Kellogg’s for Cancer?

Kellogg’s for Cancer?

It’s tough writing this, because it goes against everything I think and believe in, however I think it deserves consideration given what I have personally witnessed over the last 6 weeks.  It’s not organic, it’s processed. It involves dairy, which again I do not believe is good for you in excess, especially when you look into the way that the dairy industry works. It does not involve eating healthy, balanced, whole foods. As the title suggests, it involves eating cereals…pretty much all of the time. I shall try and speak to Kellogg’s about this, just to see if I can ascertain exactly why this has happened. Anyway, please read on and bare in mind that I am writing this through gritted teeth, because it goes against my grain (pardon the pun!)

The back story : My partner was diagnosed with stage 4 endometrial cancer in 2014 and given just a few months to live. She refused conventional treatment and we have instead used a number of natural, holistic and non-conventional protocols, which we have researched and implemented (this will be the subject of a book in the future). Not all were successful, but we continue to do research on a daily basis and try whatever we can to improve her condition. As with all people, we are not loaded and therefore cannot afford the therapies like Gerson, GcMaf etc that cost tens of thousands of pounds to use. Everything that we have done has been low cost or free, stuff that we can do and control ourselves. I am sure you will agree, that she has done amazingly well, as it is now 2017!! She is, indeed, my Superhero!

Bringing you up to date : At the beginning of February, it was clear that my lady’s condition was gradually worsening. Her mouth became really sore and ulcerated, her water intake reduced to a few sips a day and she stopped eating, because it was too painful. Not only did she deteriorate in front of my eyes to virtually nothing, but her weight dipped below 7 stones. When we talked to the palliative care team, the senior consultant told us that it was “not worth” taking her into hospital to intubate her for food or water. We were told that we had a week at best, a few days at worse. This was devastating, as you can imagine…people visited…it was clear that we were all fearing  the worst. The senior palliative care consultant left her with a steroid mouthwash (an effervescent tablet to swill around the mouth – the idea to coat the sores to hopefully make it easier to eat).

What happened? What changed? : We began using the mouthwash, but she still was not fancying “proper” foods. The second day, she suddenly piped up with “Do you know what I really fancy?”

“No,” I responded.

“A variety pack. You know the ones we used to have when we were kids, as a treat? The little boxes of cereal?”

“Yep,” I replied.

“Well I fancy some of them and I can have 2 boxes at a time and mix them up.”

Well that was it, off I went to the supermarket to grab some and some milk. I came back with 4 packs of 8 little boxes and 4 pints of organic milk. She chose Rice Krispies & Coco Pops (this is her favourite combination). We covered them in milk and she allowed them to soak and soften a little and, of course….turn the milk brown!! They were gone in a flash. A couple of hours later and she was hungry again – this time it was Frosties & Corn Flakes.

In my eyes it wasn’t ideal, but my previously very ill partner was eating, she was smiling because they brought back happy memories for her and she enjoyed the taste. Given what we had been told by the palliative care team, I just thought that it was nice that she had this to give her this final positive boost.

The 7 days (at best) came and went, we were buying Variety pack after Variety pack and she was eating bowl full after bowl full. Sometimes 4 to 5 bowl fulls a day – whenever she felt hungry, she wanted cereals, with milk on. I groaned each time I had to prepare them, although energy had returned and she was often there before I could offer. I mean this wasn’t the healthy organic food that I loved and had been feeding her the last 2 years, but it was getting positive results. She brightened, her energy level grew, she began doing things again that she had stopped doing, when friends visited or the sun came out, then she wanted to go out – this was around 2 or 3 weeks after starting to eat them, she was really eating very little else and during these 2 to 3 weeks the results were a gradual build up, until she decided that it was time to get out and about.

I was shocked and started to take notice of where these results were coming from. I will say it again, she was eating very little, other than Kellogg’s Variety Cereal Packs – we must have purchased  40-50 Variety packs in the last 6 weeks (luckily our local supermarket has them on offer at £1 a pack!!) and the milk to go with them, of course.

6 weeks on and my partner is now close to 8 stone, from less than 7….she has put on about a stone in weight in the last 6 weeks, which, in a person with stage 4 cancer (supposedly in the final stages of the disease) is incredible going. We go out regularly, and during weeks 5 and 6 we have actually seen her in 2 weeks of “remission” – virtually pain free,  eager to go out, eating chips by the river, supermarket shopping in her wheelchair, full of energy (by comparison), even talking about joining a gym so that she can start to build muscle again. This was a radical turn around. So I started to ask the question….

Why? : I started to look at the common ingredients in these cereals and got to wondering what they were. The ingredients in the cereals in Variety packs are not too bad, to be fair and if we ignore the sugar! But then sugar is not high up on the ingredients list at all. Here is what I found, the common ingredients were :

• Barley malt flavouring – nightmare ingredient if you have coeliac disease or need to be gluten free! It is an extract of barley and used as a flavour enhancer in many cereals.
• Niacin – Vitamin B3 : good for a healthy cardiovascular system and brain function
• Iron – Helps transport oxygen around the body
• Vitamin B6 – All B vitamins work synergistically within the body. B6 works with around 100 enzymes involved in normal functioning of the immune system, nervous system and psychological functions, as well as red blood cell formation and the production of energy
• Vitamin B2 – Another B vitamin essential to the production of red blood cells. It is also responsible for normal metabolism of iron within the body, along with contributing to energy-yielding metabolism and fatigue reduction
• Vitamin B1 – Another B vitamin that contributes to energy-yielding metabolism and supports the nervous system
• Vitamin B12 – is one of the hardest vitamins to get from food, especially if you are vegan or vegetarian. As with B1 and B2, it contributes to a normal metabolism and the functioning of the nervous system. It also contributes to the healthy workings of your immune system.
• Folic Acid – Helps your body produce new cells and helps prevent changes in DNA of cells which may lead to them becoming cancerous
• Vitamin D – works with calcium to help bones and teeth stay healthy, as well as being necessary for the normal function of muscles and the immune system.
• Milk – this helped with the weight gain, I am sure. Milk contains many things not necessary for human’s, however for somebody who is ill, it can be a good source of fats and proteins. Cows milk has a different ratio of casseins to whey to human breast milk, because the calf needs to grow fast. In human breast milk it is 40:60 but in cow’s milk, it is 80:20, hence why this may explain the increase in weight. In addition, it has natural sugar in it, in the form of lactose, that gives the calf its energy. Cow’s milk I would not recommend for human consumption, we really don’t need it, but for my partner it has been helpful…so never say never I guess!!

These vitamins and minerals, have more functions than those listed, I have just listed those that I feel are appropriate to the changes that I have witnessed in my partner. When you look at how these vitamins and minerals combine to work with the body, then you can see how they have maybe helped my partner improve.

Obviously, the ingredient panel on the side of the box does not tell you how much of each of these vitamins and minerals is contained within each box, and therefore it would be great to get these figures from Kellogg’s, the manufacturer. We could then possibly understand what has happened over the last 6 weeks and use this information to help others in a similar situation. We could also work out the additional volume intake of each of them that she is ingesting, on top of her usual daily supplements. We can then adjust her intake safely, to suit.

So these are the common ingredients that I found, but I would love to have a chat with Kellogg’s on a more formal basis, to see if we can discover what it is in their cereals that has caused this miraculous turnaround.

What does the future hold? : I am not promoting Kellogg’s Variety Packs as a cure for cancer, or even as a method for managing the disease. I just want to do the best for my partner and keep her alive and well, for as long as possible, whilst maintaining a positive quality of life. I am no scientist, and this is by no means a scientific study, but I like to explore what I feel are things that are beneficial to us and I have seen positive benefits from this situation.

Some will say I am clutching at straws. Others will say that these are the peaks and troughs that are part of the rollercoaster that is cancer  – believe me, I have experienced these, and this is not the same…the two weeks of virtually pain free “remission” were, after over two years of daily agony, a small miracle. Others still, will say that it is her constitution and I have no doubt that that plays a part – I have seen clients, friends and relatives of friends diagnosed with cancer, way after my partner, and given a similar prognosis of a few months, sadly pass away is such a short amount of time, despite our best efforts to help.

Who knows what will happen over the next 6 weeks? Well, the “remission” seems to have ended,  for now, and the pain seems to have returned this week, but we have to remember that the cancer rollercoaster doesn’t stop and anything could happen (you see I AM keeping it real!) We shall continue to do what we have been doing. She let’s her body tell her what she fancies to eat, and when, and we shall continue to follow its lead. We shall also continue to keep the Kellogg’s Variety in stock – never fewer than 4 multi-packs at any one time – because I know that she will keep on using them as the food of choice. If she gets peckish at all, then she will have a couple of boxes to tide her over. And with those boxes will come the smiles and happy memories. We are also slowly re-introducing the good, healthy, organic wholefoods into her diet, to get her back on the right track, but at the moment any progress is good progress. I shall also be looking into a vitamin/mineral mix that replicates what she is getting from these cereals each day to try and maintain the input to her system.

What can I say? I have just finished writing an article that I never thought I would write. Kellogg’s, I thank you – you have given me 6 weeks with my partner that I never thought I would get. Cant fail to appreciate that. And if you are reading this, in a similar situation to me and desperate to get your ill relative to consume something, give these a go – everything is worth a try, because there is very little to lose in these situations.

(C) Copyright Dale Preece-Kelly 2017