Robin Roberts got on the cover of Prevention Magazine,March 2011 Issue,where she talks about battle with breast cancer.
On eating organic, vegetarian: “I do miss it. Every now and again I just really have to have that steak or lamb chop. But yeah, B.C. -before cancer-I would eat red meat probably three or four times a week, easily. I am convinced that the amount of red meat I contributed to it. I would justify it, saying it wasn’t like junk food. But it was also all the sodium in canned foods I ate too.”
On getting people to eat more whole foods, more organic: “First of all, you make good natural, organic food more affordable. You can’t ask people to do the right thing and have it be five times more expensive. Some of the organic stuff was an acquired taste for me. Eating more vegetables. Salty potato chips taste better than the baked ones. But now I can tell when something’s organic or not. An apple’s not supposed to be this big. [She cups her hand to form a basketball-size apple.] I wish I could just understand why fat and grease taste so doggone good!”
On her breast cancer and recovery: “I found my lump in a self-exam! Because I was familiar with my body and the lumps, I knew this one felt different. It was in a different place on my breast, and it was hard. If I hadn’t been doing self-exams, I wouldn’t have known that. I had a doctor’s appointment [with a new physician] already scheduled when I found the lump. And, full disclosure, the last mammogram I had was in 2003 or 2004, so I’d gone a few years without having one. I called the doctor’s office and said, ‘Hey, I found a lump-can you move up the exam?’ They said, ‘No, we’re booked solid.’ And I’m thinking to myself, Wow, this really happens. I reached out to Diane [Sawyer] and [ABC colleague] Deborah Roberts. Deborah gave me a referral.
As exhilarated as I was after my treatment ended, there’s also this feeling of Well, who’s watching me now? Because for almost a year-especially at the end, when you’re going in for radiation every day for six and a half week-you felt like someone’s watching you. And then suddenly it’s like, ‘Go, run along. You’ll be okay.’ I was in a funk. I was depressed. Also you’re mad at yourself because you’re thinking, I’m supposed to be happy. The treatment’s over. My hair is growing back. Oh, yeah, and my doctors warned me. They were laughing at me because I was like, ‘Oh, I can’t wait!’ And they said, ‘Trust us.’ It lasted the whole spring. My treatment ended in March/April of ‘08. It wasn’t until the end of that summer that I started to feel I wasn’t depressed. Even when I went on vacation to Saint Lucia, I was kind of depressed, even though it was such a beautiful place.
