do you think? Do you believe that it will work for you? Because if you don't believe that it's going to work for you, I can promise you it's not going to work for you. And if you believe that it's going to hurt you and be harmful, I can promise you that it's going to hurt you and be harmful. So what you believe and that story that you tell and that, and that visual that you create, that often influences highly, heavily influences what your reality is going to be. So it's a powerful tool that works across the board.

Absolutely. Yeah.

I love that as such a young person, you recognize that.

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I feel like I can attest my upbringing to that. You know, growing up with the Aboriginal people was so unique and very unconventional. And they believe in. In all of these things. And so, yeah, I'm grateful that I had those tools.

Yeah, yeah. And probably grateful that you had faith in those tools, because a lot of people, while they're willing to try it, if you don't grow up amongst that and watch that be a reality, it's hard to trust that. But you. That was part of your upbringing, the thread of your. Of your tapestry. And so you probably had a lot of reason to trust it because you'd seen it work.

Yes, absolutely. I do believe that.

So tell me about the. The blog, because how did you. I mean, that was a discipline to have done that.

Yeah, well, you know, I was. Went through so much pain and suffering for five years when I was binge eating, like, every day was a True nightmare and just so much. So much pain. So when I started the blog, I felt excited. And, you know, giving up an addiction is so hard, right? Everyone knows who's gone through it. And so when we have a replacement or have something else to focus on, it becomes much easier and exciting. So for me, it was like this night and day. And I started the blog. It didn't feel like effort. It didn't feel like work. It was like I was just excited. Okay, what am I gonna eat today? All right, I'm gonna make some chicken nuggets, and I'm gonna make some cashew cheesecake, and I'll make a big salad as well, and I'll have a green juice, and. Yeah, so it felt fun to start the blog. And this was in 2009 when blogs first started, and I started to post the blogs, like, every day to my private Facebook, you know, family and friends. And eventually it ended up going viral, and it just blew up. And, you know, it turns out a lot of people were also secretly binge eating and having this addiction to fast food. And that was the whole thing. Like, no one. None of my friends or family knew for five years that I was eating junk food. No one knew I was healthy in front of everyone. And then behind closed doors, I would go and eat all the junk food. And so, you know, all these women were writing into me, saying, oh, my gosh, like, I'm going through the same thing. So then a lot of people started to use the Earth diet, and most of the subscribers were from America, which was awesome because I was in Australia at the time. And so that's how eventually I knew to go to America, come to America and. And work there. So, yeah, it was. It was awesome. Really cool to see the subscribers and the blog and. But this kind of lifestyle, it feels. It's just not like. It's not hard work or grueling. It just was. It just flowed. It was. It was really such a blessing.

You've said a couple of times that your addiction to processed food felt like more than most to you. Now, I think a lot of people struggle with processed food and struggle with. And very much by design, right? I mean, the food companies spend millions, if not billions of dollars to make sure that there's enough salt to get you hooked, there's enough food fat to get you hooked. I mean, they're very intentional creating these. These franken foods in the. In the lab, right? So I think a lot of people struggle with this. Do you really feel like you were more than most or was it just a closeted thing for you? Like, what felt different for you than what. What I perceive everyone is kind of stuck in?

Yeah. What do you mean by more than most?

So I think that we have an epidemic of people addicted to processed foods and ultra processed foods. I think it's mostly about convenience, to be honest. It's just people feel like it's so much easier to just do takeout and have the things that are already in a package to eat, rather than coming home and shopping and cooking and thinking of recipes, thinking of what to eat. I think that that's another thing that people struggle with, what to eat. Right.

Yeah, that's definitely one. One factor is the convenience. And I think also some people don't realize how dangerous this food can be. I mean, obviously, if you're only eating it every now and then, but if you're eating this food every day, that's like, you know, danger, danger zone. You want to be really careful because. Yeah, we cannot. Our human body was not designed to consume that many carcinogens and neurotoxins, and every day, it's just not agreed.

I think the biggest problem with it is that it doesn't kill you fast enough, so people don't connect.

Just poisons your body slowly and surely. And that's what I was saying, you know, after five years, I'm. I'm so grateful that that happened to me because I. I, you know, every single day, I tried to not binge on junk food. And I would say, okay, I'm gonna start again on Monday. I'm just gonna eat whatever I want for the rest of the weekend and have fun, eat all the junk food I want. Come Monday, I'm gonna start fresh, and I'll just never eat junk foods again. Like, I had the willpower, like, but we need more than willpower sometimes, you know, so then come. Then comes Monday, and sure enough, I just had all the cravings and the urge, and it's just so strong. So, yeah, but for me, it came from. I had a lot of trauma as a child and did not know how to process that trauma or heal that trauma. You know, therapy in Australia at that time especially, was not a big thing. And it's a big thing here, but in America. So when I was 16, that's when just all these emotions and anxiety hit, and I went to food as my drug of choice. I wasn't into drugs, you know, didn't really like to drink too much. So, like, food was my drug of choice. Food was my escape. It's a fake escape. It's a fake a piece because, you know, we eat, we eat it and we feel amazing for five or ten minutes. This bliss. All the serotonin is. Yeah. Firing.

I mean, it really does have profound effects on your brain. Right. So it does change your brain chemistry. That, that feeling that people have is very real. That's part of the problem, part of why it's so addictive, right?

Yes, totally. Because we're, we're chasing that, that feeling, that relief, that high. And it's, you know, we're, we chase that high even if it's only five minutes. And then we feel miserable for hours. Like physically, the chemicals, we have to digest it slowly. Sluggish brain fog. And then also having anxiety. And then I had so much guilt because I knew I was getting no nutrition from the food. It was just dead matter. So it was a really terrible, like, you know, felt like living in hell every. Every single day. Yeah, yeah. So it was my way of dealing with that. And then when I got to the naturopath, she told me like, you know, this is all manifesting because you haven't dealt with the trauma as a child. And you know, that's, that's a whole other thing and a whole other story. It is, but that's what I think leads a lot of people to eating this way as well.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, it's, it's one way of getting rid of the pain, right? Of, of just suppressing the pain. But it's when the food wears off, the, the, the pain control wears off too. I mean, it's the same reason why people drink. It's the same reason why people abuse drugs. It's the same reason why people smoke cigarettes. It's just, it is a temporary reprieve from the pain that you're in. And then once it's gone, the pain comes right back. And we know that trauma, the unresolved trauma is going to present itself in, in a physical way. Right? So unless you deal with it, unless you deal with it in some way and recontext it, because you can't take the trauma away, but you can recontext it and see it in a different way and, and get to a time and a place where it's no longer hurting you in today. Right? Where, where your pain of yesterday doesn't need to continue to hurt you in today. But we have to come up with healthy ways to do that. And binge eating and eating ultra processed food or drinking or doing drugs, these are not healthy ways of mitigating the pain and mitigating the trauma.

Yeah, absolutely. Makes it so much worse. And that's why the Earth Diet is a solution to, you know, it completely healed me and it's healed thousands of other people who have applied it. And so it, it's a way where you can eat amazing tasting foods and still get that relief and those great feelings, but then you feel amazing after it. You know, it's really. You have your cake and eat it too. As long as it's the right type of cake that has nutrients and you know, made with a great organic flour or an almond flour and it's sweetened with coconut sugar or sweetened with dates and it has all the superfoods. And people are so surprised. And I really can speak to people on in this way because I came from eating junk foods. So now when people come to me, they're like, I want to be healthy, but I don't want to eat bland tasting foods. I'm like, no, I've got you, like, tell me what you love. Candy, Gummy bears, like cookie dough, ice cream breads. Like, there is now a healthy alternative for every single thing that we desire. It's the easiest and best time to be healthy now. So. And that's the solution. You know, if you can eat like an English muffin, that's. There's an incredible bakery, Queen Street Bakery, they make the most amazing gluten free English muffins. I share with people all the time and they are mind blown. Like, how is this even gluten free? Yeah, yeah.

We actually have a bakery in South New Jersey that is making these amazing breads and bagels and English muffins and cakes and cookies out of fermented vegetables. And you taste them and you would swear that there's no way that this could be made of vegetables and gluten free. And yet it is. It's amazing. It's called the beneficial bakery. For anyone who is interested in checking them out, they, they mail, I think they mail all over the country. And this stuff they do is just, it's nothing short of a simple, astounding how good that stuff is. Like you, you feel like it can't possibly be good for you. So what made you write a cancer book? Was it just solely your individual experience or did you encounter people with cancer who were really looking for you for solutions?

Yeah, I mean, a lot of people were coming to the Earth Diet for all types of health issues, but a lot of people with cancer were coming because that was my experience and they wanted to learn What I did. And so then I became a certified nutritionist. I started working one on one with people with cancer and creating custom guides for them, which I still do today. And people. People were healing cancer. Now, some of my clients, they would go the conventional route and do chemo surgery and do the nutrition plan. But some of my clients would say, I only want to go natural. I cannot do conventional methods. And, you know, I respect everyone's choices, whether they want to do conventional or functional or just natural. And so just so many people were healing. And I was like, you know, this really needs to get out there. And if I put it all in a book, then anyone who's diagnosed with cancer can grab the book. It's such an easy read. They can read it in a day. Half of it's a lot of science and the whole principles behind it. The other half is all the recipes. So it's got a ton of recipes. And yeah, it was amazing. I was nervous to put it out at the time because it has been so controversial to talk about natural foods and natural healing. But I have a very functional approach nowadays. It's more accepted. But when I first started, this was 16 years ago. You know, a lot of us promoting these natural cures were kind of shut down by the big media companies and called quack.

I think there's still censorship.

There is, but a lot less. There is a. But just so much, a lot less. Because I've seen it change, like, in the last 16 years, and when I first started, like, so many things were taken down and they were calling all these really respected doctors quacks. And, you know, now, I mean, they even put Dr. Mark Hyman on the quack list. I mean, crazy. And he's a functional doctor, too, so. Yeah. But I'm glad I put it out there. And, yeah, it's helped a lot of people for sure. Yeah.

Dr. Mark Hyman. Actually, my own personal story with Dr. Mark Hyman was that when I got my diagnosis and went on my journey to heal myself, and even though I was an MD and a surgeon and running a cancer program, I did not want to go that route. And so I decide that I need to learn more about nutrition. And I enjoy enroll in a cert in a certain certification course called the Institute for Integrative Nutrition. And I'm in one of the first lectures, and this tall, lanky man walks on the stage and he introduces himself as a functional medicine physician. And at the time, I had been a doctor for 20 years. So I'm like, yeah, there's no such thing as a functional medicine physician. Is this quack talking about now? This was 2016, so in 2016 I had no idea who he is now. He was an MD and is an md. He also was one of the really early adopters of functional medicine and has a clinic in the Berkshires called the Ultra Wellness center and has written, I don't know at this point how many best selling books.

Yeah like 13 or something crazy.

But I had never heard of him. And we are so ingrained in the conventional medical world to think that anyone who looks outside of our tunnel, we think of them as a quack.

Right?

And it's not until years later when they actually get proven to be right the whole time that we give them the respect that that they were due. Hi everyone.

Dr. Jen here. I'm so excited to share with you a project that is very close to my heart. My new book, the Smart Woman's Guide to Breast Cancer. I wrote this book to help women make informed decisions about their treatment and empower millions to examine their lives and their health. My goal is to help you determine your why and achieve a level of health even better than you knew before your diagnosis. Breast cancer can feel like a daunting journey, but I believe it doesn't have to define your life. With the Smart Woman's Guide to Breast Cancer, I'm offering a comprehensive health plan designed to guide you through every step of your journey from diagnosis to thriving after treatment. I want to change the way that we diagnose, treat and screen for breast cancer, and this book is a big part of that mission. In the pages of this book, you you will find a deep dive into understanding your diagnosis. Strategies for improving treatment outcomes and for building a health supportive lifestyle. Insight into the roles of nutrition, stress management, exercise, sleep and environmental factors in breast cancer. Tools that create your personalized health plan. My journey from being a top breast surgeon to founding RealHealthMD was fueled by a desire to find better answers for my patients. I discovered that true healing comes from addressing the root cause of illness, not just treating symptoms. This book encapsulates that philosophy, providing you with the knowledge and tools you need to take control of your health. Whether you are newly diagnosed in treatment, living with disease, or a survivor looking to optimize your health, the Smart Woman's Guide to Breast Cancer is here to support you. Together, we can change the narrative around breast cancer and create a future where health and wellness are the norm. You can find the Smart Woman's Guide to Breast Cancer on Amazon. I can't wait for you to read it. Remember that your health is your greatest wealth and breast health is health. Take one small step today towards a healthier tomorrow. Thank you for listening and always stay empowered and be well.

When I left surgery, I think everyone assumed that I either lost my mind or my skills or maybe both. Right. But when I left surgery, I became that same quack. Right. That person that, like, just went off the rails. Right?

Yeah.

And I remember I interviewed Terry Walls. Yeah, she's an absolute legend. I mean, this is a physician who basically lost her position as a teaching physician in a teaching hospital because her Ms. Had progressed to such a point that she couldn't function in that capacity. And they even let her go as a staff member. And she made profound dietary changes. She went from eating her. She was a vegetarian, I think, for most of her life, but there's a lot of vegetarians who are ultra processed vegetarians. We should never confuse vegetarianism with healthy, because those two things do not equate a lot of the time. So she was an ultra processed vegetarian and got rid of the ultra processed foods in her life. And doggone it, like, her disease reversed. And she. This is not someone who was on the fringe. This is someone who was deeply, deeply ingrained in the conventional medical world. So much so that she actually had access to drugs and clinical trials that most people did not have access to. Right. And despite all of that, her Ms. Just kept progressing and progressing and progressing. And it wasn't until she made these profound dietary changes that her disease began to reverse. And she is almost without symptoms today. She'll tell you that she still has a little bit of facial symptoms, trigeminal neuralgia, but other than that, she really has no symptoms. And you would never, ever know that she has MS, despite being like 20 years or something into her diagnosis. So I interviewed her for my breast cancer summit last year, and at the end I said, you know, how did you deal with being a quack? And she said, jen, or being called a quack, because obviously she's no quack. And she said, jen, you know, it's a cycle. And people are so afraid, and especially physicians are so afraid of things that they don't understand. And physicians are not taught anything about nutrition, nourishment and what profound effects they have on health. And they're also afraid of not being in control. But as you and I both know, health doesn't happen in a doctor's office or a medical oncology suite or a radiation suite, or even an operating room. Right. Health happens at home with what you put in on and around you.

Absolutely, yeah.

And so she told me, jen, take it as a compliment that they're calling you a quack because, because in five years you will become a visionary and then in 10 years you'll be the authority.

Yeah.

And she's like, you know, I am just now being invited to be the keynote note at the, you know, national meetings for the rheumatologists and the, and, and the immunotherapy and all of that. They're now having her be the keynote.

Yeah.

So she said, just hang in there because that quack title won't last for long.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

And I mean, people just need to try this for seven days. You know, you try their diet for seven days and no one can deny it, it's undeniable. How the difference you feel.

And how long do you think it really takes for people to get rid of those cravings for that ultra processed food?

Well, it's, you know, it's different for each person. And I mean, for me it was immediate for I did not eat any junk foods for the 365 days that I did the earthquake diet because I was fulfilling all those cravings naturally. And then after the 365 days, I went into the store and I was like, I'm curious to see how junk food tastes now. But there was no, I had no desire, no impulse to want to do it. I really feel like when we use that replacement therapy and when we eat those foods and drink all those nourishing smoothies and juices, you know, cellular memory is a real thing thing. We're building a new body and those old cells die. So all the cells that are craving the junk foods, those die. So it just depends like how much you jump into the natural lifestyle and how much you do it. Like if you drink a green juice a day and then you still eat a lot of other junk food, like it's going to take longer. But if you really commit and go all natural Earth diet, you know, you really can change yourselves quite quickly. And yeah, also on Dr. Terry Walls, it's funny because her and I did a TEDx talk and both of our TEDx talks went viral and then they, they banned them. They took them out because she was talking about healing Ms. And I was talking about healing cancer. There's a whole list online of the people who have had TEDX talks banned and taken down. I think she has hers on her website, which is, is really funny. But yeah, you know, I was so young.

Funny Because I know that I watched her TedX talk, but I don't remember when.

Yeah, yeah, you must have seen it like early, before it got taken down.

Yeah, yeah. That's funny. Well, I, I remember.

I gave, I.

Gave it to someone to watch because actually the day that I decided to leave surgery was there was a 19 year old woman who was coming in to see me because she had a breast mass and she was wheeled into my office by her mother. She had such progressive Ms. My office was about 30ft away from the elevator and her Ms. Had so progressed that she couldn't walk the 30ft between the elevator and my office. So she's wheeled into my office and I had just heard Terry Wall speak because I was, I was in my functional medicine training and she was like highlighted in the energy part of the course and I was so inspired. I bought her book, read it on the train home and just was like raring to go with all of her information. And here comes the, this 19 year old and I'm convinced that God sent her to me because she could have gone to any number of the breast surgeons in Philadelphia, but God sent her to me because she needed to hear this. And so here I am going on and on about Terry Walls, about reversing Ms. And her mother's there. She's like, no one ever told us this before. And I, I'm saying there's hope and you have to reach this, read this book and watch her TEDx talk. And she, she's so amazing and so inspirational and I'm going on and on like a giddy school child. And the patient puts her hand up to me and says, doc, are you going to do my biopsy or not? And it was in that moment that I realized that not everyone wants your help. Not everyone wants to help themselves. And I knew that I only wanted to work with people that wanted to help themselves. And those are the people that are coming and reading your book. So let's talk about cancer free with food. What kinds of things are people going to find in there? Because my people are up against it. They are battling with a breast cancer diagnosis. So what are they going to find in there that's going to help them them and help guide them?

Well, there's a whole chapter on breast cancer. So I talk about some survivors and you know, what they did, including my mom. My mom had advanced breast cancer in both breasts. And yeah, and the doctors told her, you know, it was like stage four and it was completely in both. And she, you know, we said, okay, mom, what do you want to do? You know, anyone who has cancer, I'm saying, okay, obviously you need a nutrition plan. Everyone with cancer, first and foremost, you need a nutrition plan and then work out what you want to do for treatments. My mom said, you know, I want to do surgery, I want to get it all cut out, but I cannot do chemo, I cannot do radiation. She said, I just don't feel like I will survive. And the doctors were really insistent that she would do chemo, radiation. And she just, she said I cannot. So she did, started juicing and doing my whole nutrition plan, which is, which is all in the book. And she, you know, doctors, six months after her surgery and everything, kept calling her like, it's going to come back if you don't do chemo and surgery, it's going to come back. And she just felt so intuitive about it. She kept saying no. And she's cancer free still to this day, 10 years later, which is remarkable. So, wow, really helped just empower people to, you know, use their own intuition and feel, you know, obviously pray to God and get that guidance and get that peace about your treatment plan, but definitely want to have a nutrition plan. And in the book I talk about the top 10 foods on Earth that have been researched and studied science that are proven to cause cancer. So obviously we want to cut out those things. Then I researched the top 10 foods on Earth that have been proven to heal cancer and kill cancer cells. And then I also cover recipes and foods that help with symptoms if you are doing chemo and radiation and all of that as well. So there's a smoothie in there, the chemo brain smoothie, that has all the healthy fats that really just helps your brain if you're having those symptoms after doing chemo. Yes. And yeah, it's, it's really eye opening. It's. The science part is important because a lot of people need the science to be able to believe it. And once your mind can understand it, the logical part, then you know, then you can go forward and just know, okay, every time I'm eating these broccoli sprouts, I'm getting a high dose of sulforaphane. And sulforaphane kills cancer cells. And sulforaphane, by the way, or broccoli sprouts, is the number one food on earth that has been studied for over 30 years at John Hopkins from Dr. Talalay. He's a huge advocate for sulforaphane. It's also found small amounts in broccoli, but broccoli sprout has 50 times more sulforaphane than broccoli. And so it's potent, potent, potent. All the studies they've done on humans and rodents, every single tumor dissolved or broke down. And cancer cells die in the presence of sulforaphane. So knowing that, all my clients now they're consuming sulforaphane if they have cancer three times a day, if they are in prevention, like me, like I'm, you know, I'm 15 years cancer free and I am, I'm really living the diet to prevent cancer. I want to make my body inhospitable to cancer. And so I'll continue consume sulforaphane once a day for prevention. It's just, it's so powerful, you know, it's a no brainer.

Are you doing it as a supplement? Are you doing it as broccoli sprout extract? Are you eating broccoli sprouts? How are you getting your sulforaphane?

Good question. I usually do the, I use Brock shot and basically it's just a packet and it's, it's a dried powder. I'll mix it into water. But when I'm at home and I'm juicing, I'll add fresh broccoli sprouts to the juicer. So I do mix it up. You know, I always think fresh is best, but we can't always get fresh. So some people might want to do the Brock sharp powder. And then you can also take supplements for it as well. But there's something about having it in the cellular form through a liquid. You know, it goes into your cells. It's more easily distributed. But if not, then get the supplements. But the point is just you want to get sulforaphane into your system every single day. If you go to Brockshot.com I have a code Liana for 10% off as well. For everyone who's wanting to stock up on some Brock shots there.

Amazing. I do want to say while we're talking about broccoli and you said that broccoli has exponentially less sulforaphane than broccoli sprouts. But if you're eating broccoli, you should be eating the stems. Like everyone loves the florets, but the truth is that most of the sulforaphane and the, the dense nutrition is in the stem and not in the floret. The florets like the flower.

Yeah.

So yeah. So you want to make sure that if you're consuming broccoli and I'm a huge fan of consuming broccoli but you have to eat. Eat the stems.

Yes. And oh, I love the stems. They're my favorite part when I'm cutting up the broccoli to cook it, I'll just eat the stems raw, you know. Delicious. Yeah. And you can.

I'm a super taster, so raw broccoli doesn't do it for me.

Yeah, not the raw broccoli, but the stems. Like I love the raw stems. Yeah, yeah.

I just for, for people who are super tasters and you know who you are, if you are a supertaster and you eat raw cruciferous vegetables, they just don't taste right to you. Like they have a metallicy, a little offensive taste and then you just steam them the littlest bit and it gets rid of that for you if you're a super taster. So I always say I don't want the supertasters to avoid cruciferous vegetables because they're. Their nutrients are so important. But just do them in a way that, that you can eat them and enjoy them and like them. Because if you don't like them, you're not going to eat them.

Exactly. Yeah. And I'm all about the taste as well. I have a recipe in there for broccoli popcorn and cauliflower popcorn. So what is that?

Because that's my one thing that I struggle with. I love popcorn and, and I don't eat grains. So I would love to hear what broccoli popcorn and cauliflower popcorn is.

Yeah, it's one of my favorite recipes. It's so simple. But you just chop up the broccoli and cauliflower in bite sized pieces and then you add olive oil to the bowl, some sea salt. I love the red and real salt that comes from Utah. They don't use explosives in the salt, which is good. And then nutritional yeast, which is a byproduct of beet. Now not everyone loves nutritional yeast. And you know, some people choose not to have it in their diet but for some people it's a major upgrade. But it gives it like a nice cheesy flavor and then you bake it in the oven for 25, for 25 minutes and oh, it just, it's buttery.

It's so amazing.

So delicious. You'll have to.

That sounds delicious. Yeah, I definitely will.

For actual popcorn, you know, if the, the corn is organic, non gmo, it's not, you know, unless you're a food sensitivity, it's not going to poison your body. Like Lesser evil is a great brand. I'm sure you've tried that one. Right. And they use the coconut oil.

And see, I eat the whole bag at a time. It's part of the problem.

Yeah, well, the good thing is about popcorn, it is. They're quite low calories, you know, and it does, like, fill you up. So it's honestly not a bad snack.

Yeah, it's. It's definitely my binge food. I just, you know, go a little too far with it. So. Okay, I hear you that broccoli sprouts are one of your top 10 foods. Can you give us a couple more?

Yes. Cacao. So powder. Yeah. So cacao is in the top 10. And I was so happy to see this because cacao powder, you know, is chocolate. It's how chocolate was made. Made originally. And it is. It's a medicine. It's medicinal, and it's a functional food. And it's been used for a long time. Right. It traces back to the Mayans. It traces back to the Egyptians. They used to use it as currency. They valued it so much. And when they would consume cacao, they would do ceremonies because it would just wake people up. And it stimulates the brain, you know, activates the pineal gland. And. And they believe it just helps them to be more excited and have more energy and connect them to God. Like, amazing. So no wonder chocolate's so popular. But the problem with chocolate these days is they take it. The cacao beans, you know, and also there's a lot of corruption with the child labor and all of that. Like, you want to make sure you're having good quality chocolate, but they take the cacao beans, then they mix it with refined sugar, and then they put soy lecithin in it, and then they put conventional dairy in it, which all the things we want to avoid. But now the chocolate is poison. But we crave chocolate for a reason. So as long as we're eating, like, a real chocolate, and I have all the brands on my Instagram all the time, I'm always posting all the chocolates that I eat made with coconut sugar. And I have a ton of recipes for homemade chocolate at home. And when we eat it, it has so many antioxidants, like 50 times more than blueberries. And it has a ton of magnesium, so it relaxes our body. And the studies have shown that even just smelling cacao powder, it relieves us of stress and anxiety, like right there in the moment. So if you're craving chocolate, you want to embrace it. Don't deny it. You just want to make sure it's the right Type, either make it at home or check out these brands that I post about and they've actually done a ton of studies on cacao with anti tumor activities in the brain and in the gut. Love that.

Yeah, amazing. And you talked about cacao powder. Does that have a different nutritional availability than the cacao chips?

Oh, like the, the cacao nibs. The little. Yeah, well, the cacao nibs are more, they're closer into their whole state. So my whole philosophy is you want to eat as many whole foods that come straight from nature as possible. Like an avocado is whole. A cacao bean. If you can buy a cacao bean and just you can eat a cacao bean.

Yeah.

There's no chop, there's no sugar, there's nothing. It hasn't been processed yet. When they make it into nibs, prepare.

Yourself because if you're going to do that, it has no sugar.

It's very bitter, very bitter. It took me about like 10 years to be able to eat it like that. So it is a process. But yeah, but then when they make it into nibs, obviously they're just processing it in like a process. So it's still natural, wholesome. But then when you take that and take it to a powder, you know, it's like, do we lose some nutrients? Maybe a little. But yeah. So I love the nibs as much as possible, but then sometimes I'll use the cacao.

Okay, so we have broccoli sprouts, we have cacao. Let's get one more. And then they're going to have to go to your book to get the rest.

Yes, amazing. Okay, so omega 3 fats via wild salmon. So wild salmon, yeah, just great protein, great omega 3 fats. And they have done a ton of studies that when we have the right healthy fats, our brain, our nervous system is more in harmony, more in balance. And you know, when we deprive ourselves of these healthy omega 3 fats, could be olive oil as well and avocado, flaxseed, walnuts, chia seeds, that, that's when we crave the fast foods. So as soon as I put people on my diet and they're starting to get omega 3 fats through supplements or they're eating wild salmon more, you know, omega 3 fats, the cravings for fast foods goes away, like the fries and all of that, because your body and your brain is nourished with the healthy omega 3 fats. And there's some great studies that they've done with that in regards to cancer as well. So that's a really good one to incorporate.

And I. I want to give people as much as I can out of this podcast. So let's just get one or two of the cautionary tales. What are the. What are some of the foods that are on that top 10 list of things that we know cause cancer?

Well, number one is obvious. It's refined sugar.

Yeah.

And, you know, sugar is natural. It comes from cane sugar and fruits. Like, God created these things for us to eat. We are meant to eat sweets. We're meant to have natural sugars. In fact, our brain loves natural sugars. But when they take it and they process it into refined sugar, it becomes our brain, and our body cannot process it, cannot digest it. It's just so much excess, you know, and there's a study they did that shows if we eat a tablespoon of sugar, it takes eight hours for our immune system to come back to normal and be regulated.

Yeah.

So it weakens our immune system, and it just. It creates chaos in the brain and the nervous system. So that's really something we need to avoid. That's the first one that I encourage everyone to replace and just say, no, I'm not going to have refined sugars anymore. I'm just going to have natural sugars now for the rest of my life. Like, that's the goal, you know, source or your sweetness from nature. That's how we were meant to eat it. And then another one is. You know, I was really surprised about the studies of microwaves. I always knew microwaves and microwave food was not ideal. You know, I knew it was bad, but then when I started diving in, I found out it was worse than we actually think. You know, as soon as we put food in the microwave, it completely changes the structure of it, and it's a form of radiation. And they actually banned it in some countries in Europe, which I was shocked about.

Yeah, it's horrible.

We want to avoid that as much as possible.

Yeah, yeah. You don't want to microwave your food. You don't want to stand near a microwave. Like, none of it is good. None of. We would really get rid of microwaves.

Yeah. And a lot of houses don't have them these days. You know, I put, like. I store, like, stuff in my microwave. I never use it.

Yeah, it's a cabinet. It's an extra cabinet.

Yeah, yeah.

Okay, so just to review, because we've talked about so much great stuff here today, but that you had this amazing upbringing where you learned that nature can heal and when you needed it, you called on it, right.

And.

You had this process where you were invited envisioning your diet, getting rid of the cancer and healing yourselves. And I think of all the things you said today, that's probably the most meaningful thing is that if we can picture ourselves healing, that's what's going to happen. So that is so important. And you've written these amazing books. I'll just list them again for our listeners. The Earth Diet, cancer free with food, 10 minute recipes and anxiety free with food. And for all of, for all of the people that think they can't be healthy because it's not convenient, because it takes too much time to shop, to cook, to, to find recipes, that 10 minute recipe book is invaluable. And I, I know that habit change is never easy, right? And being healthy is inconvenient sometimes, but it's so worth it. And in the end, if you want your health, then you're gonna have to suffer some of these inconveniences in pursuit of your health. You've made an amazing contribution in this area. I encourage everyone to get your books, especially cancer free with cancer and make sure sure that you are consuming your broccoli sprouts and your Cacao and your Omega 3s, that you're staying away from sugar, that you're not using your microwave and so many more tips that are inside of the pages of your books. So, Liana, thank you so much for being here and for sharing your wisdom with us.

Yeah, thank you so much for having me and I look forward to hearing from you guys, whether on my website or social media. I would love to help you and assist you wherever.

So where can everyone find you?

So theearthdiet.com is my website and then you can find me on social media, Instagram, Twitter and Facebook, the Earth Diet or my name, Liana Werner Gray.

Amazing. If you enjoyed this episode, please like it, please share it, send us a comment, send us a question and we're happy to address that for you. And I will be back next week, same time, same place. It's Dr. Jen. Bye for now. Thank you for joining me on this.

Episode of the Keeping a breast podcast with Dr. Jen. I hope you found the discussion informative and empowering. Remember, breast health is health. So by staying informed and taking proactive steps, you have the power to optimize your well being. My team and I encourage you to apply the knowledge gained from today's episode to make positive changes in your life and share what you've learned with others. If you enjoyed this episode, Please subscribe to our podcast and leave us a review. Your feedback and support mean the world to us and help us to reach more people who can benefit from these conversations. Stay connected with me on social media where I share additional resources, advice, updates and announcements related to breast health. You can find me on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. Rjensimmons and remember, MyGen has two N's, so until next time, remember to stay proactive, informed and confident in your breast health journey. The key to your health is you.