Last month, the world lost a great visionary and technological genius. Steve Jobs, of Apple fame, died way before his time, at the age of 56, of complications due to pancreatic cancer.
This tragic story has of course been floating around media sources of all sorts, however, in our sphere of holistic nutrition and alternative health, it’s making a particularly significant appearance due to rumors that Steve turned to nutritional therapy to heal his cancer, and it “failed.”
It is true that Jobs used an alternative, diet-based cancer treatment. For the first nine months of his diagnosis, he refused all western medical approaches and strictly utilized a specific “anti-cancer” diet, before breaking down and allowing himself to have surgery to remove the primary tumor from which his cancer originated. He then continued to adhere to this special diet, while (wisely) refusing further conventional treatments such as chemotherapy and radiation, for several years after.
Here’s the thing, though.
Steve’s “natural” diet, rather than his avoidance of medical treatments, was actually more than likely contributing to and hastening his demise.
A doctor’s dangerous advice
Steve’s special “anti-cancer” diet, was one which would be dangerous for any person to follow, let alone someone attempting to beat cancer.
Steve Jobs followed the nutritional protocol of Dr. Dean Ornish, who is a proponent of one of the least healthy, nontraditional (in the Weston A. Price sense) diets imaginable. The Dean Ornish cancer diet consists of the following guidelines and traits:
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Quote from Steve Jobs. Unfortunately, Steve’s body was very hungry for nourishment while he suffered at the foolish advice of Dr. Ornish.
NO saturated fat: Despite the fact that every cell of your body is largely comprised of this substance, Dr. Ornish believes a diet devoid of this critical nutrient is healthy, and will even help to fight cancer. Saturated fat is needed for virtually every function of the body, including fending off illness.
- As low-fat as possible: All fats are demonized by Dr. Ornish. Again, despite scientific evidence that the body needs fats to assimilate vitamins and other nutrients found in whole, natural foods, this diet simply shuns them entirely.
- Vegetarian: The Ornish cancer diet avoids even lean meats, simply because they might contain trace amounts of saturated fat. There is virtually no natural protein from healthy animal sources allowed. A very small amount of fish is permissible for the intake of Omega-3 fatty acids. Except, Ornish — don’t you know that your body needs saturated fat to even absorb and assimilate Omega-3’s?
- High-carbohydrate: Dr. Ornish advises a diet that consists of over 70% carbohydrates. Ornish, like many misguided medical professionals, wants much of those carbs to come in the form of improperly-prepared, gut-damaging whole grains. A diet too high in carbs can lower immune functioning and potentially cause an overproduction of insulin, a very cancer-friendly hormone (and by that I mean, cancer feeds off of it). Oh and, guess what’s responsible for churning out all that insulin, by the way? The PANCREAS. In which Jobs had cancer.
- Soy-rich: Dr. Ornish wants his patients to get their protein from genetically-modified, Monsanto-created soy. Unfermented soy is a highly toxic substance, filled with endocrine-disrupting and carcinogenic phytoestrogens. If this is news to you, please read The Whole Soy Story
, by Dr. Kaayla T. Daniel. (I’ll explain more in a bit why the inclusion of soy was an especially deadly aspect to Steve’s diet, given the specific type of cancer he faced.)
- Fake foods: Ornish is perfectly fine with recommending such freakishly unnatural fare as fake meats (Tofurkey, anyone?) and processed, frozen meals containing partially hydrogenated oils. I’m not kidding.
All of these things are extremely unhealthy and dangerous to a cancer patient (with the exception of vegetarianism — it is possible to have a nourishing vegetarian, not vegan, diet).
But, being that it excludes many aspects of the Standard American Diet, a diet such as this would lead to an initial healthy response, just as a vegan diet (which is temporarily cleansing and not at all nourishing) will illicit a similar, superficial benefit to one’s health.
So why didn’t this horribly unhealthy diet cause Steve’s untimely death to occur even sooner?
Steve Job’s cancer was not as deadly as the media portrays.
There are multiple forms of pancreatic cancer. Because of its deadly reputation, you may be familiar with the extremely aggressive, pancreatic adenocarcinoma that makes up about 95% of all pancreatic cancer cases. It comes with terrifyingly grim prognoses, and can kill in a matter of months — just like it did with actor Patrick Swayze.
Steve Jobs did not have this type of cancer.
Steve had what is known as an islet-cell, or neuroendocrine tumor form. Specifically, he had a gastroenterological neuroendocrine tumor (GEP-NET), originating in his pancreas. This is a commonly benign, mild type of cancer.
As many as one in ten autopsies of the general population show the presence of this type of cancer, without the persons ever having been diagnosed or showing symptoms. The survival rate of a GEP-NET has reportedly been as high as 100% over a 10-year period.
This was a cancer that most people survive, even those eating the Standard American Diet! This type of cancer should not have killed Steve Jobs. But with the horrifyingly misguided dietary advice he followed, his neuroendocrine-tumor-type cancer was able to spread uncontrollably.
Given that the GEP-NET type of cancer causes a significant disruption in the endocrine system, by producing too much of the hormones related to the endocrinological system it attacks, it comes as no surprise to me that the endocrine-disrupting, phytoestrogenic soy Steve was consuming at the advice of Dr. Ornish would cause a neuroendocrine tumor to spread beyond a manageable growth. Additionally, the endocrine system relies on saturated fat and cholesterol — both of which Jobs was completely deprived of — to properly function. His cancer “treatment” was enabling his tumor to wreak absolute havoc on this vital system.
Steve Job’s tumor was caught early. Most GEP-NET tumors are resolved by a simple surgery to remove them. But in the nine months he waited to have his surgery, Job’s well-fed tumor had already caused such damage to his pancreas, that doctors felt it necessary to surgically remove the entire head of the organ, plus his gallbladder, bile duct, and first part of his small intestine. As if all this wasn’t damaging enough, Steve underwent additional medical treatments later on that put his cancer over the edge.
The Last Straws
Steve Jobs was trying to do everything right, even bucking mainstream medicine when he could bear to, but unfortunately, he went about it all wrong. Sadly, Steve Jobs did succumb to pressure to resort to conventional cancer treatments as his condition worsened. While Jobs declined the standard medical treatments for most of his battle, he did seek radiotherapy at a Swiss clinic in 2009.
Worse yet, just months before his death, Steve underwent chemotherapy at the Stanford Cancer Center in California.
Additionally, in 2008, it was reported that Jobs underwent a round of antibiotics to treat a “bug” he was ill with. If you’re at all familiar with the importance of gut health as it relates to the functioning of your immune system (and thus, your entire body) — you know how devastating the effects of antibiotics can be to crucial gut flora.
The other major part of this story is that Steve had a liver transplant two years before his death, and had to take immuno-suppressing drugs as a result. Try fighting cancer with a chemically-suppressed immune system, and zero saturated fat in your diet!
“Let Food Be Thy Medicine”
While these additional factors obviously had a hugely negative impact on Steve’s health and his ability to fight off his cancer, it’s my belief that had he at least avoided the chemo and radiation, he would have survived a much more appropriate length of time if he ate a healthful, traditional diet, as opposed to the deadly one prescribed to him by Dr. Ornish.
Steve’s less-aggressive, neuroendocrine form of pancreatic cancer would never have killed him this fast. He would have been able to handle the liver transplant and pancreatectomy much more successfully, and he may not have even felt the need to resort to the conventional cancer treatments at all.
Food heals, but only when it’s real, traditional, and healthy. And Steve Jobs lost not only his life, but his chance to experience that, as did the world by his example. That’s the real tragedy of the story to me.
What do you think about the choices Steve Jobs made regarding his cancer treatment? Do you also believe he would still be alive today had he not been recommended such a dangerous diet by Dr. Ornish? Or can you simply not blame him for first seeking out what he thought to be the best alternative therapy, then resorting to conventional medicine?
(This post is being shared with Real Food Wednesday at Kelly the Kitchen Kop and Fight Back Friday at Food Renegade.)
Another informative post, thank you. When I first heard he had done nutrition therapy I assumed it was a lower sugar diet. When I found out it was a Dean Ornish type of diet, I felt sad. I just think there is so much info out there on cancer and sugar and people need to start opening their minds to other information. I think the problem is so many people have said to eat a certain way for so long that instead of saying “oh I was wrong all these years, we should be doing this” they just keep recommending the same thing; maybe to save face?
Such a good point!! I agree, I think it would be embarrassing for all those “experts” to admit the complete and total fallacy that is the lipid hypothesis, etc. I personally think it’s an embarrassment to the medical/scientific community that they’re still denying the sugar/cancer connection. I mean, come ON! I’m no scientist, but that one’s pretty obvious to me.
Oh my goodness!! You took the words right out of my mouth with this article! When I read about his diet, after his death, my brain was screaming, “He needed some fat!!”
It is just such a shame that his body had nothing to fight with, especially during and after his chemo. Mass media has people so brain washed about the low fat thing and it is such a shame.
I think I’ll go eat some butter to console myself!!
Couldn’t agree more, Susan! Haha — I know, when I was researching this I started to feel cravings out of fear — WHERE’S MY LARD?! Get me some bone broth and cream, STAT!
Holy cow–I wasn’t familiar with the Dean Ornish cancer diet until I read your post and EVERY SINGLE things about it should be called the ‘Give You Cancer’ diet! I hate how this has the potential to give natural & nutritional cancer therapies a bad rap. So sad. Had he gone with something more similar to the Gerson therapy, the world probably wouldn’t have lost him.
“Give You Cancer” diet indeed! Ha! I agree…it’s really so sad that this high-profile story puts alternative medicine in a bad light. I’m honestly almost positive he would be alive today if he had gotten something like Gerson or Dr. Gonzalez on his side. I have lots more to say about that, but it’s in a half-written post I’m publishing next week. 🙂
Thank you so much for this! I have heard negative things about Dr. Ornish but was unaware of the details. I think I am going to research him more. I am a big supporter of a specific type alternative therapy treatment (I write about it on my blog). When I first heard the news of Jobs I was very curious to what the details were. I have been unable to find out until now. Many people who knw my position were using this news to tell me I was wrong. I kept my position but was unable to give any facts. Thank you thank you thank you.
Thank you so much Leon! I do hope you’re able to set the record straight with the naysayers. Such a shame.
Interesting perspective and analysis of his diet. However, I’m trying to understand what information and facts you’re using to support this statement. “…while (wisely) refusing further conventional treatments such as chemotherapy and radiation, for several years after.” I have several close family members who survived cancer and lived to an old age because of the chemo treatments they received. I also have close friends who didn’t survive, but their lives were extended a bit longer, probably due to the treatment, or maybe not, but I’m not in a position to make that scientific judgement. Anyway, it is still an interesting article regarding diets and food.
Good question — I’m just really not a supporter of conventional medicine especially as it relates to the cancer industry. But I didn’t really want to get too deep into my reasonings behind that for the purpose of this post — I plan on getting into more detail with that topic in the future. A couple good resources to understand where my viewpoints are stemming from in regards to this issue would be the films, “Burzynski the Movie: Cancer is Serious Business,” and “Cut, Poison, Burn,” for a look into why I think conventional cancer treatments are so dangerous and ineffective. Thanks so much for your comment, Bob.
Chemo may seem to work initially, but makes the cells resistant to it. When the cancer comes back and the patient gets more chemo, it doesn’t work (these are these newest studies, courtesy of alternative MDs such as Dr. Rowen and Jonathan Wright). It never made sense to me to douse the liver with these extremely heavy drugs at the very time that one would need an optimally functioning liver.
As a GAPSter I initially thought that if cancer was on the table for a person, then they should start on GAPS immediately. But then I read this fascinating answer from a GAPS FAQ page on why GAPS is not used for cancer:
What do you think about that?
Oh sorry, forgot the link to FAQ page: http://gaps.me/preview/?page_id=32
SUCH a great point, Kendahl! I wasn’t aware that Dr. Natasha was a supporter of the Gerson therapy.
The thing about Gerson, though, is that the nutritional protocol used by the Gerson Institute today (run by Gerson’s daughter, Charlotte), is not the same one that Dr. Gerson himself created originally. Gerson’s original treatment was actually not vegan. It included raw liver juice, as well as fermented raw dairy. Still, it was quite different from the WAP or GAPS diet, and for good reason.
Here’s an excerpt from an article from the WAPF site about this:
“This calls to mind the work of Max Gerson, a medical doctor who developed a dietary treatment for cancer and other chronic diseases in the 1930s. Gerson’s regime involved large amounts of raw vegetable juices and raw liver juice (extracted in a special way by pressure, not by pulverization); fermented raw milk; a variety of natural medications; and strict avoidance of everything not specifically included in his program. Very thorough documentation exists showing that many of Gerson’s patients recovered from advanced cancer (virtually all had not had chemotherapy, a highly toxic therapy that severely impairs chances of recovery by natural means). Gerson was adamant that the use of even the smallest amounts of what he called forbidden foods would prevent recovery.
It’s important to realize that we’re considering here the optimal diet for people with very serious medical problems. What may work well for the vast majority of basically healthy people is very different from the far more stringent routine that seriously ill people may require.” (http://www.westonaprice.org/miscellaneous/diet-and-recovery-from-chronic-disease)
However, I found it very interesting to see that Dr. Thomas Cowan, who wrote another article on the WAPF site, actually does advocate the GAPS diet for cancer patients, along with other holistic treatments:
http://www.westonaprice.org/cancer/a-holistic-approach-to-cancer
I personally agree with Dr. Natasha and would not *begin* a GAPS diet upon being diagnosed with cancer. I’m actually in the middle of writing up a post about what treatments I would choose and that I feel would be effective, and the Gerson therapy is definitely on that list. I would follow the original Gerson therapy diet, however, with the inclusion of raw liver juice and raw, fermented dairy.
What do you think? Would you do the same?
Oh I’m glad you shared those links, because I haven’t really done a LOT of reading on this yet. I had just stumbled on that quote I shared a couple of days ago and then you mentioned cancer here in the this posts and I thought “A-ha! And oppotunity to get to the bottom of this!”
I would probably get in contact with Dr. Natasha and/or WAPF if I was diagnosed with cancer. I would try to blend together a protocol that felt right to me with my gut reaction. I think I would generally do what the quote says: follow the quasi-vegan diet plus liver if given the stamp of approval by Dr. Natasha, etc. It makes sense to me that I would want to cleanse and starve the toxins/cancer cells, and THEN nourish afterwards. I think I could do just about anything knowing that I had GAPS to fall back on afterward!
I agree! I also think it makes sense to cleanse first, then nourish. Contacting Dr. Natasha or other WAPF experts would be a great idea too! I’m also really interested in the work of Dr. Nicholas Gonzalez — he is a big advocate of blending together the right nutritional treatment for each individual, like you mentioned. I just wrote a bit about him in my latest post today, along with some info of other alternative cancer treatments that interest me. There are just so many different paths to take and options to try with treating cancer naturally. But I’m at least fully convinced that any of them would be better than chemo and radiation!
Steve jobs was not an idiot. He also could have got any million dollar expert scientific / medical opinion in the world. In science, cellular growth even cancerous cellular growth or doubling time can be easily determined. Any cancer doctor with a degree can tell you that panreatic can lead to liver cancer because of proximity to the liver. Any doctor looking Steve Jobs’ medical files would tell you that hee probably had pancreas cancer since his early twenties. That means he had cancer for about 30 or more years. by the time he was 30 years old, the cancer had spread to liver and blood system. that means he had fatal cancer for 26 years before he passed away. steve job was a lifetime vegan, it helped him survive cancer, the last 9 months of his life were filled with surgury and high fat diet thanks to his family, and poor medical advice. The scienitific and medical experts will tell you that low fat diet is the optimal diet for humans. Consuming high protein foods will speed up whatever is ailing you. Every credited world health organization, like the WHO for example, says a low fat diet is the only healthy diet. Steve jobs was One of the smartest men in the world, and because he made a genius decision to eat vegan iis how he survived liver cancer for almost 30 years. There is nothing that surgury or science could have done for him. In fact, he might have lived a few more years, if he was allowed to continue without invasive surgury and high fat diet. He was a vegan all his life, and the moment they force him to eat protein diet, he died. Now was the cancer that killed him? Probably not, compromised immune system and bad medical advice. A doctor telling you to eat high fat diet is like telling you to smoke 10 packs of cigarettes a day.
Haha, yeah… you’re probably not gonna like what you see on the rest of this blog.
Did you read the post? I clearly explained that Jobs did, in fact, eat an extremely low-fat and mostly vegan diet — which was what contributed to him dying of a form of cancer that he could have survived fairly easily as most people do with GEP-NET cancer.
I would add a lot more to this comment, but there’s usually no reasoning with someone who only speaks Veganese. I’m off to go eat some bacon, eggs, and bread with a big pile of butter on top — or, I mean, “smoke 10 packs of cigarettes.”
“Genius,” indeed!
Great article! I cannot believe that doctors and a lot of alternative medical people are still promoting soy!
Oh boy, do your research before you start saying things like eating fat is like smoking cigarettes. Quite the contrary, actually. And, you may not want to follow a blog like “Butter Believer” actually, or you might find out the truth:)
I have heard about Dr. Dean Ornish from another doctor called Dr. Naik. I have heard that Dr. Ornish is a pure vegetarian and does not like any kind of non veg foods. I could not really agree with this point of him. Because people can live healthy by taking both veg and non veg foods. If you read the book of longest living persons of the world in the last 200 years, you will see only 2% of those persons were vegetarian. Rest of them were non veg. It depends mostly in taking diet in proper portion.
I eat a pound of lard every day, and I am as fit as a fiddle; don’t these fools know that lard not only gives you energy to live, but energy to LOVE? My girlfriend and I enjoy a healthy adult life, and I think this is due to my love of lard
Hi there! My name is Joelle, I am married with two beautiful little girls…I have just been diagnosed with breast cancer stage2. I was shocked when I was diagnosed as I was following a full Weston Price diet…all grass fed meats, chicken bone broth soups and fermented CLO and raw milks and cheeses. We also take high amounts of vitamin D and Lugol’s iodine with selenium supplementation. Soooo, I was QUITE shocked! I thought I was doing everything right! I am looking into a possible connection with an infected tooth I had removed two years ago and a possible fungal infection in my body…other than that my family and I are extremely healthy….with exception of me right now, I guess. I am about to embark on the greatest, yet scariest journey of my life. I am about to refuse masectomy, radiation therapy and chemo…in favor of Gerson Therapy. While I am excited for the opportunity to cure and heal myself, I am also frightened of the unknown. I thought I was doing everything right before, remember? If the vegan/gerson way of eating is healthy and successful at keeping cancer cells away and you agree with that…then why are you stating that the vegan way is what killed him? I am a bit confused.
Hi, Joelle. I really appreciate your taking the time to comment. I’d just like to say that I will be praying not only for your recovery, but for a sense of peace for you regarding the shock of your diagnosis. I think a lot of people in this community of alternative nutrition promote the false and dangerous myth that disease doesn’t happen to people who eat the “right” diet. It just isn’t true. I was just watching the World According to Monsanto film today and something that was said really struck me — the chemical pesticide that Monsanto has been selling for decades has been proven to affect cell division in a way that provokes cancer, but it may not show up until “30 or 40 years” later. This is the world we live in today. The environment we are surrounded by, and its effects on our bodies, are often beyond our control. We can only do so much to protect ourselves.
I very much admire your bravery in choosing alternative therapies and refusing conventional treatments. About your question, I think using the Gerson therapy as a healing protocol is much, much different from what Dr. Ornish recommends. The Ornish diet is full of fake, processed foods, and endocrine-disrupting soy. The Gerson therapy is focused solely on whole, natural, detoxifying foods, as I’m sure you’re aware. It’s effective in treating cancer because it’s so cleansing to the body. (Not nourishing in the long-term for a healthy person, though.) But, there are some big differences between the Gerson therapy that Charlotte, Dr. Gerson’s daughter, promotes today, and the original Gerson therapy, which was much more WAPF-friendly. It was not a vegan diet. It included raw liver juice as well as raw, fermented dairy. So it was not devoid of saturated fat. (See a comment above I wrote with links to some more information about that.)
Have you heard about the upcoming Healing Cancer World Summit? It’s like an online seminar or conference. Each of the talks are free to listen to on the days that they are shown. The people that put it on do all sorts of these “summits” throughout the year. I’m registered to tune into it next week, so I’m hoping to learn some more about alternative treatments. Maybe it would be helpful in calming some of your fears to hear from these experts about what’s working to heal cancer patients naturally!
Thanks so much for stopping by and I would love it if you’d keep me updated on your progress. Hope to hear from you again sometime soon.
Hi again! Thanks so much for your reply! I am registered for the upcoming excitement and cannot wait. Three people I am dying to hear from the summit are Howard (charlotte Gerson’s son), Dr. Gonzalez and the Wellness warrior Jessica Ainscough. Are you familiar with Jess the Wellness Warrior? She also has an awesome blog like yours…she successfully did Gerson therapy and her mom is doing it now. I wish I could be a patient of Dr. gonzalez’s but he is only accepting stage IV cancers due to the stronghold of the FDA. I have been in contact with Charlotte gerson’s son Howard and he has explained to me the reason for the liver change in the Gerson diet. Supposedly there are not very good sources of raw liver juices now that are safe due to GMOs/chemtrails etc etc…They did substitute with a dessicated liver pill but that is hard to find right now which is why they do the B12. However, they will be starting up the liver pills again in the future. they also DO allow raw, fermented kefir and/or cottage cheese (Budwig protocol) after the 6th week or so. And, flaxseed oil is a staple of the diet as well. I am hoping that after 2 years of treatment with gerson diet that i will be able to incorporate a more nourishing vegan style way of eating as I am sure I will not be able to go full Weston Price after that!
If Gerson therapy is about starving parasites, and Natasha Campbell-McBride supports the parasite theory, why not try the anti-parasite herbal protocol by Dr. Hilda Clark? While she might be considered fringe at this point, her books detail a thorough means of detoxing every part of the body, starting with killing parasites in all stages. The book is A Cure for All Cancers. No point in leaving a stone unturned when it’s your health and your body! Good luck; I wish you well!
woops! That’s Dr. HULDA Clark, not Hilda.
Dr. Gonzalez is a quack – avoid him. He only takes stage 4 because the FDA is onto his scam – and I guess they figure if a person is stage 4, there isn’t much hope anyway. My mom went to him – she was pretty healthy before she saw him, and died about 6 months later eaten up with cancer. That stuff he sells is snake oil.
I wish she had looked into some other natural options. Or even conventional options. Anything but him. 🙁
gud one
If he died using the Gerson Therapy than he wasn’t doing it as strictly as he should have been. If you had a true list of what he was consuming daily you’d probably find something was against Max Gerson’s protocol. Go here: http://renegadehealth.com/blog/2009/04/03/charlotte-gerson-on-alternative-cancer-treatments#comments and you will see what i mean. Max Gerson has been curing cancer since 1930’s
I wrote a little ebook “Breast Cancer, Believe You Can Beat It! by Tracie DeMotte for 1.99.
I had invasive lobular breast cancer and am vegan but I changed my vegan diet to rid soy and do not eat much grain. I started juicing and getting oxygen therapy along with herbal supplements to rid my cancer and refused any radiation or chemo. I am cancer free for over a year. I had my cancer for about ten years without knowing. I had a mammogram 4 years ago and they found it and said it’s nothing but I was in such pain years later I had them biopsy it and sure enough, cancer! Mammograms cause cancer from radiation and DO Not show it for five years and Do not show it at all if it’s near the side of your body. I will never get a mammogram nor recommend one. I get a Thermograph which shows when it starts growing in early stages. I just had a whole body thermograph. Juicing veggies is the way to go and eating raw vegan diet to kill cancer. You also have to do a parasite cleanse on and off a couple weeks on and off. Cancer is a parasite and you have to kill it with herbs and oxygen and high vit c and e and other herbs. The main thing is make your body alkaline which meat, dairy and eggs and sugar DO NOT DO! They are acid to your body!!! High fructose corn syrup is all genetically modified and GMO foods like that and soy, corn, wheat, sugar beets, squash are. Not all but most you buy. Sweet corn wasn’t but now Monsanto put a bug resistant seed out that some of the farmers are using so be ware before you eat. Alkaline water machines help also. Water is acidic and alcohol. Drink a lot of water to cleanse the body and do coffee enemas.
The first two days were loading days were you eat all you can (they say the more you load the more you loose) well honestly I think I had been loading
since Christmas so I didn’t stuff myself those two days, but I did eat.
Among the very key components of the HCG Diet is a restricted
low-calorie diet. That was when I went to my local HCG Weight Loss Doctors and told them about my
issue. I think the cast aways on Survivor get more calories than that.
It is common for individuals to gain 3-5 pounds inside the first
2 days.
The china study and the World Health Organization have proved that fat causes cancer and heart disease.
Oh dear.