What foods are you eating to reduce recurrence?

Light, never mind. I managed to register. Will let you know.

This was kind of funny (not haha but) re how we can try and try but then…get bitten.  

Not specific re cancer but about being healthy and then coming down with an illness…

not that I will stop my efforts to eat healthy/kale, cruciferous vegetables, generally vegan and hormone/free pesticide free / BPA free products etc but…at the same time with a grain of salt (forgive the bad pun)

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/01/01/kale-juicing-trouble-ahead/?_r=0

Jessica, funny essay, and sort of supports my point in another thread about maintaining balance. Too much of a good thing is not necessarily an extra-good thing. Kale is healthy, but that doesn't mean that it is healthy to OD on the stuff.

Fall, we just use olive oil. I have never used margarine and pretty much gave up butter when we moved to Greece (they only had sheep's butter back then, and I found it nasty). Mashed avocado, hummus, babaganoush or sundried tomatoes blended with garlic, olive oil and lots of parsley make good spreads for sandwiches, when needed, and for breakfast toast and the like I use nut butters.

Love babaganoush! Eggplant is said to have cancer fighting properties. Ratatoullie is another great dish. Here's some really appetizing recipies. 

http://breastcanceryogablog.com/tag/eggplant/

I'm sorry I haven't gone back to this thread until today and didn't realize that I had been asked why I cut back on salt.  Salt produces an inflammatory response and cancer uses inflammation to spread.  I couldn't find anything about salt in the Anti-Cancer book.  I guess I just knew about salt and inflammation from my years of experience with autoimmune diseases (asthma and ulcerative colitis).  http://www.diseaseproof.com/archives/autoimmune-diseases-salt-drives-autoimmune-disease.html

When I was first diagnosed with breast cancer and read about how inflammation aids cancer in the Anti-Cancer book, I must have just realized that salt was something that I wanted to cut out to reduce inflammation.  When I do use salt, I try to use sea salt.  I find having no salt is probably the hardest thing for me because I really like salty foods.  Today, I just try to use the minimum amount of salt possible to make food palatable.  (I'm currently doing neoadjuvant chemo so my tastebuds are out of whack.)  I hope that helps answer the question about why I choose to minimize salt consumption.

Lol, Momine, funny image you and your husband competing for the almond butter! 

I am trying to revisit the food lists given to me by my past acupuncturists (TCM practitioners). Depending on your pattern of imbalance some foods are better or worse for you. For Spleen qi deficiency spinach isn't good, not even cooked. You can eat it but eating collards of beet greens are better as they aren't cooking foods.

Since folks were sharing recipes, you might like to try this pumpkin seed purée which is pretty easy to make and tastes really nice as a spread of a dip:

http://m.wholefoodsmarket.com/recipe/pumpkin-seed-...

I also added turmeric to our rice the other night, really simple way to add it in to the diet.

Dates are okay on the lists of foods I was given as they are a blood building food but everything in moderation. I was a sugar-craving fiend but now I'm going to try to take better care if myself. Did you know that not drinking enough water or eating enough protein can make you crave simple sugars?

momine - lol @ hiding the almond butter from your hubby. i love almond butter and love it with bread (whole grain). i tried it with green apple (i think you mentioned it)...still like it with bread better...sigh...but i absolutely do not have carb at dinner and try to have fruit before dinner. but i just broke the rule tonight hahaha.

i love breakfast the most, bc i can have a piece or two pieces of bread. i am chinese, i am so used to carbs.

someone mentioned drinking a glass of lemon juice in the morning, i also read that as well. my chinese friend told me and i found this article.

http://www.cancerfightingstrategies.com/ph-and-can...

the wholefoods market and farmers' market are my two best friends now. 

i want to recommend a book by Nina Planck, Real Food, What to eat and Why. it's very helpful. its not about fighting cancer, just about food and milk in general. i love it. i use it as my grocery guide, i don't eat those hormonal meat and pesticide veggi anymore. i don't know if they're that helpful but i know one thing they're not going to do me harm. like piper said, i like food the way Good intended. 

Juneping, I agree about sticking to "real" food as much as possible. I am a carb junkie too - not the Chinese kind, the Danish kind When I started chemo, my blood sugar was a bit high, and chemo can make it worse, so I cut WAY back on carbs and eliminated all white carbs and sugar/honey/syrup. I also made exercise a priority, although it was only walking and often slow walking thanks to the SEs. It helped after a while. My blood sugar is back down into the healthy range.

Hi Annie54,

   Here's one place you can get the turkey tail mushrooms in pill form. I read in a column by Dr. Weil that this was the actual product used in one of the studies showing it helps the immune system of BC patients: http://www.vitacost.com/fungi-perfecti-host-defen...

I think there are many mushrooms that are good for our immune systems. Right now I am taking maitake mushrooms and I have also taken the agaricus blazei. The reishi are supposed to be good, too. I am thinking of switching to a complex with many different types after I finish up the huge bottle of maitake I bought! 

Can you cook with turkey tail mushrooms or are the only in supplement form?  I have never seen them in the produce section.  Also, what do you all know about digestive track immunity, ie. probiotics?  I have always had trouble with acid reflux. Now that I am changing what I eat, maybe I can do something for that as well.

You can grow your own mushrooms.  I have a log that should sprout shitake mushroooms next summer.  Other kinds, including turkey tail are available in kits. 

I went to a workshop last summer.  They had all the equipment you need (small logs, shallow drills, injector things, mushroom spores, wax to cover the injections).  Very simple process, but at least a year before you have a harvest, so patience is the most difficult component.

Apropos, I am making mushroom lasagne for dinner, lol.

Abigail, that sounds yummy!  I made leek and potato soup last week.  My son asked about leeks.  LOL, he is an odd one!