"If every person inspires the person next to them to take action, things will change."

-Donna Karan, founder of Urban Zen

Last night, the Urban Zen Center hosted Wayuu Taya's 7th Annual Gala. Wayuu Taya transformed the studio space into an oasis of hope pairing an exotic, Venezuelan theme with that of children and education. Patricia Velasquez, founder of Wayuu Taya, explained why the foundation is so close to her heart.  "Someone once told me that to make a difference, you must start with something you know. This is why I went home to Venezuela."

"We all know someone who has or has had cancer. Not a day goes by when you don't hear those words," Amanda Archibald, RD,  told the participants at Food Solutions: Navigating Cancer at Urban Zen.

"This is personal for all of us," revealed Donna Karan, who founded Urban Zen, after her late husband Stephan Weiss, passed away after a bout with the disease. "We always need to share and learn more. At one time or another in our lives, we might find ourselves the caretaker or a loved one, facing an illness. This problem has to be taken care of at every single level. Our system of health care is broken and we have to correct it."

"For 30 years, cancer never affected me until the day when Rand received the diagnosis with a 3 - 6 month prognosis," said Terrence Meck, the Executive Director of the Palette Fund, one of the sponsors of Food Solutions. Meck, whose partner was Rand Skolnick, head of Solgar, the supplement company, said that although they had the resources to "fly anywhere and consult any specialist... Money and access don't help when you have cancer. Only two things help -- food and patient navigation."

"It's important to share your story," said Patient Advocate Ken Schueler. "Isolation is torture for cancer patients and survivors. When you have cancer, you need to be seen."

"We all like to be loved and cared for," says Donna Karan. "If someone you love is in the hospital, go to the hospital. Change the pillows, change the fabrics, change the foods."

Pamela Yee, MD, an integrative oncologist, at New York's Continuum Center for Health and Healing was inspired by her Grandma, who had passed along to Yee the traditional Chinese wisdom that food is medicine.

Following an ovarian cancer diagnosis, Yee's grandmother went through what Yee describes as "processed medicine from which the true meaning of healing was extracted. Back then, hospice care was non-existent." This led Yee to make nutrition an integral part of her treatment approach, even though it's not typically emphasized in conventional medical practice.

"When people face a cancer diagnosis they ask, 'What should I eat?' and the usual answer they are given is, 'Whatever you want and if you lose weight, drink Ensure.'" Yee reports.

Ensure is a processed nutritional shake whose top ingredients (after water) are corn maltodextrin, sugar, protein concentrate, soy oil, soy protein isolates, and flavoring.

Despite ample research into the health-giving properties of nutrients found in many vegetables and fruits, nutrition is still given short shrift by most doctors.

Yee drily noted that "Sometimes it can take forty years for a shift in the medical paradigm."

"A trail horse can explore different paths, while a ranch horse only goes down the route he's followed before, and won't change," Schueler commented. Given that, it's optimal to find practitioners and navigators to help individualize treatments, and also pursue healthy supports like nutrition.

"In cancer, there's a complex interplay of many factors including nutrition, genetics, and toxic exposures," says Mary Beth Augustine, RD CDN http://www.TheNaturalNutritionist.com who along with healthy nutrition strongly recommends smoking cessation for the patients she counsels.

All Food Solutions presenters agreed that foods that help people during a bout with cancer also help prevent cancer, promote recovery, prevent recurrences, and rebuild health.

Since babies are now born pre-polluted with man-made chemicals and toxins, Dr. Pamela Yee, who is herself an organic farmer, first recommends eating organic foods wherever possible. (Yee supports www.realfoodcampaign.org)

What foods are healthiest? Based on recent studies, the Food Solutions experts recommended the following:

• Crucifers, like broccoli, cabbage, and Brussels sprouts, help the liver process toxins. Find the ones you like, Amanda Archibald recommends.

• Eat your carrots! High carotenoid content lowers cancer risk.

• Eat the flavonoids, foods with deep red, purple and blue pigments, like grapes, red cabbage, plums, and cherries.

• Three tablespoons of flaxseeds per day decreases cell proliferation.

• Marinating meat lowers cancer-causing compounds.

• Shitaki mushrooms are a non-animal source of vitamin D.

• Avoid high carb foods which may increase risk.

• Eliminate sugar which is a fuel for tumor growth.

• Use healthy herbs like cumin, ginger, coriander, rosemary, and turmeric.

• Drink teas, including black, green, white, and brightly pigmented ones

Recent studies show that people need a wide variety of different families of fruits and vegetables to prevent the DNA changes leading to cancer. In one study, participants who chose foods from five different botanical families lowered their cancer risk, but those who ate vegetables and fruits from 18 different botanical families, substantially lowed their risk. Eating salads was found to be more beneficial than following the Standard American, Mediterranean or the Prudent diets.

Unfortunately, many Americans avoid healthy foods because there is little translation from nutritional recommendations to culinary choices. That's why Food Solutions also showed participants how to select and prepare healthy foods for every palate and preference. Said Archibald, "You have to put food in people' mouths to open their ears. You can't download flavor."

"We've forgotten to ask what's in the food. We just eat what is given to us, no matter what it contains," said Culinary Nutritionist Stephanie Sacks, one of Food Solutions' organizers.

"Your body is an amazing source of information," said Donna Karan. "You have to listen and let it tell you what it needs."

"We all know that this is the future," said particpant Luana Halpern, "How do we open up more people to innovative thinking?

"We're creating a movement for patient-centered health care, and you're all invited to participate and contribute," Donna Karan responded. "This has to be a consumer movement. Once people can taste healthier foods, consumer demand will create the change."

For upcoming Food Solutions, go to Urban Zen.

For health insight, science and action, sign up here for Your Health Outlook.

"Idea is one thing. Manifestation is another," Donna Karan shared with guests this past Monday about her personal journey in business and philanthropy.  On June 1st, UBS held its Private Wealth Management Philanthropy Forum providing lectures from three philanthropists including founder of Urban Zen, Donna Karan, to UBS's high net worth individuals.

Donna Karan opened the day by sharing how her passion for philanthropy began and how it has evolved into Urban Zen, a foundation, retail store and event space.  Ms. Karan got her start in charitable work by organizing the Super Saturday event in the Hamptons. Later, as a mother and wife, Ms. Karan recognized the importance of caring, communicating and collaborating culminating in the realization of her "dream" -- Urban Zen.  Ms. Karan shared with the audience Urban Zen's three initiatives, a film about its current work at Beth Israel Medical Center (WATCH NOW) and what is on the agenda for Urban Zen in the future.

Ms. Karan also delved into the retail aspect of Urban Zen, a new paradigm which she calls conscious consumerism -- the connection of philanthropy and commerce.  Ms. Karan shared that the retail portion of Urban Zen blossomed from her dream of "communicating directly with the consumer and not through a wholesaler…People want to shop at a store that has meaning and engages people inside and out.  I want customers to know that their is soul behind the product." Donna Karan developed Urban Zen from the desire to establish a place for people to connect, communicate, collaborate and create change.

The next speaker, Phillipe Cousteau Jr., founded the non-profit Earth Echo International and is a member of the prominent Cousteau family.  He spoke in-depth about the current oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and showed a video of himself scuba diving into the middle to educate individuals about the magnitude of the disaster (WATCH NOW). Cousteau shared his non-profit's mission to educate the public on environmental and conservation issues.  He too, like Ms. Karan, acknowledged the importance of "thinking outside the box" and developing new models to get people involved in charitable work.

Ending the forum, Jackie Harris Hochberg, chairman of the board of the Harrison Obesity Prevention Effort at NYU spoke about HOPE NYU's initiative to turn medical research and quantifiable results into solutions for the prevention of childhood obesity.  Their most recent study showed that a family based early intervention strategy showed tremendous results in reducing obesity in children.

All three individuals spoke on vastly different topics. Yet, all three shared the importance of non-profit work and the innovative models being conceptualized  for creating positive change.

CONNECT

Earth Echo International | www.earthecho.org

Harris Obesity Prevention Effort | www.hopenyu.org

Dr. Frank Andolino

www.kageno.org

Dr. Frank Andolino, founder of the non-profit Kageno and continual presence at Urban Zen, is on a mission to provide sustainable support to communities in Africa suffering from impoverishment, AIDS, genocide and limited access to healthcare, clean water, and education.  Kageno transforms impoverished communities into places of opportunity and hope – through the development of self-sustaining community directed programs in Education, Health, Ventures (Income Generation), and Environment.  Kageno is currently delivering community development projects in two countries, with over 600 employees and nearly 1000 volunteers and bringing awareness to its vital cause.

This past winter, Urban Zen partnered with Dr. Frank Andolino for Kageno's Day of Wellness held at Urban Zen. Combining philanthropic initiatives of well-being and preservation of culture, the day’s proceeds benefited Kageno health and educational programs currently serving over 11,000 villagers in Africa. Kageno means "A Place of Hope" in a Kenyan dialect, and we would like to acknowledge Dr. Frank Andolino for bringing just that to the Urban Zen community--- hope for the future through humanitarian work and overall compassion for human life.

CONNECT

Kageno | www.kageno.org