Cancer is an opportunity to change the way you eat
The best thing I did during my "year of cancer" in 2012 was to visit a nutritionist {who works in the same medical group as my oncologist}.
I had become a pescatarian in 2004 following my bout with cervical cancer at age 38. When invasive breast cancer hit me in 2012, I decided to further take the reigns of one of the few precious things I could control: diet.
So many questions. No sugar or little sugar? A lemon a day? Which foods should I load up on? What about organic? What about carbs? What about soy? What about dairy? What about seafood? What about vegetarianism or veganism?
The reality is no one is 100% sure today about the exact link between diet and breast cancer. I was told the best thing to do was to gather the opinions of an oncolgogist and a nutritionist and follow the ongoing advice of Dr Weil and Dr Oz. I was told the single most important thing to do is buy organic. I was told a moderate dose of whole soy foods may prevent breast cancer {tofu, tempeh, soy milk, edamame}. But highly processed foods with soy protein isolates and concentrates are probably best avoided {most vegan meats}. I was told cancer can't live without sugar. I was told yogurt is a good thing to eat daily. I was told my pescatarian diet, newly tweaked by eschewing processed foods, and focusing on whole foods, yes even whole grains, was very good. I was told to focus on anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory foods. I was told the alkalyze theory is bunk yet consuming a lemon a day is a very good thing. I was told to take all this information and create a diet that I can be personally comfortable with and at peace with.
Despite how frightening and brutal cancer is, I have decided to find a silver lining: cancer is an opportunity to change the way you eat. Whatever that personally means to you. I have started a food blog - documenting all the recipes I am making as part of my new "cooking-from-scratch" way of life. I hope you'll check it out and even more importantly, I hope if you are reading this and are newly facing cancer or like me, afraid of a recurrence, you'll see a qualified nutritionist.
xoxo - Jill {www.savorysweetandspicy.blogspot.com}
Comments
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Jill, you have a lovely blog. But, I was surprised to find so much sugar. flour, corn syrup. grain, brown sugar. in the recipes. As a cancer survivor, I have committed to a ketogenic diet and I'm always looking for great low carb recipes. I will have to look through your blog some more, but I wanted to share these articles with you.
http://www.greenmedinfo.com/blog/cancer-sugar-strategy-selective-starvation-cancer
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2013/03/10/ketogenic-diet.aspx
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Those recipes look really good. Beautiful blog. I am not doing a ketogenic diet, but I do limit sugar, white carbs and high-fat dairy, so unfortunately most of your recipes are not really good for me either.
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