low fat and recurrence

[Mary Jo]

Good Morning Everyone,

For those of you who are "into" the diet aspect of cancer please help me to understand and do what's best for my body.

At Breastcancer.org I was reading an "ask the expert" segment and it was mentioned that "recent studies suggest that 66 percent of women with hormone receptor NEGATIVE cancers lower their risk of recurrence by eating low fat. Man, that is huge............................and makes me stand up and take notice. SIXTY SIX PERCENT. Wow!

I am an avid exerciser BUT eat pretty much what I want. I am aware of what I am putting in my mouth and do try to watch the fat and sugar BUT didn't think it really mattered anyway....................so I took the "whatever" approach.

I am not naive and understand that women who were vegans got breast cancer also. Women who changed their diet after successful treatment also had recurrence BUT I can't get past the 66 pecent. I'll never forget at my first oncology visit with my Dr. (who is a breast cancer survivor as well)when she talked about diet and said that "even though diet hasn't been proved to have a roll in breast cancer there are things that point us in that direction" Then she went on to say something like ......... "you need to eat but you need to eat to live and said something like starvation isn't good but next to that" I'll never forget that word "starvation." I felt like she was trying to tell me to eat but to eat only what I needed to be healthy and to avoid the rest........................

So, someone please help me understand what's best for our diets IN UNDERSTANDABLE terms. I'd appreciate those of you are up on that most recent study to share what you know.

Is it best to eat NO sugar or minimul and low fat. Fruits and vegatable no meat or what. I am not a fish eater. I do eat nuts. What about things like potato chips that are made with good oils now and have no trans fat. I'm totally confused. Is trans fat what we should be looking at?

I'd appreciate your expertise in this area.

Mary Jo