Feb. 4--After three battles with recurring breast cancer, Sally Miller was tired -- body and soul.
She was 36 years old when she had a double mastectomy to combat her first breast cancer diagnosis. The cancer returned 11 years later on the incision points. She had 33 radiation treatments. The following year, it was back. Doctors scraped her insides from ribs to clavicle and placed her on an estrogen-blocking drugs.
"Tamoxifen did terrible things to me. I had no energy and I was depressed," she said. "I became a person nobody knew."
She had taken the medication for two years, when her daughter in Atlanta suggested she attend a conference on the topic of a raw foods diet that reputedly bolstered the body to battle illness. In all her cancer treatments, nobody suggested a connection between diet and cancer, so she still ate the meat-heavy diet that had been part of her Irish/Italian/Polish heritage.
A raw and living foodie eats a plant-based, uncooked diet that contains the nutrients, enzymes, vitamins and minerals that a body needs to maintain good health and balance. It's basically a step beyond a vegan diet -- no meat, dairy, processed flour, yeast, refined sugar or cooked foods.
"At the conference, I was introduced to the idea of food being your medicine and medicine being your food," she said. "It blew my mind that I met all these people who had been through illness and changed their lives by changing what they were putting in their mouths. I thought to myself, 'I can do this.'"
Miller's husband, architect Lloyd Miller, attended the conference at the Living Foods Institute in Atlanta with her and supported their move to raw foods, although he had a few reservations. "I was skeptical. It's quite a dramatic change from a traditional diet," he said.
After a bit more research, Miller began preparing exclusively raw foods. Both Lloyd and Sandy Miller lost weight, had more energy and sharpened their thinking. Their previous heavy, meat-laden diet held little appeal.
"We both felt great. I was having so much fun with food, developing recipes," she said. "I moved into more gourmet recipes."
About six months later, Sally told her doctor that she wanted to quit
taking the medicine. The doctor agreed, as long as she continued to enjoy good health. She's been medicine- and cancer-free ever since. That was six years ago.
Today, Miller teaches classes on raw and living foods from her home office. She'll receive her master's in nutrition education from Bauman College in California in May. As a certified nutrition educator, she'll offer individual consultations to help people personalize a raw foods diet.
"I want to teach people how to eat and to enjoy healthy foods," she said. "I'll look at their diet and lifestyle and help them make menu plans."
Her two-day weekend overview class is her most popular. For $150, she gives a general overview of raw foods and tells students where to shop, what to buy and gives 10 to 12 recipes to get them started. She's taught about 150 people. She partners with Healthy Life Markets at Drug Emporium and buys organic produce at Kroger.
In addition to fresh fruits and vegetables, the Millers eat lots of sprouted and fermented foods. She drinks wheat grass juice every morning made fresh in their juicer. She makes scones and cookies from sprouted grains, fruits and nuts and flatbreads and crackers from flax seeds, ground sunflower seeds, almond pulp and dehydrated vegetables. She forms the sprouted grain mixture into loaves.
"There's some psychological need for something that you slice," she said. "This allows me to do that."
A typical lunch might be bok choy stalks filled with hummus, cabbage salad with raisins and lentils spooned on top, and a lentil soup base with juice of carrots, celery, onion and garlic. She makes large quantities of crackers and eats them with soup.
A big salad with lots of fruits and vegetables and a creamy homemade dressing of nut cheese processed with olive oil, lemon juice and herbs is a simple lunch.
For dinner, Miller makes burgers out of vegetables, grains and lentils. She uses a spiral slicer to cut zucchini into linguini-like noodles and serves it with pesto. She crumbles some thick crackers on top to resemble ground meat.
"I enjoy finding simple, fast ways to make favorite things," she said. "I spend about 15 to 30 minutes in the kitchen to make a meal." She keeps key ingredients on hand, such as the legumes she uses in soups or patties.
For the first two years, the Millers ate a pure raw foods diet. She's worked some cooked foods in, at first blanching vegetables instead of just raw and marinated ones. "It gives two different types of flavors and more variety on the dinner plate," she said. She purchased sprouted breads with no yeast after a year without bread. She cooks wild-caught salmon occasionally and tuna and eggs about once a month.
"I don't wake up in the morning and think I'm going to have bacon and eggs. I just don't do that anymore," she said. "I juice vegetables or make a smoothie with fruit and flaxseed or coconut oil. That's all I need. Later in the morning, I'll have a scone or some cookies."
Dinner is usually a light meal, after lunch at 1 or 2 p.m. "By the evening, we just have a blended vegetable soup or another salad," she said. In the cold weather, she craves something warming, so she'll pour hot vegetarian broth over fresh vegetables.
She makes a chocolate pudding out of raw cacao, avocado and a little sweetener. "It is the most out-of-this-world pudding or chocolate mousse," she said. "With a little honey spread and soaked, dried Bing cherries on top, it's wonderful."
Miller's raw food lifestyle doesn't prevent her from eating out or dining with friends. She looks for appropriate choices on the menu or compromises when she must. She might eat a baked sweet potato or potato topped with salsa. She orders salads with the dressing on the side.
"I don't take myself out of normal situations. I just bring myself and who I am into them," she said. "I haven't removed myself from society."
She isn't tempted by many foods on her previous diet because the meats taste heavy and bog her down. Packaged cookies taste like cardboard, but homemade favorites such as the holiday goodies her adult son and daughter requested tempt her. "I always make sour cream cranberry bread for her and chocolate chip cookies for him," she said. "Yes, I'm tempted and yes, I eat them."
She prepares most of their food on a Vita Mix, juicer, dehydrator and food processor. A sunny window holds clear jars of sprouting grains. She uses the equipment every day and for class demonstrations.
Despite the fresh vegetables and fruit prices, the cost of a raw food diet is probably comparable to a traditional meat-based meal, Miller said.
Their raw food diet eliminated the acid reflux symptoms that previously plagued Lloyd, as it is purported to do for other medical problems, such as diabetes, high blood pressure and cholesterol, said Miller. She advises everyone to check with a physician before drastically changing diets.
"Looking back, I could have been feeding myself in a healthier way had I realized that I was prone to growing cancer in my body," she said.
Friends were concerned that her diet wouldn't include enough protein, but she gets enough from lentils, legumes, seeds and nuts. The average American eats three to four times more protein than needed, she said.
"I would like to see more of this in our community. It's a great place to live, but it makes me sad to see us at the bottom of all the health statistics," Miller said. "It's changed my life. I've had wonderful health and I want to share that with others."
For information on raw and living foods, visit Miller's Web site: or call her at 304-744-8748.
Reach staff writer Julie Robinson at julier@wvgazette.com or 304-348-1230.
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