ER+ ladies, what do you eat?

Holy cow.  And this is what grade?

I grew up on open sanwiches of sardines with a sliced tomato on top.  They are very "fishy" but good.

There's a Dr where I live - at a well respected large academic medical center who focuses on complimentary medicine and a friend of mine who is stage 4 went to him.  His advice to her on food/supplements sounded odd to me and was different from what I had read in anti-cancer, etc.  I asked a fam med doc that I'm friends with what he thought.  He said because there's really not a lot of proven scientific info on what works, what doesn't, so there can't be a real standard of practice.  Everyone has different ideas and can suggest almost any line of what not to do/what to do and why.  You kind of have to go on trust. 

Once you unserstand just what cancer is and how it spreads itself, it is easier to sort out which foods are helpful by looking at what they do or do not do.

Thanks for that input, ladies. I will see if any of my BC docs/nurses have any info when I see them again over the next two months, but I totally hear what you are saying about needing to continue researching the relationships between foods and the specific cancer's "appetite".



My internist who just saw me (for my annual PE) for the first time since I was diagnosed last August, listened to my concerns about this while comforting me in my fragile "just off rads and nervously getting set to start Tamoxifen" state, while trying to integrate this whole experience. While she, at first, had no idea what to tell me other than to bring it up with my MO, suggested that I wait until next month when I have a week off from work to "revamp" my eating plan, after doing all of my research. She knows what a demanding job I have and could tell from my presentation that I needed a little break from the self-induced pressure, especially since I am just off an intense four months of treatment while working full-time. So I will be trying to understand all of this better. This is a part of the process that is not so much discussed ....the "self care to prevent recurrence" part so I really appreciate this site and specifically this conversation. You are all so helpful!



Obviously sugar is a huge culprit. I do use Stevia and would be very happy if it contributed to "stabilization" of sugar levels. By the way, FLwarrior, I found that I needed to try different brands of Stevia before settling on one that didn't' have an artificial taste to me. I use pure stevia extract from a little expensive bottle from Trader's....not to be confused with the stevia packets they also sell, which I recently also purchased for handbag convenience. Mistake! Yucky taste to me ....had some fillers. So I will stick to what works.

I found a book called The Pink Ribbon Diet which spells out the research behind various foods and has some really nice recipes. I'm trying to follow it as much as possible.

I think you could drive yourself crazy with what to eat (yes, I do...)   Estrogenic, non estrogenic---ARGH! 

But there are misconceptions about milk.  First, raw milk has been consumed for thousands of years and those cultures that live on it have not had breast cancer the way we do today.  The modern dairy is a disgusting place - cows are pumped with milk producing hormones --they get away with having the barns and machinery dirty because after all, it will eventually be pasteurized (by the way, there are more instances of listeria and disease from pasteurized milk than raw milk from certified raw milk dairies -raw milk dairies are forced by law to have much cleaner equiptment, cleaner animals and cleaner udders!)   Urine and feces from cows makes it way into milk when the dairies know they're going to be pasteurizing it anyway.  The excess hormones frequently cause mastitis, so add pus to the concoction.  The cows are being fed an unnatural diet of grain instead of grass, the way they are supposed to.  (Grass actually increases a certain acid in the milk, that protects the milk itself from spoiling.  I've had raw milk last in my fridge for two weeks sometimes!  It also has protective bacteria and probiotics in it  - a newborn calf needs that!)   Unfortunately, milk from large commercial dairies is mostly the kind of milk that is consumed by the general public today.  When they do the breast cancer studies, this is the milk they are using as their basis since it is most widely available.  I don't think there have been ANY studies on raw, grassfed  milk and breast cancer.

We have been drinking raw milk for a couple of years and we have seen a decrease in cavities for the kids and me as well as a definite measurable decrease in colds and stomach flus for all four kids.  Raw milk calcium is properly absorbed by the body, unlike pasteurized milk, in which the pasteurization changes the chemistry of the milk itself.   Raw milk contains enzymes that are killed in the pasteurization process. 

If you don't have access to a raw milk dairy, at least be sure the milk you are purchasing does not have hormones or antibiotics in it (the antibiotics come into play when the cows develop mastitis due to the enlargement of their udders because of the hormones).  If they change and enlarge the udder tissue of cows, isn't it reasonable to imagine they are NOT very good for OUR mammary tissue if we're drinking the milk?

Sam's club, I believe, has milk that doesn't have bovine growth hormones added and certain producers of yogurt and such don't have hormones (I think Dannon and Yoplait claim to be "hormone safe" but I'm not positive.)

Chicken:   I don't eat a lot meat.  However, while chickens may have problems (I was recently reading about arsenic in the feed!)  it is against federal law to utilize growth hormones or antibiotics in poultry.  I don't know if they follow it however.  We have a flock of 35 chickens and from time to time, we have had to treat them with antibiotics -the whole flock.  This has been only once or twice in the past three or four years and it's very rare since mine free range.  There is a certain amount of time you have to wait for the meat and eggs to be "clear" of the medication.  I don't know if that is true for the commercial chicken farms (IE if being clear of antibiotics and hormones is the same as "no antibiotics used")   I do know that most day old  chicks are injected with a Merek's vaccine.  I have tried to get my birds from places that do not vaccinate but my latest batch of egg layers were vaccinated at the hatchery.  I don't know if the vaccine is detrimental to people or not.......

 Beef comes back to the same problem - hormones used for rapid growth.  I don't eat beef at all - unless I can get a good piece of grass fed beef without anything bad in it.  I will say that this is only VERY rarely because it's just too doggone expensive!   I have also found, even before breast cancer, that beef always gave me a stomach ache....just about every time.  Beef is actually a very inflammatory food especially if it's grain fed and not grass fed, so that's a reason for me to stay away from it - because I just don't feel good when I eat it. 

If you're looking for a cereal alternative, I've been doing this these past couple of days:  throwing a handful of almonds and walnuts into the blender.  Blend until course but not powdered  Add some raisins or small blueberries -- stevia and/or agave and you have granola!     Sort of....it's close enough for me, and it doesn't give me the sugar spike/low that real cereal does.   

I try to add some kind of raw juice every day, usually kale and organic carrot.  I really like "Better Than Boullion" to make fast soup - it is available in a jar in the soup section of the store or healthfood store.  they have organic and inorganic versions.  That with sea weed makes a good soup, or at least I think so!   I order my seaweed from a place called "Florida Herb House" - They are online and will ship and are reasonable and good! 

I've changed my eating habits a lot since breast cancer.  I don't pretend to claim that my cancer will never come back, but at least changing my diet makes me FEEL better physically in however many days I have on this earth!  

For what it's worth I have found the powdere Stevia from Trader Joe's to not take weird.  I use it in my coffee and I don't get that fake sweetener taste that I did with the stevia in packets. 

What to eat and not to eat is so confusing.  I appreciate all you tips.

I use Stevia in the Raw

You're welcome dancetrancer. I use the site all the time. I printed the foods to eat list and the foods to avoid list and have it in my purse and on my fridge. When I go shopping if there are two things that I have cravings for and one is on the foods to eat list and the other is not on any list then I usually pick the one that is on the foods to eat list.

I try to eat as much from the foods to eat list as possible. 

I planted some stevia in my herb garden last year.  You wouldn't believe how sweet those leaves are when you bite into them! You can just bruise them a little in your fingers and put them in your tea, like you do with mint leaves.  I meant to put some in my Vitamix smoothies and see how that worked, but never did.  Maybe this year.