My telephone conversations with my sister inevitably would turn to food, especially anti-cancerous foods and foods to stimulate the immune system.

 “Eat a brazil nut everyday. You’ll always have all the selenium you’ll ever need.”

 She’d explain how selenium’s antioxidant activity maintains the immune system.  Antioxidants are substances that may protect cells from the damage caused by unstable molecules known as free radicals. Free radical damage may lead to cancer.

“Eat your fruits and vegetables organically, without pesticides on them. They are richer in vitamin C and in polyphenols (a rich antioxidant).”  From her I learnt that Vitamin C diminishes the formation of nitrosamines, which is a type of cancerous composit.

“The fruits which have the most pesticides are peaches, cherries, apples.” I have yet to taste an apple pie as good as the one my father used to make. It was simple. The pie crust recipe on the Crisco box, sliced apples with lots of cinnamon and sugar and that’s about it. But it was his pie and because he knew how much we loved it, he put his own love into making it.

Diana discovered the powers of  probiotics, fiber, garlic, Curcuma and noni.

Noni?  A tropical fruit shown to have disease fighting effects, including cancer preventives and boosting the immune system. In Tahiti, where the fruit comes from, it is considered a sacred plant. Om Noni.

Still, my sister died. The noni fruit, with its sacred promises of life prolongation, was maybe taken  too late.  Or maybe it did prolong her life. How can we know? And because we can’t know, and because I believe in better be safe than sorry I go on eating foods high in antioxidants. Blueberries are among the leaders.

 My golf buddy, Donna, makes a great blueberry pie. It’s an open-faced one. Use butter for the crust and chill it before pouring in the blueberry mixtures (3 cups of blueberries with sugar). It’ll take about fifty to sixty minutes to bake the pie in a 400 degrees oven. Once out, pour over the hot pie 2 cups of fresh blueberries. They’ll cook enough but not too much for them to be mushy. Your pie will look like it came out of a French pastry shop.

Warning: some people have been known to eat the entire pie alone.