Deirdre Imus Talks Cancer Prevention, and Admirable Women

Former softball player Deirdre Imus should have toned down her look today, in her husband’s opinion, since openly gay country singer Chely Wright was arriving at the studio shortly.

“I’m looking forward to meeting her,” Deirdre said coyly, dressed in a cheerful, bright pink dress and spiked heels.

Since a few minutes had passed with no talk of his cancer, Imus asked his wife to discuss the lunatic diet she has him on, which he is hesitant to suggest to people as a method of battling their own cancer.

“I do recommend a lot of what you’re on, just for overall health and prevention,” Deirdre told her husband. She does not, however, recommend copying Imus’s exact diet. “Everyone is so different, you have to take an integrative approach.”

In the I-Man’s case, his diet is almost entirely raw. “It doesn’t make sense not to eat like this anyway,” said Deirdre. He consumes mainly vegetables; gluten-free grains like millet, which is a complete protein; and a lot of nuts and beans.

“We’re trying to pack in as many nutrients that will actually help,” Deirdre explained. “We’re boosting your immune system, keeping your levels so that you’re not deficient in anything.”

Being deficient in any mineral, she continued, “does not make sense once you have cancer” because minerals help fight off the cancer and can induce apoptosis, or cell death, where the cancer cell basically commits suicide.

Prompting the obvious follow-up question from Imus, “So, you ever thought about being a lesbian?” While Deirdre has never wanted to be one, she thinks it’s great that women like Chely Wright and others have come out and been honest about their sexuality.

And whether Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan is or isn’t, as many have speculated, her accomplishments are incredibly impressive. “Those are a lot of the women I admire through history—the women that haven’t focused on their looks,” said Deirdre. “They haven’t gone through life because of their looks.”

Then, she and her husband ticked off a list of women—Florence Nightengale, Marie Curie, Mother Theresa, Hillary Clinton—who have not “cashed in on their looks,” as Imus eloquently put it.

Suddenly, Imus received an e-mail from his and Deirdre’s friend Sean Hannity, who, rather appropriately, commented, “I’m watching the program with the sound off.”

-Julie Kanfer