The Breast Cancer Diet (with checklist)

[SpitFire]

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).