Breast Cancer Awareness Month
October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month! This cause is very dear to my heart, as it has affected a loved one of mine. Not only that, but this very disease is what inspired me to make the superfood blend you all love: Cacao Magic! The story begins when my incredible, inspiring, and beautiful mother, Phyllis A. Koenig-Aaronson, was diagnosed with Stage 4 Breast Cancer. It started with a small and persistent lump under her left breast that lasted for about a year. She and my dad both agreed they needed to get it checked out, but both were in denial and waited as long as possible to do so. She finally went to see a radiologist two weeks after her mother passed away. Indeed, it was a tumor and it had metastasized and spread to her liver and lymph nodes. We were all floored; we didn’t know what to do. My best friend from childhood died that year as well, so I felt as though my world was falling apart. My mom is so strong and beyond brave. She has been through her share of life’s curve balls and took them with ease and grace. She intentionally makes it look easy, and she does a damn good job of it. How could this be happening to her?!
During her cancer treatment, she drastically shifted her eating habits to incorporate more raw foods, superfoods, and overall nutrients in her diet. She also began seeing a famous Chinese Doctor in Santa Monica. He taught her all about relaxation and meditation. Most drastically, he taught her how to incorporate healthy foods, Chinese Herbs, and superfoods into her diet. Every evening she would drink a special herbal tea meant to heal her body from the inside out. I was so inspired by this that I created the Cacao Magic superfood blend which includes the medicinal mushroom, Reishi. Reishi Mushroom has been used for centuries to heal people and is also known as “The Mushroom of Immortality.” I began to do more research than ever during the time she had cancer to get to know the magical world of medicinal herbs and started using them myself.
I truly believe that although she did get chemo and radiation, the healing food (she now gets more vegan food and superfoods into her daily diet than ever before), meditation, and mindfulness is what cured her and will KEEP her cured. This shift in mindfulness: the awareness of the connection of what you put into your body and how that will affect what happens to your body...is everything. We truly are what we eat, what we feel, and what we do. And till the day I die, I’d like to be a Yogi Kale Leaf or Goji Berry, please! Right alongside my mother, and soon enough hopefully alongside the rest of our family as they continue to learn more about putting healthy, healing foods into their bodies. Her biggest advice? “Don’t wait until it’s too late to get a screening. There are simple tests you can get at a young age to see if your estrogen levels could lead to tumors in the future. Get screenings and don’t wait to get questionable lumps checked out. Whether you chose to do so or not and take it seriously is up to you, I certainly didn’t.”
Check out our recipe for this Cacao Magic Cleansing Morning Tonic, which is great for immunity, rejuvenation, and healing energy!
