COSMOPOLITAN June 2015 61
IN ANYONE WITH AN
INSTAGRAM ACCOUNTYOU SHOULD
“
“
TAKE RESPONSIBILITY
FOR YOUR
HEALTH,
BUT THAT DOESN’T MEAN
PUTTING
BLIND FAITH
The Belle Gibson
controversy
And it’s not just Jess’s tragic case that’s
brought extreme health to the front
pages of news sites everywhere. Belle
Gibson, founder of The Whole Pantry,
was recently slammed with allegations
that she lied about curing her brain
cancer through switching to a plant-
based diet. She published a cookbook
(which has since been pulled in Australia),
had a bestselling app and a huge social
media following. She’s thought to have
convinced masses of people that her
recovery from cancer was down to her
change in diet, and she made a lot of
money from it – but
there are doubts she
ever had cancer at all.
Promoting a cure for
a disease that might
never have existed? If
true, it means Gibson
fooled a lot of people
(including us – Cosmo
awarded Belle a Fun,
Fearless Female Award
for her app in 2014).
There are also claims
that Belle lied about
donating a portion of
her business’s profits
to charity. Scratching
your head over all of
this? There’s also the
fact that Belle claimed
the HPV vaccine was
linked to her brain
tumour , a claim
that may have even
influenced people to
believe the vaccine
might be harmful when it’s unclear if
she had evidence to support that.
Similarly, Perth woman Candice-
Marie Fox claims she beat her thyroid
cancer “through just hardcore nutrition,
loving myself and meditating,” according
to The Daily Mail. While amidst the
scandal she’s actively distancing herself
from the likes of Belle by obtaining her
medical records and saying she’ll make
them public, the fact remains that
there is absolutely no evidence to
suggest that dietary changes alone can
cure any sort of cancer. >with chemotherapy. And, according to
some, the decision to turn her back on
scientifically proven, evidence-based
methods may have cost her her life.
For nutritionist and dietitian Lyndi
Polivnick (thenudenutritionist.com.au) ,
the decision to invest in our health is an
obvious one – with boundaries. “I’m a
supporter of using food as preventative
medicine; whole foods are absolutely a
great way to prevent disease, the science
is there. But there are limits. No amount
of broccoli or kale is going to cure your
cancer. After all, if there was a cheap,
easy way to get rid of cancer ... wouldn’t
it be gone by now?”
Sadly, Jessica’s mother was
diagnosed with breast
cancer in 2011 and,
like Jessica, is said
to have also shunned
conventional medicine
in favour of Gerson
therapy. Sharyn
Ainscough reportedly
declined any scans or
biopsies to pinpoint
exactly what type of
breast cancer she had,
and passed away in- By the end of
2014 , Jessica returned
to her blog after quite
a notable absence,
explaining that she’d
spent much of the year
bedridden due to her
cancer taking hold
again, which had
caused “over 10
months of non-stop
bleeding from [my]
armpit [which] has
rendered me really weak.” Despite her
family indicating that she did turn to
conventional medicine in the end, by
February 2015, Jessica had devastatingly
passed away from her cancer.
“Extremism can be more tempting
than moderation. Saying a blanket ‘no’
to food groups or practices is often easier
than trying to moderate,” says Polivnick.
“When you’re faced with doctors giving
you worst-case scenarios like having
your arm cut off, or ‘therapists’ telling
you it’ll be OK if you drink their juices,
Jess’s choice becomes understandable.”
W
hen health blogger
Jessica Ainscough
passed away in
February, her online
community was
shocked. 30-year-
old Jessica was the very picture of health
and wellness. She drank up to 13 raw
vegetable juices every day and had daily
coffee enemas. She had thousands of
followers and was also known as The
Wellness Warrior. She had published
a book about her health journey and
she regularly updated her website with
delicious and nutritious recipes.
The thing is, Jessica was diagnosed
with a rare form of cancer, epithelioid
sarcoma, back in 2008, so nobody should
have been surprised when she sadly
passed away. It’s an aggressive cancer
that usually strikes young adults (Jessica
was 22 when she was diagnosed) in their
extremities (Jessica’s was in her left arm
and hand). After initially undergoing
chemotherapy, which appeared to help
temporarily before the cancer returned,
doctors recommended Jessica have her
arm amputated at the shoulder – truly
a difficult decision for anyone to have to
make, let alone a young woman on the
verge of starting her adult life. She later
wrote on her blog, “The way I saw it, I
had two choices: I could rely on the ‘slash,
poison and burn’ method offered to me
by the medical profession ... or I could
take responsibility for my illness and
bring my body to optimum health so
that it [could] heal itself. For me it was
an easy decision.” Jessica decided to
follow the principles of Gerson therapy,
a controversial nutritional program that
claims to “activate the body’s ability to
heal itself through an organic, plant-
based diet, raw juices, coffee enemas and
natural supplements”.
When it comes to beating cancer,
prioritising your health is incredibly
important and, in some ways, Jessica’s
decision to turn her back on modern
medicine can be seen as understandable.
Either way, life as she knew it was over- she could amputate a limb (which, with
her disease apparently being incurable,
doctors said would only hope to prolong
her survival), or she could try something
else entirely. Jessica chose to pursue
INSTAGRAM; GETTY IMAGESGerson therapy instead of continuing