Donna Green-Goodman is a Susan G. Komen for the Cure® National Ambassador, 13-year breast cancer survivor, author, activist and fabulous chef.

When diagnosed with carcinoma in situ in 1996, Green-Goodman chose to forego the traditional cancer treatment (chemo) and instead turned to nutritious food and her faith. She is an advocate of the healing properties of food, especially plant foods. Goodman-Green is a vegan and part of her life's work is to help people discover how some simple lifestyle principles helped her to recover her own health.

Ms. Green-Goodman believes that lifestyle is the most important tool we have in determining the outcome of our health. She not only shares some life-affirming tips with Black Voices, but also some slammin' yet nutritious recipes – all made without meat or dairy.

How large a role does lifestyle play in our health?

Lifestyle is the most important tool we have in determining the outcome of our health. You can do very little to change factors like race, age, family history. But you have full control over what you eat or drink, how physically active you are, how much sleep you get, how you manage stress, the relationships you have with others and with the divine. It is quite clear that people who practice healthy living habits have reduced risk of disease, and often get well faster.

Why did you choose to forego traditional treatment when diagnosed with breast cancer?

When I was diagnosed, I decided to get second and third opinions, look for a radiologist and oncologist that "I fit" and investigate alternative treatment options. In so doing, I discovered that each doctor I spoke with was certain to make sure I understood how poor my prognosis was. At the time of my diagnosis I was working in a cancer project (NBLIC) at the Morehouse School of Medicine and was teaching people about the lifestyle factors that could reduce their risk for cancer. So, I started prayerfully educating myself about the disease in my life and the role of lifestyle. I began to seek out physicians who were licensed and board-certified, but who recognized the role of lifestyle, including faith, in both the prevention and treatment of disease. That process led me to decide to stick with an MD, have a lumpectomy, do radiation and radically change the way I was living my life. I was going to take control of how I lived and was overwhelmed at how my overall health improved as well as that of my husband and son.

In the years since my diagnosis, I have met many a woman who is facing breast cancer or other health challenges. I simply share my story and tell them to do be prayerful, do the research, find and work with a medical team that they trust and who is really listening to them, work to save their breasts and whatever course of "traditional treatment" they decide to use, look carefully at their own lives and make some healthier choices.

Are you vegetarian?

Yes, I am a vegetarian. I have always been a vegetarian but was a lacto-ovo vegetarian for most of my life, meaning I ate eggs and drank milk and milk products. Back in the day, it was commonly believed that if you didn't eat meat, you had to eat the animal products in order to get all the nutrients you needed, especially calcium, iron and protein. As a matter of fact, when my mother told my pediatrician she was converting to vegetarianism, she was told I would die. Since 1996, I have been on a totally plant-based, truly vegetarian diet....also popularly called vegan.