After reading Jeans post...
 

time for a bump. Take care and God bless.

Thanks Rhonda,
 

...for reminding us of the cancer fighting foods/supplements and alternatives and additives to drug therapy to fight the robust her2 pathway.

A New Years bump...
 

for a healthier 2009. Take care and God bless.

I was told the only thing I should stay away from was soy. Soy contains estrogens, I'm estrogen positive.
I agree with Marejo, this is my second time around with this disease. I was healthy, as a matter of fact my Onc actually said," "you are very healthy, except for your cancer."
I believe you can eat, exercise, and live healthy, and it will still get you for other reasons, such as big family history.
We should never feel we could blame ourselves for not eating properly.

It's been a few months...
 

thought I would bump it up;) Take care and God bless.

My understanding about cooking with olive oil is that ,as with any oil, it only becomes carcinogenic when heated to high temperatures and starts to burn which changes it's molecular composition.
Ellie

Thanks Rhonda! This is simple and easy to follow.

hugs,
shobha

Re: The Breast Cancer Diet (with checklist)
 

Time for a bump

Re: The Breast Cancer Diet (with checklist)
 

Bounce to top.

Nice list and I encourage black tea, green tea and lots of sunshine to add to your list.

Re: The Breast Cancer Diet (with checklist)
 

Flax seed oil and fish oils are very good, unheated. Olive oil, when heated can become carcinogenic.

Re: The Breast Cancer Diet (with checklist)
 

I was doing a search on phytoestrogen before I posted any stupid questions about it. It seems that the more I read the more confused I get. I adopted a vegan diet roughly 5 years ago and depending on what you read, soy is the greatest or the worst thing you can eat. Ditto for flaxseed, beans and nuts. Some say moderation is the key. So what is it? It doesn't seem like the experts really know themselves. I know nothing you do guarantees you won't get breast cancer but it would be nice if there was some consistency in the reporting.

Re: The Breast Cancer Diet (with checklist)
 

I've always heard to stay away from grapefruit.

Re: The Breast Cancer Diet (with checklist)
 

I think the grapefruit restriction has to do with particular hormone blockers for ER+ cancers. I wasn't advised to stay away from it but since I've never been a fan of grapefruits (so it wouldn't really impact my diet plan), I didn't ask if it was something I should stay away from.

Re: The Breast Cancer Diet (with checklist)
 

Not sure how much there is to it, but I have read that you should not have grapefruit while on Herceptin:

- "Grapefruit should be avoided during Herceptin and chemotherapy treatment because of potential grapefruit-drug interactions."
Source: http://foodforbreastcancer.com/artic...n-treatment%3F
- "There are some concerns about consuming grapefruit (as a fruit or juice) whilst taking the drug. Best to avoid."
Source: http://www.canceractive.com/cancer-a...nk.aspx?n=2588

I don't particularly like Grapefruit, so no problem for me...

Re: The Breast Cancer Diet (with checklist)
 

This was taught to me at my "cancer center" in chemo class.

"There are no foods that will make your cancer worse or make your tumor grow - despite what you may have read or heard from other sources. Exception: Breast cancer patients should avoid or limit foods containing phytoestrogens (plant estrogens). These include soy products such as soy protein powder, soymilk and tofu. (Soybean oil and soy sauce are allowed - they do not contain a significant amount soy product). Flaxseed is also a plant estrogen. Other herbal products such as dong quai and black cohosh may also contain some plant estrogens. These recommendations apply to all breast cancer patients regardless of whether they are ER PR positive or negative."

I asked my oncologist, he scoffed and told me that he was my doctor and to come to him (which I did) and asked me why I would "take advice from just a nurse." (He sent me to that class) He then told me I could eat anything in moderation. He told me he didn't believe that I needed to avoid anything because I was hormone negative, which he told me multiple times during the next year. He told me I only needed to avoid supplements during the bad chemo, after, he continued to tell me I didn't need to avoid "estrogenic" things because I was hormone negative. My last appointment 15 months later was with a "nurse" and she looked at my supplement list and told me that I needed to avoid "estrogenic" things because I have breast cancer and it didn't matter if I was hormone positive or negative. That was exactly opposite to what my oncologist repeated told me! I never went back to them. I fired them all! The oncologist also told me "there was a nothing I could do after chemo, surgery and radiation to reduce my risk of recurrence. He also never talked to me about not getting pregnant for 5 years after being diagnosed! He just told me to use the "barrier method" during chemo! He did tell me I could become infertile from chemo, but Wow! I didn't learn about not getting pregnant until 11 months later at my first OB/GYN appointment! I kept asking him what do I need to know? He would get mad and tell me I was scared and just wanted a sure thing. Sorry about my rant.

I found this old post about flaxseeds and flaxseed oil:

http://www2.mdanderson.org/WB2/defau...d=2071&fid=150

Now it seems that flaxseeds (up to 3 TBSP/day) are healthy. I avoided them during chemo, but I also ate what I could to get through chemo which was a lot of unhealthy junk food. Now I eat pretty healthy (Low fat).

Re: The Breast Cancer Diet (with checklist)
 

Hi, I find this discussion very interesting and also very important.
I have been trying to understand the new information coming in from research about Cancer Stem Cells(CSCs), their role in building tumors and in metastasizing, and the place these anti-cancer food substances can play in disabling and destroying CSCs.
There is a new strong interest in various food plant compounds that runs parallel to the discovery/exploration of the role of Cancer Stem Cells play in building tumors and in seeding and growing metastases.
Drugs like Herceptin block the intracellular pathways through which important signalling and change processes happen. These are the processes by which cells turn into cancers and organise themselves a supporting structure/"skeleton" and develop blood vessels to feed themselves, and prevent their own cell death. So Herceptin blocks off access to important sites and interferes with the pathways the cancer cells need to use to transform themselves and build themselves into a tumor or to metastasise. This leads to a lot of cancer cells dying But the cancer stem cells can then get around this, and can choose to mutate so that their new cell lines use different pathways, eg HER3 or 4 instead of HER2. They then produce new cancer cells that use the new pathway that gets around the blockage created by herceptin or whatever drug it was.This is how the tumors become resistant to the anticancer drugs. (This is a bit similar to the way flu viruses mutate to get around our resistance to flu, becoming different so the antibodies and antigens we have formed will no longer affect them).

However, the foods that are anticancer foods like broccoli, soy, green tea, curcumin etc actually interfere simultaneously with a number of different pathways the cancer stem cells use for different processes. So if the cancer mutates so it does not use one particular pathway, the food still has other points at which to attack it.
There seem to be many things that damage our cells enough to make us at risk of cancer, and also many things that knock our general health and the health of our immune system. Like Lien, many of us have eaten well all our lives yet still got cancer. So how do we understand this?

It seems to me that maintaining good cancer-free health by preventing, primary and metastatic cancer, and then destroying cancer if it does form is a bit like trying to have a good crop of tomatoes where I live in PerthAustralia : I have to contend with parrots, rats, possums, bandicoots, mice, caterpillars, slugs, snails, slaters, plant viruses, heat, frosts, spray drift from my neighbours. I have to grow my plants well at the right time, choose the best variety, water it, feed it, stake it.
However well I do my bit, there is still a risk I will not get a crop at all, or it will be eaten or made inedible by some pest.
If something starts to be a problem, I have to be vigilant and take effective action. If I have several different varieties in several different parts of the garden, there is a higher chance of success. And if I only have one treatment I can offer my tomatoes start to wilt and die, or get nibbled around the edges, I am likely to lose the battle. But if I have a range of treatments, I have a better chance.
And these anti-cancer foods are part of the process of growing and maintaining a healthy cancer-free me. They increase the ways any cancer stem cells in my body are getting knocked down and knocked out of my system. And they also increase my general health, my immune system health.

Re: The Breast Cancer Diet (with checklist)
 

I read that as well as garlic, other Allium plants like leeks and onions have anticancer properties. And that ginger can help too.

So I have just started to make the yummiest mild veg curry that incorporates a lot of these foods:
Dice up your preferred combination of winter squash, sweet potato, eggplant, carrots, green beans, broccoli, and cauliflower, add cooked chickpeas, and cook together in a wok with tight-fitting lid till just tender.
Meanwhile, with a stick blender in a tall thin jar blend till smooth 3 chopped garlic cloves, half a thumb of ginger, a handful of coriander leaves and 1-2 cups of diced tomatoes. (If you like some heat, also add and blend between half and three chillis that you know will create the desired heat) Put this aside.
Then grind together 2tsp cumin seeds, 2tsp coriander seeds, 1tsp cardamon seeds. Heat up a frying pan, add 1tsp black mustard seeds and dry-cook till they start to pop. Add the ground spices. Add 2+tsp ground tumeric, 5 whole cloves, 2inches of cassia or cinnamon quill. Turn down the heat. Cook together till aromatic. Put into a dish and put aside.
Finely chop a large onion. Heat pan. Cook slowly till soft. Add the spices and stir through. Add the tomato mix and stir through, heat slowly till cooked. Add fresh low-fat yoghurt to taste. Add water if it gets too thick. Add 2 kafir lime leaves. Stir together with the cooked vegetables and simmer together for 10-15 min till flavour is through it all. Remove cinnamon/cassia bark, and also lime leaves.
Serve with wholemeal bread or flatbread or juinoa, or brown rice, or eat on its own. Hot, or cold as a salad.
You can also add raw fish to the sauce before or instead of the vegetables, and simmer till cooked.
You can add diced low-fat paneer cheese and simmer through for the last 10 min of cooking.
You can add meat, first marinating diced meat raw in the tomato mix for several hours before starting to cook the curry. Again, it is your choice whether and what vegs you include with the meat.
You can blend a cup of cooked squeezed spinach into the tomato blend.
You can add any other spices or vegetables or herbs that appeal, or take out any you don't like. You can add 100-300ml coconut cream.
But for best anti-cancer content, keep the tumeric, ginger, garlic, tomato, onion, coriander and yoghurt and pref the broccoli too.
I also make coldpressed juice with carrots, an orange, an apple and fresh/frozen berries.
And salad with lots of freshly picked spinachy green, kale, plus lightly browned chopped nuts, avocado, tomatoes, olives, low-fat fetta balls rolled in dakah, etc. dressed with garlic, olive oil, flaxseed oil, and a fresh lemon or lime squeezed over it.

Re: The Breast Cancer Diet (with checklist)
 

I asked my oncologist today about turmeric and grapefruit. Both her and her nurse said turmeric is good, even with ER+ cancers (provided you're not on chemo . . . it's considered an antioxidant and you're supposed to avoid antioxidants in powdered form while on chemo). The nurse said grapefruit can cause reactions with medications - not just limited to herceptin or chemo or hormone blockers - any medications. The doctor's response wasn't clear on the grapefruit but it may have been the way I presented it (she said it was delicious . . .). So there may be a different answer for every "expert" asked the question but that's what my particular "experts" said.

I wish I'd thought to ask about tofu since I don't eat meat and tofu has been a protein staple in my diet for the last 5 years. :-/

Re: The Breast Cancer Diet (with checklist)
 

10 years later and going strong!!!! Time for a bump and thoughts and prayers to you all!!!!

Rhonda

Re: The Breast Cancer Diet (with checklist)
 

Gee, Rhonda! What a nice surprise to see your name and good news. Very appropriate you chose an old thread of yours to announce your presence.

So, I am curious as to how you have done keeping to the diet suggestions mentioned in this thread?