Is it possible to actually eat to beat disease without any crazy restrictive diet? Are there some foods that are powerful enough to go head to head with drugs against disease?
In the book, Eat To Beat Disease, Dr Li wants you to start thinking about food as your most powerful ally in disease prevention and that’s what we’ll be talking about in this article. But we’ll also be talking about how to have a better relationship with food – something most women need to work on.
We’ll also specifically talk about blood vessel health in this article – which relates to skin, veins, eyesight and mental clarity.
So we are tackling disease prevention, longevity and mindset all in one article! Plus, I share my very simple but super healthy squid ink pasta recipe inspired by the book.
How To Change Your Relationship To Food
These days there’s so much information coming at us about what’s not good for us, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed and confused about the food we eat.
What I really love about Dr Li’s approach in the book Eat To Beat Disease, is that it’s not all about what you shouldn’t be eating – but rather what you can eat to improve health. Instead of asking “What foods should I avoid?”, Dr Li encourages you to ask “What foods can I add?”
For many of us, this change in thinking is the key to making a permanent shift to eating better and looking after ourselves. Rather than focusing on restriction, focus on nourishing your body and giving it what it needs to prevent and fight disease. This is definitely the way I prefer to think about food.
How To Create Powerful Food Rules To Keep Yourself Healthy
Some of you may have heard me talk about my “food rules” before. When life gets crazy busy or I’m starting to stress out about what I eat I always come back to one of my food rules:
Every day I make sure I eat least 10 servings of veggies, fruits and superfoods everyday.
I literally count them on my fingers, usually as I’m walking to the gym everyday, to check how my eating is going that day. That way I ensure that no matter what else I do or no matter how stressed out I am, I’m eating a healthy, nourishing diet.
To give you an example, here’s my list of “10” foods from today – the day I am writing this blog post (although you can see I’m well over 10 serves):
- Green tea (real green tea not supermarket stuff) (3 cups)
- Cacao powder (15g)
- 95% dark chocolate (10g)
- Miso (1 big tbsp)
- Fresh coriander (about 2 tbsp chopped)
- Pomegranate juice (125ml)
- Kimchi (2 tbsp)
- Brussel sprouts (about 200g – I eat a LOT of them!)
- Shiitake Mushrooms (1 cup)
- Button Mushrooms (1 cup)
- Coffee (1 double shot, yes coffee counts as a superfood!)
- Maca powder (15g)
- Banana (100g)
- Blueberries (100g)
Dr Li’s approach is similar. First of all, he asks you to think of your body like a fortress that has defense systems preventing disease. These defense systems are:
- Angiogenesis
- Regeneration
- Microbiome
- DNA Protection
- Immunity
Then, at the end of the book, he gives you a Preferred Food List divided based on the five systems and your goal is to choose one item from each category to eat each day.
Wondering what foods he recommends? We’ll talk about that in the following sections and I’ll also share a recipe I created inspired by his first defense system: angiogenesis.
How You Can Prevent Disease – The Angiogenesis Defense System
To demonstrate the power of food rules and using food to beat disease, let’s look at Dr Li’s first defense system: angiogenesis.
You’ve probably never heard of it before but after reading this section, I’m hoping I convince you to care about it. Basically we are talking about circulation and blood vessel health – and it all being in balance.
Unless you have circulation or heart problems, you probably don’t think of your blood vessels much.
Big mistake.
Let me tell you why you should care more about your blood vessels and angiogenesis.
Angiogenesis is the formation of new blood vessels and when it’s out of balance we get problems like heart disease, arthritis, Alzheimer’s, macular degeneration and cancer.
Normally our body regulates the growth of vessels and it also prunes them back when we no longer need them. For example, in adults this occurs in females every month as the uterine lining builds up and breaks down, during pregnancy and when we need to heal a wound.
But sometimes the body can’t grow the right blood vessels or prune them back, and that’s when disease happens. Angiogenesis is a hallmark of cancer.
Think of angiogenesis as the defense system that intercepts cancer at the start. Dr Li says everyone has microscopic cancers in their body (disturbing I know!). The reason microscopic cancers don’t grow is because of your body’s natural angiogenesis inhibitors that deprive them of a blood supply. Deprived of a blood supply, they can’t grow and eventually your immune system will find and destroy them.
Yes! That’s what we want.
On the other hand, if blood vessels start to feed cancer cells, the cells can grow, expand and move into circulation. That’s when cancer becomes a problem.
In fact, there are now drugs that target this defense system with the goal of stopping blood vessels from feeding cancer and ultimately slowing or stopping it’s growth.
Superstar Foods You Should Eat Daily To Support Angiogenesis
In his book, Dr Li wants you to know that foods can be powerful for regulating angiogenesis too. You don’t just have to rely on conventional medical options when you have problems and you can be proactive to prevent diseases.
For example, many of us are familiar with tomatoes to reduce the risk of prostate cancer – this is just one of the many examples and foods he talks about. He believes that some foods are so powerful they can go head to head against drugs.
He’s not advocating for food over drugs, but it makes sense to fill your diet with these superstar foods to keep yourself healthy and prevent disease. Here are just a few of the foods you should eat to boost your angiogenesis defense system:
- Green or black tea
- Apples with the peel
- Berries
- Tomatoes
- Omega-3s
- Soy
- Cruciferous vegetables
- Mushrooms
- Onions
- Cacao (powder or very dark chocolate)
- Rosemary or other fresh herbs
Remember, he says you only need to choose one food from each of the defense systems but I think most of us can do better than that. In fact, I created a simple recipe using six foods from his angiogenesis system which I’m going to share now!
Beat Disease Recipe: Squid Ink Pasta
In the book, Dr Li talks about some exceptional foods that fall into all of the defense systems. Squid ink is one of those foods because not only does it support the angiogenisis defense system, but it also has anti-oxidant, stem cell protecting, and immune enhancing effects.
I’ve never tried squid ink pasta before so I thought I’d create a recipe inspired by the book using squid ink as an ingredient but also other angiogenesis foods recommended in the book.
This recipe uses six of the angiogenesis foods listed in the book:
- Olive oil
- Squid ink pasta
- Tomatoes
- Cauliflower
- Onions
- Garlic
SQUID INK PASTA & TOMATO SAUCE RECIPE
INGREDIENTS:
1 jar of passata (about 600g)
2 tbsp tomato paste
Olive oil (just enough to fry your onions and garlic, and coat the cauliflower)
1 small yellow onion, finely chopped (or half a larger onion)
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped (or more if you are a garlic lover)
Cauliflower
Salt to taste
Fresh herbs of your choice (optional)
Squid Ink pasta
STEP 1: Fry the finely chopped onion in olive oil. When it’s about halfway ready, add the garlic. *It’s important you very finely chop both the onions and garlic and make sure to cook them until golden brown because you don’t want large, hard chunks of onion or garlic in your sauce.
STEP 2: Put the passata and tomato paste in a saucepan, add onions and garlic when ready and simmer on low-medium for at least 20 minutes. Add some salt or any herbs to taste. Tomato sauce tends to splash everywhere when simmering so you may want to cover your pot!
STEP 3: Place some cauliflower on a tray, rub with olive oil and season. Roast in the oven for about 20 minutes or until golden.
STEP 4: When your sauce and cauliflower are close to ready, cook the pasta. When cooking pasta you’ll get the best flavour if you salt the boiling water generously before adding your pasta to cook.
STEP 5: When pasta is ready toss through your sauce, top with cauliflower and any fresh herbs you want. Enjoy!
OPTIONS:
If you wanted to take it even further, you could add some anchovies or fish to the dish for some omega-3s. Add the anchovies to the onions at the same time as the garlic.
You could make this dish with a wholewheat pasta, if you can’t find squid ink pasta (I had to order mine online but check specialty shops around you to find it).
I originally created this recipe for a YouTube series reviewing the Eat To Beat Disease Book so you can learn more about angiogenesis and watch me make this recipe here.
Make sure you also watch Part 2 and 3 reviewing the Eat To Beat Disease book. Part 2 covers the microbiome defense system and four foods you may not think of when it comes to gut health and. Part 3 covers the immune defense system and I share a immune boosting smoothie bowl recipe.
If food and eating well feels overwhelming, I have a meal plan that takes care of everything for you. If you know me at all, you’ll know I like to keep things simple! So if you are looking for an easy way to take care of yourself and your family you can get it here.
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