I forgot to ask her how her husband was dealing with this, a breast-cancer surgeon who lunches in the same hospital cafeteria as my hamburger/ice cream/egg-loving plastic surgeon father did, my father who survived a triple bypass before the age of sixty to later endure two pacemakers and bowel cancer. If most hospital cafeterias look anything like the last time I was in one, I doubt they boast a vegan buffet.

So what’s on MY plate these days? As healthy as my friend’s new diet might be and as impressive as her survival record is, I’m not that good at deprivation. I’m not into sweets and might even consider abstaining from poultry and meat, but I do crave nearly everything produced by chickens and cows.

So, here’s what I’m doing: Much as I did when I shifted my inner “Chair of the Board” from my masculine side to my feminine, insisting that it support her instead of the other way around, I am shifting the weight on my plate to whole grains, fruits, and vegetables. Indeed, I intend to internalize, literally, Pollan’s seven magic words: “Eat food, not too much, mostly plants.”

*By “food,” Pollan means anything your great-grandparents might recognize as food.