What foods are you eating to reduce recurrence?
Comments
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Moline, my surgeon suggested avoiding soy with ER+
I am trying to eat more fresh fruits and vegetables, mostly vegetables. The biggest change for me is drinking lots of water, no lemon to save tooth enamel (and acidic foods hurt me during and after chemo)
I am also reducing portions of carbs.
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Sharon look up Biotrust Protein Powder. It is what I use. When I make smoothie.
Melissa, I have also used my version of higher protein lower carbs, I call it my version because I add fruits and lots of veggies from the start. I had lost 40 lbs (gained 6 back while in hosp for 3rd excision of left breast/ lost TE and my pity comfort carb fest that ensued) I go back to chemo for #2 tomorrow and am back on tract as of today. I am trying to lower the weight also because of the estrogen/fat connection. I hope to lose another 40 lbs. If you want to exchange recipes etc , let me know. My only exc has been walking , but not have done much due to surgeries basically had at least 1 every month.
Vivian -
Musical- Just double checking, is the NZ meat you mention ( is that New Zealand meat) or is NZ short for something else. Just wanted to pass along your post to a friend but clarify this for me-thanks.
TED- I have to agree on the Dr Oz thing. He is after all a cardiologist so most of his expertise is in that area. His dietary suggestions may or may not be of help to us. For crying out loud he just had a whole show all about other uses for " Vodka" , it was so ridiculous. Why put this on your face when a cheap alternative is just as good. Totally TV ratings led.
I must add that last week I was tempted and went AWOL and ate a big tin of salted peanuts- I love them, however they do not love my gut. It has taken a week to get back to normal so we are all different. In 2006 I totally changed my bad diet and non soda -no alchohol habit but am still fighting re-occurrence this year.
The one thing I do know is that I had gained more than 25 lbs since first diagnosed. So my advice is keep track of your weight regardless of age. FYI my MO and RO think I should not restrict myself at all. Go figure.
I will be trying that Tumeric soon though regardless of what they say...ha.. -
Melissa I agree that getting your weight down is most likely a good idea. I wasn't even super-heavy at DX, at least not by BMI charts and the like. I was, however, the heaviest I have ever been in my life, except for pregnancy (where I gained a lot). I dropped about 25 lbs since then, and it has made a big difference in how I feel as well as made a difference in my fasting glucose. -
Momine, when I got close to thirty pounds down I started having some mild hot flashes and I haven't had them since my hysterectomy, so I believe the weight loss is truly lowering my estrogen levels too. -
Melissa, that is interesting about the hot flashes. I also wanted to add that whereas there isn't much research that definitely "proves" one dietary approach over another, other than the general idea of eating lots of veggies, there does seem to be quite a lot of evidence at this point that at least strongly suggests that exercise may help keep cancer away. -
Exercise - exactly what my oncologist says. Diet and walking helped me loose some pounds plus the walking became easier and more enjoyable. It certainly helps my joints taking AI.
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What a great thread! I am pretty new here, just recovering from my BMx. I learn so much from you ladies! I have always tried to eat healthy, it has recently been elevated to a higher priority (since my dx).
A good source for info is http://www.food2live4.com. Pam there is a good friend of mine. Nutrition is her life. I still haven't told her about my BC but plan to soon to have her help educate me. She has introduced me to Thai Young Coconuts which are great for other health things (not sure how it relates to BC). Please chime in if anyone uses these.
I also use a nutri bullet which is less then $100 and super easy to clean! Easy way to get kale, spinach and raw nuts in you body! Thanks again for all the great posts. -
of course all views are welcome. My personal take is that doctors are very reluctant to comment about specific diets are better bc this is a lengthy conversation and controversial. Most just believe in research done by doctors. In a 15 minute consult they don't want to get into these topics. No one would give me a straightforward answer about what diet I should follow. My medical and surgical oncologiist both have said that people have exercise is beneficial and improves outcomes. the truth is every body is different.
@mcbeach i have been reading alot about the benefits of coconut oil and coconut water (everyhing coconut). there's actually a whole bunch of fb pages devoted to coconuts. Anyways I bought a glass jar of virgin organic coconut oil and have been cooking with it. I actually like it alot. It looks like vegetable shortening but is supposed to very helathy. There's even a lady who listed 101 benefits of coconut oil. Just google it. I have been using it all other the body and it is has worked great for cracked heals. One benefit I read in the 101 benefit is about OIL PULLING. I google and watched a whole bunch of youtube videos about it. I started doing today. Please if anyone else is using coconut oil or oil pulling please share your experience.
On a side note: as I was researching about benefits about oil pulling I saw that it might be good for candida (its anti-fungal). Right before the BC dx I was having alot of yeast infections. I have only had a few times before. As I mentioned before the cravings for sweets was very intense right before dx. As Dr. Mercola mentions sugar is no good. In my case I was intensely exercisng so I started indulging in eating desserts. I loved to bake and since I thought I would just go to the gym and burn it off. sometimes I just eat dessert and skip the meal. I definitely think that it is linked to the aggressive and high grade tumor. Unfortunately I started exercise for vain reasons and so that I can indulge my sweet tooth. I was more careful about eating sweets and junk food when I wasn't exercising. I definitely miss the sweets but I try to avoid all together bc I find it hard to have a small piece of cakie or 1 cookie. I need to have the whole box (especially the entenmanns chocolate chip cookies)
Anyways, I think it is very important in my case that I pay attention to nutrition and to what I'm putting into my body. -
I use coconut oil for lots of things. I cook with it-sauté vegetables with it, I use it as a skin moisturizer and on my hair. I use coconut water in my smoothies. Even before the bc I was using it and I really enjoy it -
I try to eat food that is closer to the way God made it and always have. Butter over margarine, eggs over Eggbeaters, that kind of thing. Never have eaten enough veggies though and that will have to change. I completely stopped buying the big bottles of veg oil years ago and use only EVOO, EVCO (coconut), butter and some lard. My biggest problem is and always has been sweets, but the second that I suspected BC I stopped completely, and besides, my blood sugar is climbing. My BMI ranges anywhere from 27-30 and has been closer to the high end for the last couple of years but I simply can't seem to lose weight, even with low carb, low cal, or any other plan and then I get tired and probably stop short. Anyway, enough about that--I haven't read thru all the posts but has anyone tried broccoli sprouts yet? They are supposed to be potent little cancer fighters and I now have a little jar growing on my windowsill. They taste very strongly of sulfur and that's supposed to be another nutrient that we're deficient in and it gets very little attention these days. -
After reading this, I'm re-evaluating my multi-vite avoidance (tried several brands and all tend to make me nauseated). -
Claire, that is sort of interesting. Go figure! -
i wasnt taking any multivitamins at the time of dx. i also didnt eat a variety of veggies. Brings to mind the popeye - the sailorman from childhood cartoons. Spinach is really good for you...just like an apple an day may keep the doctor away.
There is also a study that says that women whose vitamin D levels are low have an higher incidence of breast cancer. -
I am going through chemo right now and the only supplement my MO will allow while on chemo is vitamin D. Each time he meets with me he makes it a point of asking me if I am taking it. He cited the study. -
Hello ladies, any of you ladies having seafood part of your diet? Like crab, shrimps, clams or oysters). Thanks
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Why would you not Soriya? It is good lean protein. -
I just want to weigh in here. You can be skinny and fat and have low bmi. The issue with BC is body fat not weight ! so i would recommend adding weights to exercise routine, you will build muscle, and increase metabolism by doing this which in turn with burn more fat. So weights plus endurance. I have seen skinny or low weight people have high body fat %. So remember when you lose weight you lose muslce also but by doing weights it stimulates the body to build or hold on to the muscle and burn fat.
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GrammyR, sorry I havent checked back in here til now as I forgot to add to favs.
Yes I meant New Zealand meat and meant it in the context that I'm from NZ. There's a lot more specifically I could write on this, but I'll clarify these points. Basically where possible Hubby and I grow our own meat (lamb). We know what goes into it. WOuld be nice to raise our own beef too but that cant happen for now. Most NZ beef is grass fed, as is lamb BUT, we do have what we call "store sheep" and the last I heard was export only. These store sheep are grain fed.
Now, long story short - anything grain fed, whether in NZ or not, eg pork, is VERY liekly to be fed stock feed that has at least some GE ingredients. The worst of these, and I call it a HUGE big deal, is soy. We get it in chicken feed and all types of stock feed. Baseline - it's a crime. WHy? 1/Almost all if not all soy imported into NZ is GE. 2/ Even if NONE of it was GE its still a dangerous food and Ive done a lot of looking into this. Soy is in almost everything. There are many toxins in it and its an endocrine disruptor. It is the darling of the food industry and its purported benefits etc are protected at all costs. Suffice it to say, the more you dig into the insidious soy story the more red flags go up. It was never fit to feed animals, much less humans.
I try to follow the principle.... Garbage in garbage out. I avoid soy like the plague if at all possible. HTHs
sophie, yea spinach is supposed to be extremely good for you. I love it. We have NZ spinach and it is a perennial. Once you have it you've got it always. Its hardy too and VERY easy to grow. I'm wary about going overboard on the vitamin thing but I strongly believe theres something up with the whole vitamin D3 thing, (Cholercalciferol) the vitamin we get from the sun. This ones easy to join the dots on. For those who care to OPEN their eyes to see what is an undeniable fact, ... a lot of our sun is now blocked out with insidious chemtrails happening everywhere around the world on every continent. Theres other provable factors about VITD3 deficiency worldwide such as lifestyle changes in recent decades like us spending much more time inside. Im not even scratching the surface on chemtrails.
pipers dream I absolutely agree on the "how God made it". If I can help it I wont touch margarine with a barge pole. Someone said its one molecule away from being plastic. LOL WOuldn't surprise me, as thats EXACTLY what it tastes like. Sounds like youre on a similar course to that which Ive chosen. Fortunately sugar is something I don't have too much of a problem with. I don't like sweet things and cant be bothered with cakes and all that. Apparently there is NOTHING good that sugar does for us. We could go without it and be better off. We have our own freerange chooks and the eggs are 2nd to none (if I say so myself). The chooks are NOT NOT NOT fed anything soy. FOrtunately hubby is in a position to check this out as his work involves stock feed. I also scored a huge jar of organic coconut oil from my mum. I use it for moisturizing but havent cooked with it. I use butter and either sheep fat or beef fat. I wouldn't touch cooking oils with a barge pole. There is so much that goes on with the processing of oils it makes your hair stand on end.
The fact is there is sooo much wrong with our foods these days its like navigating a minefield filled with poisons exploding in all directions. -
yes for sure. my landlords, about my age, elderly looking, now go to a gym & have transformed into buff youth like people. -
Thank you MelisaDallas, I am craving for seafood (boiling crab,shrimp n clams),....yum....yum....
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Sophie, just read back 2 pages.
QUOTE
Look there is no talisman or guarantee to protect any of us from cancer.
Look if you believe that no matter what you do you will still get cancer then respectfully go ahead and do as you please. What frustrates me is when somebody tries to burst the bubble for others.
Look anyone of us could be hit a bus and not see tommorrow.
Is it necessary to put down the efforts that some people are making?
UNQUOTE
Who is this directed at? -
Hello All,
I've just read through all the posts, nice to meet you all - interesting thread. I'll share what I'm doing to try and prevent or slow down a recurrence.
Last January hit my all time weight high of 216 lbs. I'm 5'1". I've been overweight since I had my children. I'm going to be 60 years old in Jan.
I started working out with a trainer. Starting to feel better. No significant weight loss. In March had suspicious mammogram followed by biopsies, diagnosed in April, Surgery in May, Chemo all summer, going through radiation now, soon will start on arimidex. Sought out a nutritionist and have been reading a lot on the subject of cancer and nutrition since my diagnosis. Nutritionist diagnosed me with insulin resistance. Has me on a whole host of supplements and put me on time restricted feeding where I fast for 16 hours a day and eat during the other 8, focusing on nutrient dense foods. She wants me to have 3 palm sized servings of protein daily plus 2000 mg of potassium from food. I now weigh 190, which is good. I of course wish it were quicker and easier for me to lose weight. Of course, I should weigh a lot less. I've been walking throughout, and hope that once I'm stronger I can walk longer and start working out with the trainer again. I retired early so that I have time to take care of myself (I also take care of my 93 yo mother). Also chemo made me very anemic, so I'd get out of breath with the slightest exertion, but that is improving.
Anyway, big change in eating, mostly due to timing. My diet was actually already good. I just was always hungry, so I ate every few hours. I'd make healthy choices for the most part, but recognize that I have been a carb/sugar addict too. I drank 1 or 2 glasses of wine in the evening, now I don't drink any alcohol. I try not to have any sugar, but when people bring it into the house sometimes I give in and hate myself for it.
Nutritionist said I could continue to drink coffee (organic, filtered, pure water) and I still do, but now also drink green tea.
I also drink Pau D'Arco tea and essiac tea. Not religiously.
I drink wheatgrass several times a week. (I get it frozen from a great farm in canada https://www.dynamicgreens.com Should drink more wheatgrass and less coffee.)
Most mornings I make a shaker drink - the quick and dirty version is 1 tsp (should be 1TBS, but it is strong) spirulina and 1 tsp (should take more) chlorella with 1 T. psyllium. sometimes I will add powdered chaga mushroom and or powdered raspberry seed (ellagic acid)
Lately I've been having hot muesli with nuts and berries for breakfast, but sometimes will have eggs. one in a while I"ll make a kale or broccoli frittata. I sometimes have a tsp. of coconut oil - helps me feel fuller longer.
today my lunch was a big salad with lettuce, carrot, celery, pepper, beets, garbanzo beans, garlic, parsley and sauerkraut. And then I had 3 pieces of dark chocolate that my mother keeps on the kitchen table... arghh.....
supper my husband barbecued steak - I had a small piece, I made spinach, had left over beets. I drank lemon water and then chamomile tea since my stomach was hurting.
I addition to all the supplements my nutritionist has prescribed for me (multi vit, multi min, vit D, K, B, biotin, Apha lipoid acid,etc.) I have added DIM, astragalus, turmeric, quercetin, resveratrol, ashwaghanda, IP6, ATCC, milk thistle, iodine, and more. I also take 20 mg. melatonin at night, cod liver oil, probiotics. I don't fill up these 2 large pill containers with everything that I'm supposed to take for the week, but I end up only taking supplements once a day instead of twice, so the pill container lasts 2 weeks, so I'm basically getting half doses of a lot of things...
I have obviously spent a fortune on this stuff. I think it is mostly because I saw my aunt die of ovarian cancer when she was 49 and I was 7 ( she lived with us) and my father died of cancer, and I have an aggressive type and I'm fu#8*&ing scared of dying before I'm ready.
Well, I"ve been running off at the mouth!
Be well, -
Sopbie- I was taking 1000mg of Vit D daily since my chemo 7 years ago but i still got re-occurance this year. I lived in Fl then too. Still take it but its not the only think needed . Washinton State tried to pass a bill to force labeling of GE foods but it would not have included any dairy products. Being natural may also not be enough, especially with any type of sugars.( which is thd most difficult for me to totally cut. The stores are full of Thanksgiving mega calorie desserts too.I just have to stay away from those aisles.
Musical-I have a sis in North Palmerston, North Island. She grows all their own organic fruit and veg. Sadly I must add she is very overweight and loves to cook yummy high calorie foods and she is pretty healthy.
Here in the US the food product screening is very lax in many regards. Bacteria outbreaks in veg and fruit crops. My main goal is to eliminate estrogen and from what I have read its in almost everything. Eating foods like cabbage, brussel spirit's, cauliflour, beets, broccoli are some of the cruciferous veggies that are good. Greens too of course. Excercising more so you can sneak in more sugary sweets will not work.Eating like we are already diabetic might just help us live longer.Ialso drink Almond and Coconut milk. Tbe Coconut lard really looks like lard and have yet to use it but will figure it out.
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Grammy, that is basically what I do, i.e. eat like I am already diabetic. I do, however, think I was insulin resistant too, because I was gaining weight, always hungry, craving sweets (unusual for me) and my fasting sugar was in the high 90s. Changing my diet and adding more exercise dropped about 25 pounds and dropped the fasting glucose to the low 80s. Now, if it also holds the cancer at bay, all the better, but in the meantime, I feel a whole lot better. -
re: fasting glucose levels.... my nutritionist says that an important blood test is fasting insulin. Mine was 9, which my PCP thought was fine - nutritionist wants it around 5. -
Flavia, do you have any idea what this test is called? -
RE: Vit D. My oncologist makes me tell her how much I take every 3 months I see her...to double-check (I'm doing 4000 IUs). She also asks me about every 6-12 months when I had my last Vit D level blood test. She's very aware of the benefits of Vit D and is up on all the current practices and tx, so I trust her when she makes such a big thing out of it regularly. My Vit D levels are very good so far. She tests me about once a year. -
Grammy, your overweight but healthy Sis, says a heap. As others have said, theres people who have done all the right things and still got it , and others done all the wrong things and haven't (yet {maybe}). BC or indeed any Cancer, then, is obviously a multi faceted problem. As such, Im of the view we can get it ranging anywhere from predisposition, to enough events to tip the balance, to a singular event. For the latter, what Im saying is no matter who you are, theres certain singular events which are guaranteed to give you cancer. Thinking of nuclear plants melting down spewing radiation, some of which is so dangerous, if you breath in just 1 particle you WILL get cancer. Cant remember if its plutonium or cesium that fits this bill. The fact is we are living in a toxic world and its getting worse by the day. You are NOT getting coverage of these facts from mainstream media. Disasters like Fukushima have slidden into the background but you can bet, Fukushima is far from over.
It all boils down to us doing what we can to lessen those odds.
clairinaz do you know what a VIT D test costs? I know there are different tests and some of the Doctors don't order the right one because they are incompetent and/or ignorant of the whole VIT D thing. They must test for D3 Cholercalciferol. The only (reasonable) option for us in NZ is script only 50,000 IU tabs CalDeforte which I take fortnightly. Initially I was very very low, and had 3 (funded ) tests. The last one showed that I was normal, and they now wont fund me because the test is supposedly "horrendously expensive". -
the test is just called "fasting insulin"
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