Ketogenic Diet anyone?

Oh Vivian, so sorry you are feeling crappy from the chemo. I hope you can bounce back quickly and feel better soon.

Vivian,  talk with your doctor about more meds for nausea and vomiting if what you're taking is not enough.  I lived on cottage cheese as it was what my mouth could tolerate best along with ice cream. Hope you feel better soon.

Vivian I hope you are feeling better. I also find cottage cheese to work well for me when my stomach is a mess. I also like egg drop soup. I keep the box of broth and heat as much as I want. Stir in an egg. If you are slighty more ambitious add small pieces of carrot and chicken breast.



I'm going to order the book you recommended. Thanks for mentioning it.

Hi! I'm back and getting on track again with the keto diet /lifestyle. It was a tough chemo week, and in the future I think I will have to come off the diet during that time, though it is interesting that some docs recommend fasting the day before chemo. I don't know if the nausea was due to my diet, the drugs, a combo, or even something else. This is my 5th cycle with Temodor and Veliparib. We'll see. My MRI, CT and bone scan are due Oct 10 and I'm anxiously looking to see if my strict cutting of carbs (~35g/day give or take) has shrunk or stabilized my tumor (along with chemo, of course). In the previous 9 weeks, my last scan, they discovered my tumor had grown 11% with chemo alone, so I figure it can't hurt to try! This Stage 4 stuff is another world.

Zogo, yes I do have a blood meter believe it or not! I got one free with the purchase of 10 keto sticks. It costs about 26 dollars total. It came with 2 keto sticks, 10 glucose sticks, and a little lancet poker with a dozen lancets. You can purchase one online. Just Google 'Nova Max Plus. Free meter'. Sorry I don't have the site -but that is how I found it. I wanted to see if I was really doing the diet right because I am taking this "experiment" of mine very seriously. My ketones were between 1.9 and 3,2 during the diet, but I never was able to get my glucose below 72 (desired range was supposed to be 45-65) in the morning before breakfast.

Maybe I seem crazy, but serious times call for serious measures. I was never like this before cancer. I was always like " whatever" when it came to my diet. I always felt like I should take better dare of myself, exercise more, get more sleep, etc., and once in a while, I would, but then the hurriedness of everyday life would take over, and I would slack off. ( I have been fat. I have been thin.) In retrospect (a dangerous place!) I could have been on top of it and actually prevented cancer- not trying to kill it like I am know. Reaching a desired weight is not my goal, but just the same, I am happy to see I have now lost 13 lbs easy since last I weighed, before my nausea problem.

Vivian I am wishing you luck with your scans. I think we are alike. I wished I had seen the keto diet when this second tumor appeared. I would have liked to do my own experiment.

I did fast before chemo and after but I was doing every three weeks. If I was doing weekly or every other week I'm not sure I could do that.

I finished chemo about six weeks ago and I'm half way through rads now. Then onto ovary suppression and aromatase inhibitor.

When you said "I might sound crazy" I thought of myself!! LOL we will call it good. I do get obsessed but I think it keeps me positive. Makes me feeli like I'm doing something. Although I have to confess I'm sure I broke my diet today eating Mexican food with my son but I've been really good generally.

You are probably right! I take a low dose of medrol daily. I was actually aware that it might effect it, so I kept my carbs as low as possible to try and make up for it. I have been having trouble moving back to being as strict as I was on the keto diet. (I understand the Mexican dinner with your son!) My scan are tomorrow, so let's hope for the best. I think I will be able to go back once I can relax.

I appreciate your concern, Two Hobbies. I don't have another Dr. Appt. until Oct 24, so I don't know anything. I did not know they would make me wait so long this time. I went to visit my sister in Kentucky (from Florida) and just got back. The trip was hard on me physically (more pain than usual and still having post-chemo nausea a good deal of the time). I am wondering if the increase in pain has anything to do with putting the sugar back in my diet, as they correlate. Having just returned home, I have not had a chance to restock my cupboards and need to get back to the keto plan. I think you should start back, too, with me, after the w/e!

Hi Ladies, I made it through the holidays w/o feeling too tempted. I made a brownie crust cheesecake to have while the family ate the usual sugary red cake and cookies. It was really yummy. As it is sub zero here, I was hoping to put something in the crockpot to cook for hours. Looking for some ideas and recipes...

ooo, I have chicken and jerk spice in the house. I will have to try that this weekend. Thanks TwoHobbies!

Keep the ideas coming...

Hello, I'm a ketosis believer! How is everyone doing? I'm newly dx'd with bc and trying to kick into ketosis now. i have the strips but have not checked my urine yet. I'm also on prednisone for another issue so my sugars are up I know for sure. Otherwise thru diet and a gallon of water a day- literally, the predisone doesnt bother me at all- and its an embarrassingly high dose. I pray you all are well!

I eat a pretty strict Paleo diet and have for about 8 months, rather similar to a keto diet, biggest difference is I don't limit my fruit consumption. I thought about switching to keto when I was diagnosed w BC in Sept., but in the end decided fruits contain way too much good stuff to give them up and I like them too much, LOL.

Both diets involve tasty, healthy foods and exclude non-foods (processed/sugar laden). Paleo is low carb, not no carb and I've done well on it and feel really good. I suspect mostly due to cutting out gluten and dairy which seemed to be the keys to getting relief from some of my autoimmune disease's nastier effects. Because both Paleo and Keto exclude most processed foods, many people find these diets hard to stay on due to meal prep times (fortunately I like to cook) and due to how hard it is to dine out and still follow your diet (close to impossible).

Anyway, good luck with the Ketogenic diet. I think it's a good one, I just can't do it. Paleo is the best I can do and even that is challenging some days.

BTW a Paleo diet is high in good fats. Several friends thought my cholesterol would go crazy w a Paleo diet. Just the opposite happened and I get to eat stuff fried in lard from time to time. More and more info/studies are showing it's our high carb and sugar diets, not fats that are causing heart disease, high cholesterol.

Check out this info from Dr. Gerry Krystal. This is cutting edge research and shouldn't be ignored. Another reason for keto!! Especially regarding cancer.

"My lab has two main areas of interest right now. The first is how we can eradicate cancer cells by changing our diet. Cancer cells take up and need much more sugar (we researchers call it glucose) to grow and survive than normal cells. Carbohydrates are the most common source for glucose in our diet. So, we have found that a low carbohydrate, high protein diet not only significantly slows tumour growth in the lab, but reduces the incidence of cancer as well.

It does this by lowering the level of glucose in the blood. One of the great things about this diet is that it prevents obesity, which also is connected to cancer incidence rates.

In fact I am on this diet myself, eating lots of nuts, seeds and whey powder, while avoiding bread, potatoes and white rice. I have never felt better! Another area of interest we have is encouraging immune cells within a tumor to become more aggressive and attack the cancer cells. Currently, my lab is combining our low carbohydrate, high protein diet with drugs that enhance the immune cells within tumors, in order to completely eradicate the cancer cells. We are very encouraged by our preliminary findings. We are also encouraged that BC Cancer Foundation donors have shown interest in this project and are supporting our studies."

Dr. Gerry Krystal

http://life.nationalpost.com/2014/02/01/jane-macdougall-what-does-cancer-eat-sugar-mostly-and-other-lessons-from-my-dinner-with-a-professor-of-pathology/

I'm new to this topic but really need support. I think low carb non- processed foods and no sugar is the way to go. The problem is I'm a real sugar addict. Has anyone with this addiction. Been successful in giving up sugar.

My daughter lost 55 pounds over a year on the Paleo and looks and feels great but she was never that interested in sweets.

I lost 20 pounds I needed to lose to help prevent recurrence after I finished treatment but got complacent after the first year and have gained it all back and some all due to eating sugar.

Can anyone help? If you've been addicted to sugar and went Paleo how did you do it?

Hugs,

Peggy

Peggysull, sweets were always my downfall and I totally understand falling off the wagon. In the past I had done South Beach and was successful, and after a few days, it was so easy. And yet when I started eating carbs again (the whole grains that South Beach allows), I also would fall off the wagon and the idea of going back to it was an obstacle. So here is what I find helped. For me, about three days of almost no carb will cause the constant hunger to go away, so that is how I started. Maybe others will need a longer period, like two weeks. I allowed myself to eat some foods that I may not consider the healthiest during the beginning so that the entire diet isn't deprivation - for example bacon! And I didn't give up cheese, because again, it seemed like a lot of deprivation to totally change your diet. Things I find very helpful for snacks are avocados, nuts, and olives. Once your appetite and sweet cravings are more in control, eat fruit as your dessert. Sometimes I put some whipped cream on it as a treat. And I occasionally eat some Lindt truffles which are pretty low sugar, 15 grams for three. I don't find these to be lethal to falling off the wagon like cake, cookies, etc.

I've been doing this for 2 years and honestly, if I have a bite of dessert at a restaurant I think OMG that is too sweet. I don't even like pasta anymore and don't miss bread either.

P.S. This is a ketogenic thread and I'm not claiming that the cheats will keep you in ketosis, which I'm not measuring so I have no idea how much carb you can eat and stay in Ketosis. I am more weighing in on the Paleo question, which does have an 80/20 philosophy. I do know that my fasting glucose went from 93 to 79 which makes me happy. I'm about due for my yearly test so I'm anxious to see if that has improved further.

Cancer provided me with a motivation that I didn't have in my past, sheer and utter fear that anything I put in my mouth could help or hinder me. Use that if you can muster it!