do you really think diet can change our faith

Mamita49,

 do you mean Fate instead of Faith?

I am not a "nature girl" and I don't think that a change in diet can reverse what a lifetime of different choices has produced, but I think it can help! also I know that doctors who have gone through medical school in the united states learn very little about nutrition.  Over the last few decades we in the US, I don't know about Canada, have allowed our food supply to be adulterated. If it isn't the chemicals used in the actual production of the food, it is chemicals in the food containers.

Like you, I am trying to eat better, for me that means less processed and more locally produced foods. It just makes good sense. lets hope it helps us both!

Julie E

I've been posting this pdf link all over the place the last couple of days - I've read through it so many times.  To me it feels like one more weapon against cancer. 

http://cancer.ucsf.edu/crc/nutrition_breast.pdf

Of course a diet high in fruit, all colors of vegetables, whole grains, and the right fats in small amounts combined with daily exercise is not a guarantee that you won't have recurrence, but it can reduce your risk.  Mortality in survivors was reduced as much as 50% by one study listed in the pdf.  By the way, chemo, tamoxifen and AI's are not a guarantee, either.  They also only reduce your risk of recurrence.

Then we agree. 

There are also three excellent books on this subject that I recommend:

Anti cancer A New Way of Life by Dr. David Servan-Schreiber,

Foods to Fight Cancer by Richard Beliveau, and

Life Over Cancer by Dr. Keith Block. 

All are written by doctors or medical researchers who believe that diet and lifestyle are a vital part of cancer treatment. 

Timothy and Rabbit_Fan!

we have a rabbit too, he is a very small black bunny with one white paw. Infact, he eats healthy with me,  We share boxes of organic baby romaine or mixed spring lettuce from BJ's Warehouse everyweek. 

Julie E

Hi Timothy and Julie - Oh my gosh, I could bore you to tears about my rabbit, I'm sure!

I think she's a Havana rabbit - we got her at the shelter.  She's a little bigger than I wanted (I thought a dwarf would be nice too), but I still love her!  I think she weighs about 3 1/2 - 4 pounds.

She has so much personality - I would never have guessed that about rabbits.  I can't really pick her up because it's a little too awkward for me, but my husband can - he picks her up and holds her in his lap and pets her and she honks like a goose!  Really!  It's hilarious.  And she has a pet hedgehog stuffed animal that she grooms a lot - so cute!

Julie, your rabbit sounds cute - and lucky - ours only gets organic lettuce once in a while.

Timothy - I'm going to go try to find your wife's picture.  OK - found it - only one Bev holding a rabbit .  She looks cute - I wish our rabbit was a little easier to handle - I can only pet her on the floor.  But, she knows that I never pick her up, so when I go to pet her, she totally relaxes and stretches out because she's not worried.  When my husband approaches her she stays a lot more on guard.  So I'll take that as a trade-off.

Go rabbits!

Sounds like we need a rabbit club!

oh Timothy, too funny! the photo you attached came out huge so all I could see at first was part of the print in the background and the crook of your arm, but I figured there was a bunny in there somewhere, I just had to scroll around to find it and did I let out a hoot when I found her?!

Julie E

OK - I tried on a different computer and oh my gosh, Timothy!  I can't believe you can get your rabbit to wear a dress!  I love the little arm sticking out.  How cute - she looks like a real sweetie!

I'm realizing more and more how important diet is, not just to our health as in whether we have disease or not, but our well-being and happiness, too. I thought I had eaten healthfully in my 20's... I usually had a salad with chemical-laden dressing for lunch, and a Lean Cuisine for dinner. I thought I was healthy because I was thin (oh, to be that thin again!). In reality, all those chemicals were anything BUT good for my body. Oh, I was also a caffeine junkie so I'd have energy to get through the day... also not good. A cup or two a day, no problem... but I was drinking buckets of it.

I did a radical 180-degree turnaround when I was first told I had bc... I had fallen so far off the wagon, the wagon had backed up and run over me a few times... when I switched to eating mostly organic vegetables, raw or lightly steamed, with some good anti-cancer nuts, seeds, grains, etc., I was amazed at how much I felt physically difference -- very quickly, too, within just a few days. Another thing I wasn't expecting (I'm sure thanks to quitting caffeine) is that I'm sleeping a lot better too. I've been a lifelong insomniac, until these last couple of weeks.

Okay, I have to say... I am SO jealous of all the rabbit-parents here. My husband and I would LOVE a bunny... but we suspect our Poodles would love one too... as a chew toy or a snack. Can't put a sweet bunny through that, so I have to live vicariously through the lucky rabbit owners here!

What a little cutie,Pill!  I love the shaggy flop-over ears.  I know what you mean about the yawning.  I think it's because they have tiny little mouths with a few big teeth - they are the cutest!

How about the possibility that the answer is as individual as our breast cancers?  In other words, with some forms of bc in some individuals diet changes can make a difference; with others it won't.

Or the possibility that it can make a difference, but only when pursued to a degree that some women don't totally grasp or are not willing to go?  What I mean by that is, prior to being dx'd, many of us (me included) considered ourselves health conscious because we ate nourishing food rather than packaged, junk or fast food, got regular exercise, and took nutritional supplements.  But in retrospect, that's a far cry from a vegan or plant based diet, eliminating all sugars, getting extreme exercise, being up on and using many of the cutting edge supplements, and other changes that those who feel diet can make a difference probably would advocate.

Or how about the possibility that diet may factor into our ability to prevent an initial bc dx or a recurrence -- as long as it's not overridden by more problematic lifestyle factors, such as getting too much estrogen or maintaining a few too many pounds (because they contribute to too much estrogen), exposure to known carcinogens or other chemicals, or living with constant stress?

Obviously, none of us has the complete answer, but these are some of the questions I've asked myself as I continue to make significant changes, because I am one of those who knows we can't control everything, but still chooses to control what I can and what a lot of emerging research says may make a difference.   Deanna

Growing up - my mom was a horrible cook, and we were allowed to eat tons of junk and drink soda everyday. Once I moved out of my parents house I discovered "real" food. Went back to the land and had huge gardens, my own chickens / eggs and made my own jams. Then I discovered miso, tofu, seaweed and organic everything. I did yoga and meditated and lived in the country. Thought for sure I didn't ever need to worry about cancer anything.

I was so sure that I would never have to 'go there' that I had never had a mammogram until.... I felt a large lump on my left breast. They insisted I have a mammogram along with an ultrasound. The lump turned out to be a benign cyst... but because of my "lucky lump" they found the 3 tiny calcification's that turned out to be cancerous.

OH< and no one in either side of my family had ever had BC. Go figure.

I will still eat as healthy as possible, and will drink green tea everyday once I am done with radiation. I will exercise everyday and think happy thoughts. BUT, have learned that you can't take anything for granted, and am working on being grateful for everyday. Ya Never Know....

I have such HUGE mixed feelings on this.

As a dietitian, I honestly feel that what and how we eat plays a role.  Having said that, I was vegetarian for over a decade, ate more fruits and vegetables than a human is known to, exercised more than required, had a BMI of 19, had NO cancer in my family....(what am I leaving out?)...I do drink wine with my dinner...and still do....

I got breast cancer.

My twin (fraternal) is overweight, exercises when the mood strikes her, eats processed food and enough junk food to keep a small country in business......no cancer.  She also drank up until last year.  She was also on birth control pills till 50. 

I confess that since the diagnosis and since I had already done it all "right" and since the weight gain from tamoxifen....I still exercise; I still TRY to eat right...but I will never deprive myself.

Life is short and clearly, cancer is a crap shoot.  It's my story; I'm sticking to it.