ER+ with no ovaries???

I agree that unnecessary food additives are the bane of my existence! I love to cook and do make most of our meals at home, but it would be nice if I could let my guard down when I'm too tired. I can't even get a rotisserie chicken at the grocery store because the label reads "contains wheat and soy" (soy sauce no doubt, which contains both). Really? Did you need to put wheat in a chicken, especially with all of the people trying to avoid it these days?

Lori, I think you can OD on fruit because of the sugar. With breast cancer we want to try to keep our blood sugar and insulin levels low and as steady as possible. I am more strict than most people and only eat a small amount of berries, but I think it is otherwise prudent to keep it to one or two servings of fruit per day.

Wenchie ~ Excellent, excellent discussion you've started here!

Fight Now: Eat & Live Proactively Against Breast Cancer by Aaron Tabor, MD and Lillie Shockney, RN is available for free as an eBook on Amazon or on the authors' website http://www.fightbcnow.com/ I found it full of interesting info and like that the writers are affiliated with John Hopkins. Ms. Shockney has personal experience having been Dx'd twice with breast cancer herself. I do wish there were an updated version of the book. Flax seed is heavily promoted but it does increase estrogen production in the body. Some very recent studies are also cautioning against green tea for ER+ cancer.

Deciphering what we should and shouldn't eat can be overwhelming. Especially during those times that all food is unappealing. One of my dear friends is a nurse and works for an OB/GYN. When I was so sick that I was unable to eat, she was so sweet, bringing me a variety of powdered nutritional supplement shakes. I didn't have the heart to tell her they were loaded with soy Premier Protein shakes are the only ones I've found so far that are soy free and low sugar.

I don't understand why each of us doesn't have a nutritionist/dietitian assigned to us to work with our MO's. For those of us who are unable to prep our own food it would be awesome to have a line of fresh and frozen products available for us. Amy's makes foods that are organic, vegetarian, GMO free and some are even gluten free. A few of the frozen Stouffer's meals are actually "safe" too. Does anyone know of any others?

Blessings ~ You have me really thinking about the gluten thing. Anything to for Fibro relief!

Blessings, ChiSandy and Solfeo ~ Weight loss while on Tamoxifen or an AI is very difficult. You ladies are amazing!

Shepkitty, thank you so much for your posts here.

wench - good memory! I did have a Nissen in '95. Vega does give me trouble, but Plantfusion does not. I usually do a shake with 1 scoop of vanilla bean flavor with coconut or almond milk (unsweetened vanilla flavor) and some frozen organic strawberries. That many grams of protein should hold you until lunch, and the folks who use the Virgin diet for weight loss also do a shake for lunch, but I did not do two a day.

Alcohol can cause more estrogen to circulate in body, especially if it causes the liver not to work properly. Key is to make sure added estrogen doesn't sit on the tummy, so exercising regularly and being leaner reduces this. There is debate about soy, but I believe in moderation its ok.

Lori - it is so sweet that your church family is pitching in to provide meals. Ours did the same, and we were SO appreciative!

That is, until we tasted the food. We never saw such greasy, salty, heavy stuff in our lives...and this was BEFORE we went on our restricted diet!

We loved that our church family was taking care of us, but honestly, we ended up giving most of the food away to family members.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

I wanted to share a recipe that has been working out very well for us. I take a family pack of boneless, skinless chicken thighs, and marinate them in about half a cup of sauce. I've used salsa, Trader Joe's Sweet Chili Sauce, Organic Barbecue Sauce, and General Tsao's Sauce. The sodium content of some of these is high, but it is divided between 10 or 12 pieces of chicken, so the individual amount is o.k.

Put all the pieces in a large ziplock bag (you'll have to unfold some of the pieces.) Mush everything together in the bag, squeeze the air out, close it, and let it sit in the fridge for a while. (You can always make your own marinade to your taste, but don't use too much.)

Then just dump the bag into your crockpot and set it for high heat for four hours. I stir everything up halfway through. With the juice of the chicken, and the seasoning of the marinade, this makes a wonderful batch of tender, juicy chicken that can be shredded for a variety of dishes.

After it is refrigerated, you can skim the fat off the top, and it is still juicy!

Lori - Are you talking about the radioactive shot in your nipple? Or a different procedure?

I had the radioactive isotope shot in my nipple. From all the stories I read here, I was crazy scared. But what a surprise when I actually got in there and it was tolerable.

Granted, the nipple isn't the place you want to have a shot, but the Radiologist and the Tech were so nice, and the Tech kept gripping my hand and trying to distract me. But I've had a cortisone shot in the bottom of my heel, and this didn't even come close.

The funniest part was that he said to keep massaging the area prior to surgery so the material could spread. So there I was, back in Pre-Op, massaging away, when I realized that my bed was at the end of the row facing the door, and the curtains were open. I just laughed and told DH that I hoped they thought that massaging my boob was a self-calming technique!

Prayers for a quick procedure tomorrow, little pain, and rapid healing. Will be in your pocket tomorrow. xoxo

Shepkitty,

Can you direct me to the recent studies advising against ER+ BC and green tea?

I have been drinking 3 to 4 cups of green tea daily since I was diagnosed 11 years ago. Everything I have read indicates green tea is good for breast cancer survivors. What we should eat and drink for ER+ breast cancer is one of the most confusing things I have ever encountered. One minute the studies show it is good, the next it is bad. I gave up my red wine and switched to green tea 11 years ago, now what am I going to drink -water??

(bump)

Thinking of Wenchlori and all the useful information she gathered on her thread