I did this interview with Chad Vannucci a couple of years ago. I learned about Chad who lives here in Idaho not far from me through a smoothie bar I was working at. He had gotten stage 3 brain cancer and had a brain tumor the size of a baseball.

Aside from the fact that he was able to use a plant-based diet to heal from the cancer after the surgery and is now doing triathlons again, what I found really interesting was that the doctors said the tumor could have been growing in his brain for 20 years: since he was diagnosed at age 33, that would have made him 13 years old when it started growing.

What does that mean for you and I? Well, we know what the typical teenage diet looks like: burgers, fries, pizza and Coke. And, he was getting headaches for years. So do a lot of teenagers. So, this collective denial that most of us are taught to be in with regards to the connection between our diets and disease that takes years to develop needs to be broken. The body fights off things like cancer for years, but tumors can be growing for years as well before they become big enough to cause symptoms.

We need to learn to take “small” signals like headaches and rashes seriously as warning signs that the body is under distress and make changes while the problem is still small.

Fortunately, in Chad’s case, he was able to reverse it. Some aren’t as fortunate. If you want to contact Chad and consult with him, his website is: http://www.crushcancer.net/ and he shares his complete story here: http://www.crushcancer.net/images/aboutme.pdf.

There’s some controversy with regards to fruit sugar and cancer. The late Dr. Max Gerson would give lots of fruit juices to his cancer patients and many still got well, so it’s up for debate about the cancer/fruit sugar connection. What both have in common, however, is they cut out animal foods which The China Study showed is a known cancer contributor as well as junk and processed foods.

At any rate, Chad’s story is inspirational because it shows that brain cancer CAN be beat. Don’t give up hope and learn how to eat well and live well to give your body a fighting chance.