What foods are you eating to reduce recurrence?

OMG Jane Plant!!! THAT was a thread that someone started on these boards a while ago and dairy debate RAGED on it.  Search for it on the boards….I know there is plenty other stuff on dairy too.  I think people on the Plant thread felt that the claims made in her book/s (?) weren't fully backed by science, but I can't recall.

That said, it doesn't mean that dairy is good for you, or that dairy products which may contain growth hormones (certainly free to use them in the USA without marking the product as containing such)  are something one worrying about cancer should consume…each must make their own decision based on what you are comfortable with.

jessica - i found the thread and read it. i already knew farm factory dairy are bad. my main concern was about raw organic dairy...

it's just funny when ppl advocate plants based diet (reference from far east), the fact that poor chinese ( i am chinese so i can only speak for chinese) did eat meat before but it's like once a year. the more money they had, the more meat they ate. BUT it's not our thing to eat a 3 inch by 3 inch by 3/4 inch steak. we used meat to add flavor not like a main course. and we do eat the whole fish by the whole family/table, not everyone got their own fish in front of them. it's just i felt when ppl (those experts) refer to eastern diet, they just took it so extreme.

i wanted to add, my parents told me around cultural revolution period, ppl were starving. and when ppl did eat some food, they were never full. because they lacked fat. so having some meat make ppl feel fuller. i think my point is - moderation. i can never understand ppl don't eat meat/fish. they are on the planet for a reason....not that i agree to abuse them like corporate america.

momine - 

there are research out there proved the bovine growth hormone that used for cows are related to breast cancer. the hormones use in the US was banned in canada and EU. but here in the US, we are still using it. i don't know the cost so i can't comment. but i know all the regular milk in the supermarket has that carcinogen  growth hormone. i kind of think the US is the only country that is using this hormone. Harvard did a research on this.

http://www.notmilk.com/drlarsen.html

i've read quite a few things about raw milk, there's a book "real food, what to eat and why" by nina planck. she's a farmer's daughter. her parents used to be professors before becoming farmers and she is a well educated woman, not just a farmer as well. and there is a link talks about the benefits of raw milk

http://www.realmilk.com/health/

personally if i forgot my milk in the fridge too long, raw milk just turned rancid but pasteurized milk is a lot worse, the smell was very offensive. and raw milk doesn't after that weird after taste and breath 

there're many documentaries about farm factories, FDA and USDA's attitude towards small farms who could be a potential threat towards the milk industry.

two documentaries on netflix: Food, inc, Farmageddon

seriously, 100 or 200 years ago, ppl didn't have fat free or low fat but they're not dying left and right or had high cholesterol or cancer. it's not about the fat, it's something else. it just doesn't make sense. i believe in plants based diet but i also think small portion of meat is also helpful. and most important of all, where the meat come from. those free range grass-fed the way God intended meat are def suitable for human to consume.

fallleaves - thanks for the link. it reminds me of canceractive's article that protein can promote tumor growth. they suggested rainbow diet and less meat diet, they only recommended chicken and fish.

i like meat ...but more as to add flavors to my meal. usually i don't eat that much meat and i wish someone could tell me how much is too much. now i only eat meat every 2-3 days and cut back on the portion as well. sometimes i missed the simple days like when i was a child, i only got to eat meat once a year at the new year.

June, yes, I am aware that the bovine growth hormone is only used in the US. But when I checked, I found that even in the US, it is a minority of producers who use it.

I agree that there are many problems with mass-produced meat and dairy. However, in my humble opinion, pasteurization is not one of them. Even if you are using milk from your own eco-cow in the backyard, it would still be prudent to boil the milk before use. Once again, pasteurizing is gentler than actual boiling.

I do eat meat, but limited amounts and not very often. In general, I think we (BC patients) are better off going easy on red meat and things like bacon, salami and other preserved meats should probably not even be in our diet.

Falls, I can empathize with your mom. Last time I was in the US, I ate my weight in salad as soon as I got home again. We are so spoiled in Greece. Any of my local restaurants will give me steamed veggies as a side dish, and it is usually a mix of broccoli, greens, zucchini and carrot. You can also get a big plate of steamed greens in most places, as well as a large tomato salad etc. In addition, there are many veggie main dishes in the Greek, traditional kitchen.

June, I am not arguing, since I agree that bovine growth hormone is bad news. I am just saying that it is not actually used as widely as I thought it was. It is still fairly easy to avoid, even in the US. Lots of stores carry hormone-free milk.

I did not see any link to the FDA.

June, here is the page on dairy from Whole Foods: http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/recipes/food-guides/dairy-products

Here is the page on Whole Foods' standard eco milk: http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/about-our-products/product-faq/milk-and-eggs

I switched to almond milk, and it suits me fine.  I was never a milk drinker anyway.  I do enjoy Greek yogurt, and I would love to find hormone free.  I have read about yogurt made from goats milk.  Have any of you tried it and do you know where to get it?

smrlvr - i thought i've read there's something they put in those almond milk...can't recall which thread exactly. its better you make your own almond milk with raw unpasteurized organic almonds. and add raw honey for better flavor. they taste quite different from the ones on the market.

i bought mine from a local farm...i haven't tried goat yogurt but planning to try sheep yogurt. it's raw so not sure if you want to risk it. i've seen wholefood had some goat yogurt plain.

Hi, jumping in in the middle here as this topic interests me a great deal. Post dx I felt like one of the only things I could control (cancer out of the blue, w no family hx, made me feel like I had totally lost control, as if I had been struck by lightning,) was my diet. I didn't need to read much to decide that I didn't need to inject additional hormones into my body. (Had had a hysterectomy at 47 due to enormous estrogen driven fibroids, and now very ER + BC.) I immediately switched to organic dairy products for our family. Most of the organic dairy that comes from a cow here in Israel is 3% fat, they don't make lower fat organic milk. Truthfully, I don't drink milk ever (but the kids and DH do) as I use organic rice or almond milk in coffee. I buy goats milk plain yoghurt (organic) and try to have some every other day, but not too much since it's also 3%. I do buy a little bit of nonorganic cheese and butter, but we all eat very little of this. One of my new projects is to go to a cheese making course as I would love to make my own cheese from this milk. They do sell organic cheese here but it's very expensive. When I visit in the US I am amazed at the amount of great dairy products that are BGH free or organic. I know it's more expensive, but I feel that this is one area that is very important to those of us who've had BC (and our families, actually, probably...everybody.) 

As for the rest of our diet, we try to eat along the lines of the Meditteranean diet. Like Momine, this is the native diet, so getting lots of good, fresh produce is relatively easy. My other pet concern is pesticides as I grew up in an area of northeastern Pa that had a real cancer cluster and I often wonder if it wasn't from all of the spraying of the agriculture in our midst. This is another thing that I am sure will be revealed as a cause of the surging cancer rates. Again, I don't have time to delve into deep science on this, (just superficial science:) but I am willing to take the more costly chance and buy organic produce. I even try to grow some. We definitely pay more for food, but we don't go out much, so I hope it balances out, sort of. We don't eat much red meat, poultry about once a week, and we try to have fish once or twice a week. My new thing is eating more nuts. I am battling high cholesterol (thank you Femara) and I am hoping that this infusion of nuts, seeds and legumes (more fiber and omega 3's) will help bring it down naturally. I also find that adding these helps digestion enormously. Sorry to run on. Thanks for starting.

This one always makes me laugh....organic garlic, from China....yeah right. The organic honey too. Do they put little leashes on the bees so they can't fly into the neighbouring pesticide-laden field? It's very hard for me to accept that organic food is actually that. There's no way I'm going to believe that some farmer, amidst an infestation crisis, is going to risk losing his crop, certified organic or not. He's going to do what he has to do to get product to market....we just won't know about it. Regulations, shmegulations.

 http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/pesticide-residue-found-on-nearly-half-of-organic-produce-1.2487712

Re: Raw milk.  I'm an advocate of raw milk vs. pasteurized.   I've read a lot on the subject, and feel very safe drinking the raw milk that comes from the farm down the road from me.  there are many health benefits to raw milk vs. pasteurized milk - one of the main ones being that the enzymes that help you digest it are destroyed during pasteurization.  My favorite phrase that I came across when researching the controversy between raw and pasteurized mile was that pasteurized milk is a "dead white liquid."  that said - I still am reducing my diary consumption due to the growth factors present, even in raw milk.

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2009/11/12/choosing-between-raw-milk-and-a-dead-white-liquid.aspx

I know the link didn't say anything about garlic. I was just commenting on my experience with buying it. It always makes me chuckle when I see these bags of garlic, marked "organic", but also with a China import sticker. The link I provided was just to make people aware that they are getting what they pay for.