Clueless on my mom's diet

Hi Godblessedeveryone, your mom's doctor answered your question: she can eat whatever she wants. That being said, there are certain recommendations - for everyone, not just for folks with breast cancer - that it might be good to follow, e.g. more veggies and fruits and less meat, etc. Oncologists recommend Mediterranean diet - to everyone, including people that had breast cancer.

Bad eating habits may increase the risk of getting cancer, but there is no scientific proof to the claim that eating/not eating certain foods prevents cancer recurrence in someone who already had cancer.

My suggestion is to be reasonable and avoid the extremes. I don't follow a diet plan for breast cancer, but I try eating less fatty foods, sweets and bread mostly because I don't want to gain weight. If she has good metabolism and no weight issues I wouldn't worry about pasta and bread. Again, in my opinion it's about being reasonable.

If she is otherwise healthy I don't understand why she should limit herself to strict diet or home food only.

Make sure she is getting adequate (more than min daily requirements but don't overdo) Vit C, which aids healing of soft tissues. You can look up where to find foods that are high in it; citrus isn't the only food that is.

I'd make sure she is also getting Vit D supplements and is having her Vit D levels checked in her blood at least once a year. Oncologists will order the test. That Vit above all else seems to play a role in fighting all cancers, not just breast. Research suggests having her levels of Vit D on the high end of normal is optimal.

Other than that, I don't eat "meat" but eat some fish, if it's wild-caught, and eat the rest about 90% plant based, organic (no pesticides), and try to limit sugar grams to about 30 a day on the average.

Alcohol in moderation. No smoking. AT LEAST 3-5 hours moderate exercise a week although I find much more is helpful for me.

I probably offered too much information, but that's been my plan overall and I find it helpful.

She should request an appt with the Nuitritionist at the Facility she is going to for nutritional information based on HER and her DX.

Truly, there is no scientific evidence that there is anything she cannot eat. Many people on these boards avoid sugar, empty carbs, and fatty foods, all of which are smart choices for good overall health. If she feels that avoiding these food categories, or those traditional Chinese consider poison, will be helpful, then, that is exactly what she should do. There is some evidence that losing weight and increasing exercise are helpful. Her oncologist and the nutritionist at her cancer center are the best sources for any research in this area.

I am one who immediately started the search for the anti-cancer foods. The more I read, the more I could see that while consumer publications repeat over and over that certain foods have been shown to do this or that in the lab, there is still no evidence that these results translate into non-recurrent status in humans.

If you read through these threads, you will see that plenty of thin, teetotaling, vegetarian women who exercised faithfully and breastfed multiple children for multiple years, are among those of us with bc.

BrooksideVT makes a good point that sometimes you'll see certain claims about breast cancer repeated over and over online, which makes them seem true, until you go looking for the evidence to back them up and find there isn't anything convincing (or sometimes any real evidence at all). Misinformation can spread just as easily as the real thing. There is truth behind the old saying that if you repeat something often enough people will eventually believe it. You frequently have to dig a little deeper than the most popular Google results to get to what's real.

I am a strong believer in food as medicine but it's not so easy to define exactly what that means, and the nutritional strategy that's best for me might not work for someone else due to differences in genetics, metabolism, environment, etc. I was sadly disappointed early on when I went looking for the perfect breast cancer diet, and found that just about everything you read will be contradicted somewhere else later. Specifically I had a hard time deciding between the ketogenic diet recommended by my naturopath and a mostly vegan diet with juicing. The choice I arrived at might not be the right one for someone else, but because my top priority right now is getting the weight off that I need to lose, which is especially important with ER+ breast cancer, I chose the ketogenic route. I can't lose weight on a low-fat, high-carb diet. When I finish losing the weight my needs might be different.

IMO, making changes to diet that improve general health is always the best way to start. Foods that are known to reduce inflammation in the body - or at the very least don't increase it - are always good, and no sane person is ever going to tell you to eat more junk food and fewer vegetables.

Sandy, I wanna go with you. Southern Vermont cuisine just ain't what you'll be experiencing in Paris and Lausanne. Deliciousness aside, you do make a good point about healthy eating--a variety of quality foods, properly prepared and presented, balanced by hotel (or wherever) gyms and walking [tours]. When I focus on losing weight (sadly, not right now), I limit my options, and consequently, my nutrients. You, on the other hand, will be practically inhaling an endless buffet of vitamins, minerals, and whatever additional healthfulness hides in those carefully crafted meals. I am absolutely certain that genuine French croissants contain some mysterious healthy living factor.

Kidding aside, I confess that, after three years, I have moved from healthy eating in hopes of staving off bc recurrence, toward a Mediterranean type diet for overall health. My main motivator is a creeping concern that my beloved high fat diet puts me at risk for more deadly cancers, especially pancreatic.

Well, both my grandmothers lived into their 90s and had no breast cancer. My mom will turn 93 in less than two months. They didn't follow any dietary restrictions. I eat healthier than these women in my family ever did and still got cancer. It's going to be hard to convince me that dietary restrictions play any role.

Disclaimer: I am not talking about extreme cases when a woman is obese, eats nothing but hamburgers and drinks hard liquor every day.

Hi, Godblessedeveryone--A balanced nutritious diet is beneficial to everyone, not just those of us recovering from breast cancer. And about balance, the ancient Greeks got it right when they encouraged doing "Everything in moderation, nothing in excess." That said, I would also add that home-cooking from scratch is particularly healthful, since she will control the ingredients (including minimal fats and sugar)--she should avoid pre-packaged and processed and take-out foods, which contain a host of things that are not good for anyone, with or without cancer of any type! And by doing her own cooking, she can also create the desirable multi-colored-vegetable color palette on her dinner plate--a red, a green, a yellow, and a purple veggie on the plate!

She would be wise to avoid frying and deep-frying her food (that might be a challenge for an older Chinese woman, I know), but she can certainly enjoy steamed dumplings as much as fried potstickers. Both fats and sugars fuel estrogen production in us postmenopausal women, and to lower our risk of recurrence we should limit both as much as we can and use olive and canola oil for sauteeing when we fry. As for the natural sugars in fruit--fresh fruits and veggies are good for us (source of fiber, vitamins, and other nutrients), and the benefits of their natural sugars are many. But none of us need the added sugars and sugar products in processed foods (Another, often unrecognized, fuel source for sugar production in our bodies is alcohol, so we should also limit ourselves to a glass of wine or beer a week.)

The only dietary restriction that I was given came from my radiation oncologist (and the BCO radiation diet suggestions, which you might want to look at). She said that before and during radiation I should stop taking any supplemental vitamin E or multivitamin pills if I was taking them (which I never did), but that I could continue to eat berries (blue-, black-, straw-, and rasp-) in moderation.

Good luck as you two navigate her recovery--she'll do fine!