Myths About Food And Cancer: facebook.com... - CLL Support
Myths About Food And Cancer
Dear South Florida Lady,
You need to do your own reading about sugar and processed foods. (Or just listen to the news). This article is way out of touch with current nutrition especially for cancer patients.
Kathy
How so, Kathy? I would think that Dana Farber would be pretty current with regard to knowing what's good for cancer patients. Their advice re: sugar and especially processed foods seemed pretty current to me.
Dear Gigi3410,
The article posted did not have a date or an author and it was pretty "simple". It is up to each of us to decide if we want to take care of our health. Information on how to eat healthy is out there. The doctors at Dana Farber are in the business of cancer treatment not nutrition. It can take years for nutritional information to become "mainstream" as in the case of coconut oil. Now processed meats are in the news as well as ground beef. Recently Joan London a celebrity fighting breast cancer appeared on TV bravely with her bald head and said "I am eating clean.........no sugar no red meat and no dairy." It is a personal choice. Our bodies are incredible machines but with the additional burden of cancer it makes sense to supply nutrient dense food full of antioxidents and vitamins. Sugar and hot dogs are empty calories. As for me I choose to eat like my life depends on it.
Kathy
Hi Kathy,
What in that short Dana Farber 'slide show' do you consider to be "way out of touch with current nutrition especially for cancer patients?" The information on red and processed meats was obviously just updated per the information from WHO released just a week ago, so is very current:
healthunlocked.com/cllsuppo...?
I'm not aware of any recent changes in the other topics covered (fruit, sugar and carbohydrates) of the same magnitude as the changed WHO recommendations with respect to meat consumption. Have I missed something?
That slide show covers a huge topic at a very high level, but you can drill down on the last slide. The article about sugar feeding cancer (linked from the last slide), was updated in May this year and contains further references. Realistically, I wouldn't expect rapid changes in this topic (nutrition and cancer), given the difficulties in generating reliable, repeatable research; the links between meat consumption and bowel cancer have long been suspected, but accurately determining the associated degree of risk has understandably been difficult to achieve.
Thanks,
Neil
Dear Neil,
Finally found the website I wanted to share with you with updated information worthy of this wonderful website and the precious souls that are part of our community. I found the information in the Sloan Kettering article to be way too simple to be of any real help to people who are battling cancer. My source is The Mayo Clinic: Web MD Slideshow: Top Cancer Fighting Foods. There are 19 updated and current suggestions for a healthy cancer diet. It suggests choosing a wide variety of "COLOR" when choosing veggies and fruits. Also your plate should be 2/3's veggies and no more than 1/3 protein. No sugar. Stevia is an herb and a good substitute for sugar. Drinking lots of filtered water really helps. I squeeze a little orange or other citrus into a big mug of water with ice and a little stevia and drink it all day long. It is yummy. I would also add if you are having a hard time cooking because your tired just throw organic veggies and berries in a blender with ice and drink a powerful smoothie daily. I have read that blending lots of colors such as beets and kale and carrots and celery with berries and yogert or banana increases the benefit because antioxidents are more powerful when eaten together. Nutrition can be a powerful tool in the fight against cancer.
Kathy
Dear Neil,
I have never had a doctor ask me what veggies are you eating? They ask me how do you feel and do some tests and sometimes write an RX. I am grateful for my doctors. But the job of eating healthy is up to me.
Foods that grows in the ground or on a tree are real. Antioxidents and vitamins and fiber are plentiful in veggies and fruits which fuel the body. Sugar and processed foods are linked to many modern day diseases such as diabetes or hypertension. It is a personal choice to eat well. Choosing an apple over cake makes sense to me.
I am so grateful for this excellent website and your care and kindness to all of us. Consider the possibility that what we eat may be important part of staying well.
Kathy
Hi Kathy,
I wholeheartedly agree with you regarding the benefits of eating unprocessed foods for better nutrition and to avoid excess sugar, salt and fat. While I recognise the name Dana Farber as having a very long association with research into curing cancer, I really haven't looked into the services they provide, given I live in another country. In response to your reply, I have looked a bit more closely at what Dana Farber say about nutrition and cancer. I'd say that what's happened is that you've looked at their Facebook page post referenced by SouthFloridaLady, which was specifically produced to address cancer food myths and respond with truths and you've made a wider judgement. If you go to Dana Farber's website as I did via a search for "dana farber cancer institute healthy eating cancer", I think you'll be pleasantly surprised. That search gave me this result:
Eating Well During Cancer
dana-farber.org/Health-Libr...
I haven't explored further, but just looking at the 8 accompanying images, there's a predominance of fresh and cooked vegetables along with some fruit and grains - and I can't see a single processed food item!
You are right to question the advice from any influential source with regards to bias. The source concerned may well be influenced by significant funding from (in this instance) manufacturers of processed foods and not want to lose that funding. That doesn't appear to be the case here if the accompanying advice and recipes match the images shown.
Neil 
Dear Neil,
The article you posted IS excellent. Thanks for sharing and all of your effort in finding this link. I hope CLL'ers will read this one. The Facebook post by South Florida Lady concerned me because of it's simple scope and what it didn't say in terms of help for cancer patients but the one you posted is amazing. So many of us are on W&W which to me is an opportunity to do what we can to maximize our health. Even during cancer treatment there are many articles about the powerful help of antioxidents . Because we are "tired" much of the time it is easier to grab what is handy to eat. I get it. A treat is also OK. But a small change in your eating can reap big rewards. Replacing the "white" foods with real whole foods that deliver nutrients just makes sense. Just like your article on "bugs" and "bacteria" that have been around and evolving for millions of years food that grows in the ground or on a tree has been man's diet until quite recently. Adding a power packed smoothie every day has increased my energy and I actually feel better. Getting away from diet drinks and empty calories has also helped me get to a better weight. Thanks as always for your amazing support. Enjoy your summer!
Kathy
It is indeed, up to us to make wise food choices. It is also sometimes not so cut and dried as we might think, e.g., recent research results published in the respected scientific journal, Nature, which indicate that antioxidants may not be beneficial to cancer patients: newsweek.com/antioxidants-m...
Just when you think you're doing the right thing, some new research bursts your bubble.
WOW, very interesting article! It makes you crazy! All you can do is what you think is your best.
The reason this article does not work is because antioxidents should come from real whole foods. Not in pill form. We should all be eating a "rainbow" of foods. No one knows what might be toxic for a cancer patient let along a healthy individual. Plus some antioxidents stay in the body longer than others and they all have a synergistic component when combined. Food has been evolving on this earth right along with man since the dawn of time. Eat a well rounded diet of real foods preferably organic and get rid of the processed foods which have shown up only in the past 100 years. This article did not burst my bubble. Try a healthy smoothie for a week and see how you feel I promise you will feel better.
Per Dana Farber the "presentation was put together and authored by our communications team here and it went live on October 29, 2015." IMHO, the Dana Farber Cancer Institute takes all aspects of the patients care into consideration, including their nutrition!
Dear South Florida Lady,
I do a lot of reading and reseach on nutrition. No one can make you eat properly that is up to you.
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