Huffington Post article by Dr. Weiss

I never ate that much dairy or red meat. (Did drink a lot of milk as a kid). I do eat yogurt and low fat cheese but not a lot. Maybe that contributed to my osteopenia.

I don't think removing things from our diet completely is the answer but going organic seems to be a better solution. Chicken too has hormones and we don't want to talk about all the crap in fish.

Seems you can't win

Well guys my father didn't have any periods at all and he still got bc...  (good thing I have a sense of humor).  but seriously there will be more genetic connections found in the future and although I am not suggesting that hormones in food are good for us, the human body has had to deal with so much over a lifetime the diseases find the weakest point in our armor and some of us get bc some lung problem some neurological so it's a crap shoot!!!  I think we can make a personal difference to our lives if we TRY to eat better, excersice and sleep well (not to mention have a good sex life) but it's not a guarantee of anything and it's most certainly is not a cure - but perhaps it can help us be in our lives more fully..  (as was mentioned above the word cure in this context doesn't make any sesne at all!)  And let's face it, we all have to die from something (unless someone knows something they're not telling).   So I certainly wouldn't have a problem with her article IF it was directed at people in general and perhaps young people more specifically.. It (the article) has no real consequence when it comes to curing anything IMO.   But perhaps this is where the pink stuff is taking us BECAUSE they have no cure?  After all this time and money they are coming up with excuses for us getting cancer instead of focusing on finding a cause and a cure..  That's what the politicians do - blame the people - why wouldn't a powerful organization like the pink thing not end up with the blame game!

I must say I do agree with the milk not tasking very good. I remember when I lived in the chicago area here was a local farm that believe it or not still delivered milk to peoples homes. I taught at a private school at the time, and some of the kids would bring milk for snack, and boy was that great  tasting milk I have no idea if it was hormone free or not, but wouldn't be surprised if it was. By the way this was just 9 years ago.

I also agree just buying organics wrapped in plastic is not the way to go. I go to a local natural foods store. It costs so much more, but it's my life I am fighting for now. I have also grown my own vegetables and frozen them for the winter months.

I teach a public speaking class, and during the lecture on "persuasion" we talk about the use of statistics. I tell my students that a number is a number is a number. But that number can be twisted any way you want to mean whatever you want it to mean. Take the familiar statistic "4 out of 5 doctors recommend..." Who are those four doctors, exactly? Is one a podiatrist, a psychiatrist, a pediatrician and an ob-gyn? And why doesn't that fifth doctor agree with the other four - what does he know that they don't know? Why isn't is unanimous? And if it is unanimous, why? Couldn't they find anyone who disagreed?

Research is important. As humans we need to understand WHY something happens or why we have to do something ("Because I said so" only works until your kid is 2 years old, and that's if you're lucky). But it's up to us to interpret the research in ways that are meaningful to our own situations. 

The same goes for separating fact from opinion... I use an example in class of a chair, asking the students to give me some facts about the chair I point out. They say things like, four legs, plastic, metal, on the table, blue. Most of those can be proven as facts. But we discuss the color of the chair when someone points out that it's blue. I say it looks more like a gray to me. So saying the chair is blue is an opinion. But saying the chair is not white...that's a fact.

Sometimes the lines between fact and opinion get blurred, and the numbers get all jumbly, because we want to make sense of it. The reality is...it's very subjective, so use what pertains to you, because that's what matters most anyway. IMO  

I'll give stonyfield this...they have the lowest calorie frozen yogurt that does not have artificial sweetners. The whole pint has 440 calories in the vanilla.

Listen not all BC women think alike. And I actually like that.

Listen as a fairly young survivor...42 at DX...almost all of my YSC peers here in NYC are slender and active.

Three of us who stayed in the same summer house got cancer..2 breast, one pancreatic. But it's in a fairly rural area on the water. Go figure.

Saying milk is organic doesn't necessarily mean it has no hormones. Just means it didn't eat other animals as its food base (in other words, was grain fed). Also, you have to take into consideration "homogenization". That changes the taste of milk, too.

I still don't see where the article tells my daughter how to prevent cancer. That's the whole point.

I do like Joans' post about fact! VERY good points!!

Apple:  Thanks for posting the article for us.  Enjoy your mommydaughter time today.

I am worried this brochure will mislead people into thinking, why work for a cure?  When breast cancer is easily preventable.  The title of the brochure is "Breast Cancer Prevention:  A Huge Missed Opportunity."

I also was surprised that Stoneyfield was sponsoring this, as a lot of people I talk to here avoid dairy, along with red meat.  But I guess it is profitable for them to tell women they can prevent breast cancer by going organic. 

And the statement that women are missing out on the protective effects of pregnancy?  There is a new study I read here on BCO that suggests women who have several pregnancies are more likely to get triple negative BC, as compared to those who have no pregnancies.  

The last time I was at my surgeon's office, there was a women being diagnosed with TNBC who has just had her sixth child.  Many women are diagnosed with TNBC while nursing an infant.

I guess my point is, we really, really don't know yet what causes breast cancer.  There is so much conflicting information out there.  This brochure suggests there is a lot we can do to prevent ourselves from getting breast cancer, but I am not convinced.  We still need a cure.

I think I finally figured out what bugged me about this article! It's what I would call "blowing smoke up your butt". They aren't saying a lot of anything! Just using the words you expect to hear in this kind of a topic, stringing them along in some kind of sentence form and then just spitting them out. No sense. Nonsense.

It's like if you were told to do a story on a tsumani:

First you would think of all the words that belong in a story about a tsunami:

earthquake, registered, severe damage, collateral damage, lives lost, homes ruined, epicentre, after temours, after quakes, property damage, hospitals put to the test, emergency teams overloaded, power loss, food tainted or destroyed, wave projections, animation, synthesized movement, anticipated water levels, warnings, holy shit getoutoftheway!!!!

Then, string them all along into a proper sentence and do or don't have a climax. Was there a tsunami? I don't know, didn't you read the story?

Is there a prevention? I don't know and I DID read the story!?!?!?!

delete

Fluoride is actually a bi-product of something else being made (of which I forget) and they didn't know what to do with it. They found that fluoride helps make teeth strong so they dumped it in the water systems. Nothing proves that fluoride on the outside of your teeth helps, but hey it didn't hurt I guess.

In England they don't dump the fluoride and they have terrible teeth (watch those TV shows) but they also get bc....okay...it's not the fluoride....NEXT!!!

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/gossip/2011/03/laurie-david-breast-cancer-think-pink-live-green.html

It seems like the "think pink, live green" may be a big movement,  There are a lot of celebrities involved in this.

Konakat: It does make me wonder also.

O.K. so do I have this right?

1. Don't put fluoride in the water because leads to cancer; BUT don't put fluoride in the water and it leads to worse dental hygiene, worse dental hygiene leads to gum infections, which lead to germs getting into the blood stream and causing heart attacks!

2. don't eat meat or chicken because they are pumped full of hormones, or fish because they are full of all the chemicals pumped into the water as sewage. BUT you need protein in order to be healthy. So you eat soy, BUT that may increase your risk for BC.

3. Eat lots of fruits and vegetables...yikes, they are all sprayed with pesticides.....and I really can not wash each lettuce leaf individually without losing what is left of my sanity!!!! and I can not afford to buy everything organic...I can barely afford to buy the tainted fruits and vegetables at the store!

4. Don't drink milk because (I can't even remember why on that one), BUT you need calcium or your bones will collapse AND you need the vitamin D in dairy products because without it you increase your risk of developing all sorts of problems including breast cancer.

5. You should drink a glass of red wine nightly for heart health. OH NO, you should not...increase your risk of developing breast cancer.

6. Start early and have a ton of kids and breast feed them all to decrease the risk of breast cancer, BUT WAIT, that increases risk of triple negative breast cancer.....plus multiple pregnancies, close together can increase the risk of many of complications of pregnancy, tooth loss (back to the heart attack), post-partem depression for the mother, and low birth weight, and birth defects in the baby......to say nothing of the problems of having 6 children in diapers, with drivers permits, paying for college etc. etc. as they go along in life.

7. Have kids when you're older or not at all....increases the risk of  BC.

8. Take BC pills and you'll increase the risk of BC. Don't use birth control.....then you have the taboo abortion issue or refer to number 6 for the problems associated with pregnancy/childbirth/motherhood!

9. Be too fat, increases the risk of BC. Be too thin, increases the risk of osteoporosis.

9. Take HRT, increases the risk of BC. Don't take HRT increases the risk of all the other health problems a person is prone to without the benefits that estrogen does give to a woman's body.

Did I miss anything?

My bottom line;You can't change your past, it really doesn't matter what you should have done or not done. You lived how you lived. PERIOD. Certainly it is good to point out to young women in our lives that (for instance) they should watch their alcohol intake (although I doubt many will listen to that or any other advice because, of course, kids have always 'lived in the moment' and feel invincible), and it is, of course, smart for us to get some exercise, eat more natural and less processed food, maintain a healthy weight, support causes and candidates that are pro-environement etc. etc. But I think to DWELL on all the woulda/shoulda stuff sucks all the enjoyment right out of life. From my experience, what I want to take from it is.....how much good can I do, how many fun and interesting memories can I make with my family and friends, how many sunsets can I watch, how many good books can I read. Really, I want my focus to be, 'How fully can I live?"

There is my rant/speech on this topic!

LOL Ruth.  I thought of some of those and more, but you put it so well.  We can't win so let's just eat healthy-ish and within our budget and enjoy life.

Ruth I too have been thinking the same. Half the "don't do's" need to be studied further. Just read an article today on "Should you go paraben-free?" that I found rather interesting. Lots of inconclusive info out there.

I have read over and over again "the sugar feeds cancer" is a myth too… granted sugar isn't good for you anyway. You can drive yourself crazy. So you do all this stuff to prevent cancer then die of something else because you weren't getting the right neutrients. Bottom line, be healthy both in body and mind. I still think (work) stress was the worst thing I did to myself over the past 8 years.

BTW the milk thing is because those cows injected with hormones will also have it in their milk.