Natural girls Back to basics

hymil

I'm learning so much on the Alternative & Natural girls zone..... really appreciating the empowerment and information to reclaim control of our lives from the medical one-size-fits-all machinery, but it all seems so long and complex. How can it be natural taking all those supplements??

So i thought, sorry if i'm out of turn, but, can we have a simple version for relative newbies like me? As i surface from the turmoil and intensity of active treatment (tamox, Mx, Rads) heading back towards a life-centred existence, not one based around the hospital, I wonder, What small,  sustainable changes can I make?

So. Saying no to Tamoxifen: Tick.    Exercising more: Tick.    Diet..Oooh this seems to be where it gets tricky.... let's keep it simple for busy or easily overwhelmed people: so far I have : Milk: organic, skimmed. Red meat out; Chicken, fish in. Lots of veggies and fruit/juice. Generally, everything Low fat. (but I'm not throwing out cheese until i find an adequate alternative for such a simple, versatile, cheap universal food.)

I know about sugar and alcohol being bad, but I didn't do them anyway.  

Today's attempt to improve things is trying Soya yoghurt instead of dairy.

So, are there any simple exchanges you can do at the supermarket without having to go and grow-your-own, cos for me it's about living and enjoying it, not spending all evening digging the garden and getting LE as a result! 

MBJ

For myself, all of the information that I need to survive BC is in two books: "What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About BC" and "Anti Cancer a New Way of Life".  It has everything from diet (I would stay away from cheese unless it's organic & hard cheese and I would eat only organic chicken because the alternative is pretty bad for you), to hormones to preventing recurrence.  You are right, it's about quality of life after all.  But be completely informed.  I thought I ate healthily and was doing all of the right things until I read these books.  Now I read all labels for hidden sugars, corns, and poisons in our food supply that are acceptable by the FDA but very dangerous for us to digest, expecially for those who have had BC.  

Shrek4

You know what? I was almost vegan before BC. 80% of my diet was fresh fruit and veggies, 15% grain and only about 5% meat - mostly chicken, no red meat. The only thing I was "indulging" and not often, was chocolate. After I got BC, and had the surgery, I mostly eat meat (I am supposed to be on mostly protein diet they say). I was talking to my BS (who is a specialist in breast cancer) and he agreed with me that I was in no way in a group at risk to get breast cancer - no family history, no nothing. And I still got it.

Jelson

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/06/opinion/06kristof.html?src=me&ref=homepage

Nicholas Kristof's column on the President's Cancer Panel's 240 page report on cancer prevention - the article has a hot link to the report - which  vindicates our concerns about conventional foods/chemicals/our water supply etc.  and which provides some guidance.

why does the American Cancer Society cling to the notion that environmnent plays a minimal role in cancer?

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/07/health/research/07cancer.html?hpw

Julie E

CrunchyPoodleMama

The biggest thing I've learned since my diagnosis is that for any animal products, ORGANIC IS NOT ENOUGH. They should be from PASTURE-RAISED/grass-fed animals.

Generally any animal products (even the organic ones) at a regular grocery store are going to be from factory-farmed animals... yes, even "cage-free organic" eggs are from chickens raised in a big windowless building and fed corn and soy. Pastured chickens, on the other hand, are raised outdoors where they belong... eating grass and bugs and soaking up sunshine (hence the naturally high vitamin D in pastured eggs).

As for soya yogurt, I personally don't believe that's any better than yogurt made from organic pastured milk... in fact some argue that we shouldn't be eating soy except for fermented soy (from organic non-GM soy of course) at all.

Also, I spent my whole adult life eating low-fat. It was horrible for me. Now I've learned that it's better to consume a small amount of something with healthy fat (organic flax oil, coconut oil, and yes, pastured butter!) than either low-fat/no-fat (which usually has "junk" added to it to make it taste edible) or the VERY UNHEALTHY vegetable oils like canola or corn oil.

Basically, eat the way your great-grandparents ate... organic/chemical-free fresh in-season produce, moderate amounts of pasture-raised animal products (not too much of them), get plenty of fresh air and exercise and sunshine, sleep the same hours your great-grandparents did (in complete darkness)... it's a lot more simple than we've been led to believe.

Try to cut out packaged/processed foods. I don't even buy food at the grocery store any more. I buy it from two local organic/grass-fed farms and occasionally buy staples and bulk organic brown rice and dried beans at Whole Foods. I don't buy the packaged "organic" stuff at Whole Foods... it's expensive, and it's "dead" food anyway.

Get a good water filter and drink filtered water.

And, as you already know, cut out refined grains... no regular flour... very little or no sugar...  and definitely, NO CHEMICAL SWEETENERS, ever. I think my former Diet Coke habit is one of several direct causes of my cancer. 

If you have non-stick cookware, throw it out. Use stainless steel instead. Teflon releases at least six carcinogens when it's heated to normal cooking temperatures. I know that's not technically a dietary recommendation but it's a biggie.

Make sure you're consuming enough iodine. Iodine deficiency can lead to fibrocystic disease and breast cancer (among other things). Most people are iodine-deficient and should be taking a supplement (do a search on "Iodoral" here). I started taking Iodoral in December, and also eat iodine-rich foods like salmon roe. Seafood/seaweed is a good source for iodine but the problem with eating too much of that is potential contamination by mercury and other harmful heavy metals.

I basically follow the recommendations in three books: Anti-cancer, Nourishing Traditions, and The Maker's Diet. Those three line up pretty well and are pretty close to what I've said above.

CrunchyPoodleMama

Also, about this -

How can it be natural taking all those supplements??

I know, I felt the same way, even while I bought literally at least 30 different kinds of supplements within the first few weeks after my diagnosis. Here's my take on that. I am trying to reverse decades of bad eating (all that "low fat, healthy eating" I thought I was doing). My poor body was starved of quite a few key nutrients. I wanted to quickly restore those nutrient stores as best I could. So, yes, in the beginning I was taking a lot of supplements.

However, my goal is to get my nutrients from real food... so I have gradually tapered off supplements. Now, the only ones I take every day are Iodoral (iodine) and vitamin D. Even with the vitamin D, I am transitioning to take cod liver oil instead of a capsule (and as the days get longer, I intend to spend more time in the sun).

JennyB100104

Thanks for starting this thread. I'd visited the other one a few times & have been pretty overwhelmed by all the info. Anyway, I have a couple of questions:

How can you find out if you're iodine deficient? My breast surgeon found 2 thyroid nodules, too, so I think there might be something important in here for me.... My thyroid seems to be working very well, though.

Have there been studies linking artificial sweeteners to cancer? I know there have been w/ saccharin, but what about the others?

Thanks. I was raised as a vegetarian eating mostly home garden foods & organically grown foods from the co-op and local health food store. And yes, I still got breast cancer at 39, and so did my step-mom at 54, and she is the most obsessed person I've ever met about purity in her diet. As in, she only drinks water caught directly from the sky ;-) & food grown in her 100% organic garden. It's enough to make one cynical...but it's such a complicated process and who knows what might have happened to her if she didn't take such good care of herself....

She got that a lot, though, after she was diagnosed: "YOU? How could you have breast cancer?" As if it was proof to the people surrounding her that it was no use taking the time/energy to eat healthily if all that happened was that you ended up with breast cancer anyway. It really upset her.

CrunchyPoodleMama

Jenny, I am running out the door, but aspartame ABSOLUTELY causes tumors (as well as accelerates their growth)... I'll pull the research if someone doesn't have a chance to do it before I get back. I thought Splenda would be better but the chlorine aspect is scary and I'm not going to ingest it waiting around for them to finally announce in 20 years that it's a carcinogen. I stick with the natural stuff... stevia in my herbal tea and VERY small amounts of other natural sweeteners like pure maple syrup and honey (I won't even consume them until after all the remaining cancer cells are out of my body though).

BTW, my theory is that a vegetarian/vegan diet leaves your body starved of very important cancer-fighting nutrients. I was diagnosed after several years as a raw vegan and I know others as well.

carol1949

I would like to suggest a few books and tapes that I found most helpful.  Information passed on from a friend who is a 12 year survivor and she did it without chemo or rads.  Also no prescription drugs!

Louise Hay - You Can Heal Your Life

Julie Cameron - The Artist's Way

Anything by Caroline Myss, Deepak Chopra, Bernie Seagel,

Beating Cancer With Nutrition by Dr. Patrick Quillin

Good Luck and remember, it is body, mind and spirit!!

JennyB100104

Ah, I found a study on aspartame & cancer. Interesting stuff. Are there any other significant studies? What about studies on splenda?

 http://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/members/2005/8711/8711.html

hymil

Thanks Julia. i got talking to a dietician and i'm wrong about the dairy thing, She said fat is bad but soya is worse if you have been ER+. Being too fat (actually she talked about BMI because she is polite) is also definitely bad. Not rocket science and I am trying to lose, aren't we all. Then Rice-milk was mentioned, well i looked in the supermarket tonight and it was milk milk milk or soya milk. And not a word on the labels about what the cows had to eat, i'm so naive i just though they all ate grass....

I think my great grandparents probably died of a famine or typhoid (if it wasn't the Crimean war, and one was shipwrecked) they would laugh silly at the choices we have to make these days! But my neighbours downstairs would be very cross if i woke them up at 4am getting up like my G-gp's had to, to milk the cows....

Jenny, Overwhelmed is a good word, It is exactly how i feel. You do your best to make simple sustainable affordable changes and just come away with a headache.    rant over.

Carol, thank you, I will chase those up.

MsBliss

I have learned and been reminded of some very important things in this new thread....thank you all, and especially to you Crunchy...you have reminded me to get back to basics. 

hymil

You're right MsBliss I had missed Crunchy's great reminder to spend more time in the sun. Now you can't get much cheaper than that.. although it's not always available in the UK! That's my happy-job for tomorrow then.