My grandmother died of colon cancer.
She was past eighty and still looked healthy. Calligraphy, knitting, an active daily life. But at some point she began saying things like “I have no appetite” and “food doesn’t taste good anymore.”
She visited her local clinic regularly. But those visits had become routine — like going to school or work. The doctor processed them accordingly. To be fair, my grandmother herself described her symptoms as “just a cold” or “tired from age,” so the doctor can’t be blamed.
When she finally had a thorough examination at my mother’s urging, she was immediately referred to a university hospital and admitted.
Stage 4 colon cancer.
She lived more than five years after the diagnosis. But I still think about that time.
Does illness begin the day it’s diagnosed?
When cancer is diagnosed — is that when the “illness begins”?
Of course not.
A diagnosis is a result. The lesion grew quietly within the body, nurtured by daily life, until it finally became visible on a test. Abnormal cell proliferation doesn’t happen overnight. Years, sometimes decades of chronic inflammation, shifts in gut microbiome, declining immune surveillance — a quiet accumulation that eventually crosses the threshold of detection.
Yet in modern medicine, treatment typically begins after diagnosis. You’re told it’s Stage 4, and only then do you stand at the starting line. As everyone understands — that’s too late.
Pre-illness — Malaise — Disease
In traditional Eastern medicine, there’s a concept called “mi-byō” (未病) — not yet ill, but no longer healthy. A state where symptoms are subtle, but something inside the body has already begun to tilt.
The continuum looks like this:
Pre-illness → Malaise → Disease
Most people act at the “disease” stage. But what we can do most effectively in daily life is intervene at pre-illness — in other words, prevention.
Prevention isn’t anything extraordinary. It’s the accumulation of daily choices: meals, sleep, exercise, stress management.
Insurance versus preparation
Many people buy insurance “in case something happens.” That’s important, of course.
But preparing before something happens — isn’t that what it means to live a better life?
It’s obvious when you say it: in health, in business, in personal growth, the future is shaped by each individual choice and action. Insurance is a hedge against outcomes. Preparation is an intervention in causes.
Grandmother’s cup noodles
My grandmother was active even after retirement. Calligraphy, knitting, neighborhood socializing. Her daily life was full — except for her diet.
Living on a limited pension, she chose what was easy and cheap: cup noodles, packaged bread, processed foods. Having grown up with allergies and a heightened awareness of food, I noticed. But I had neither the means nor the position to change her choices. And I can’t blame her for them.
Yet the lesion grew, quietly, through those daily choices. Chronic inflammation from ultra-processed foods, gut microbiome degradation from fiber deficiency, progressive insulin resistance from repeated blood sugar spikes — the pathways that precision nutrition has illuminated map directly onto her table.
Of course, diet isn’t everything. Genetics, environment, stress, exercise — cancer is multifactorial. But daily meals are the variable we can most directly control.
Why I built this app
From that experience, I built this app.
What I believe matters most is daily meals. For busy modern people, paying attention to food is “easy to start yet cumbersome to maintain” — a paradox.
This app is designed to log both main meals and snacks.
Snacks — an unfamiliar term, perhaps. These are small portions of low-carbohydrate food between main meals. They serve two purposes:
- Supporting the reduction of carbohydrates in main meals
- Preventing blood sugar spikes caused by long gaps between meals
The approach is simple. Start with three meals a day. Drop the bread at breakfast. Reduce the white rice or pasta at lunch. Each step is a subtraction. And to sustain those subtractions without strain, regularly add nuts, MCT oil, and other low-carb, high-fat foods — an addition to control blood sugar.
Subtraction and addition, working together. The body changes, gradually.
Try it for a week. Knowing where you stand right now is the most important first step.
When the sun sets
The main screen of the app features an Edo-era variable-hour clock.
This is less a feature than a wish. Humans originally lived in close connection with nature. I want users to feel the seasonal shifts in daylight, the trajectory of the sun — and to design their lives around it.
When the sun sets, slow down. Begin preparing for sleep. It’s obvious, but remembering the obvious has become remarkably difficult in the modern world.
A short life, lived well
Even now, I sometimes remember my grandmother’s table.
If I’d had the knowledge I have now. If she’d had a precision blood test earlier. If her daily meals had changed, even slightly.
“What if” has no meaning. But “from now on” does.
If this tool helps someone’s “from now on” — that alone makes it worth building.
This article reflects personal experience and perspective, not medical advice. For concerns about cancer prevention or treatment, please consult a physician.