Briefly. I am at the "watch and worry" stage with my CLL. I am eating and drinking the following because they could possibly help against CLL:
A is for Anardana, an Indian medicinal spice made by grinding up pomegranate seeds.
B is for Brambles. Fruits of the bramble family including strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, rose hips, and pomegranates.
C is for the Cole family. These include cabbage, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, broccoli sprouts and sauerkraut.
D is for Drinking lots of water. This is important because I am increasing aerobic exercise in order to build blood volume.
E is for EGCG from green tea. I also drink green tea all day long with some rose hips bags (see Brambles) thrown in. (I now also add in a bit of rosemary powder.)
The other part of the "ABCDE minus L" diet is cutting back on lipids (fats and oils) as CLL cells love lipids the way other cancer cells love sugar.
I'm posting here to give you all an update. My blood test was slightly improved in January and the swelling in my lymph nodes had gone down so much that my doctor couldn’t feel them. Instead of every 3 months, she now just wants to see me every 6 months.
Also, I am feeling pretty healthy right now. The longer that continues, the better. Every day of good health is a treasure to be appreciated and enjoyed!
HowardR
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HowardR
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Can you tell what fats you still eat and how much? Olive oil, nuts, eggs and salmon are my staples. They keep my weight in check and seem to be healthy otherwise. Have not thought on cutting on that for CLL...
You are basically eating a Mediterranean diet which is low in sugars and, thus, effective against most cancer cells. Most cancer cells thrive on sugar. That's why doctors give you about a gallon of sugar water to drink an hour before taking a CT scan: most cancer cells "light up" when that glucose hits them.
But CLL cancer cells don't show up on CT scans. When roaming the blood stream they scavenge up lipids. Then they metabolize those lipids while multiplying within the oxygen-starved lymph nodes and bone marrow. See this study:
Basically, I am eating a Mediterranean diet but with one huge change. Instead of trying to minimize sugars, I'm trying to minimize lipids. So here are my answers to your questions about what I eat:
1. Olive Oil: Some in my cooking, but none elsewhere.
2. Nuts: Almost none.
3. Eggs: Almost none.
4. Salmon: About four 5 oz portions per week, avoiding salmon that is canned in oil.
Typical Meals:
Breakfast: Oatmeal with anardana and maple syrup for flavoring and a few squash seeds on top. Supplements: about 1200 mg. of EGCG.
Lunch: Vegetarian legume, rice and vegetable soup, partly flavored with anardana. Supplements to protect against COVID: 50 mg of Zinc, 5000 IU Vitamin D, and 20 mg of Quinine (400 mg chinchona bark).
Supper: Meat dish (about a 1/4 pound of lean meat) usually a stir-fry cooked with lots of vegetables and rice and lots of rosemary, garlic, salt and pepper. Supplements: about 1200 mg. of EGCG.
Typical Snacks:
Yogurt: with pomegranate juice powder and maple syrup for flavoring.
Cabbage-family based salad: Instead of using an oil-based salad dressing, I use a bit of pickle juice and cut up a pickle into my salad.
Sauerkraut.
Bread or Toast: with strawberry or raspberry jam but no butter.
1. No, I don't count the fat. I don't even measure when I cook!
2. I buy the anardana. There are lots of sources for small amounts, but all are expensive. In January 2020 I bought a 2 year supply from India on Ebay for just under $100. It took about a month to get it. I have been keeping it from clumping by putting dehumidifier packets (from empty supplement bottles) into the anardana jar. Here's the ebay link for this great buy:
Excellent , good to hear it’s working , eating healthier is always a big benefit but if I had to out one thing that’s shrunken your nodes it woukd be the EGCG as there is a research behind it
I also have read , eating organic tofu in veggies , carrot , celery , onion , chickpeas , Brussels sprouts , in stir fries is beneficial for iron and protein.
Your body needs a certain amount of fat but you want the healthy fats
Also you want to consume more complex carbs from squash , asparagus, bRussell sprouts , oatmeal , Kiiwi
and avoid simplex carbs like donuts and cake , potato chips
Thank you for the best wishes. I do eat lots of vegetables and I do avoid all of those high sugar, high fat foods, like donuts, that you mentioned.
You are correct that only the EGCG (from green tea) has been found to be effective against CLL with human subjects. However, there is some evidence that EA (ellagic acid from pomegranates, strawberries, rose hips and raspberries) and RA (rosemarinic acid from rosemary) could possibly help as well:
1. Like the patented anti-CLL drug ibrutinib, EA is a kinase inhibitor which can induce cell apoptosis. See:
I have been especially encouraged by the fourth study. It showed that, unlike EGCG and curcumin, EGCG, EA and RA can be more effective together than they are by themselves.
That's why I add rose hips (EA) and rosemary (RA) to the green tea (EGCG) that I drink all day long. My recipe: pour boiling hot water over 3 bags of green tea, 4 bags of rose hips tea (without hibiscus), and about 1/8 tsp of rosemary powder and let steep at least 10 minutes in a 1 quart thermos.
As I noted, my blood test was only slightly improved in January:
1. My ABS Lymphocyte count went down from 84.2 on 9/30/20 to 78.8 on 1/6/21
2. My WBC count went down from 94.6 on 9/30/20 to 88.6 on 1/6/21
I'll post another update after my next blood test in the middle of April.
You got me looking over my blood test records and I discovered that Curcumin was involved the only other time my that my bloodtests were improving. So I'm going to add in over 1 gram of curcumin to be taken with my lunch supplements. If EGCG and Curcumin are taken 4 hours apart, they don't much interfere with each other.
Thank you .It is very difficult to know what to do. I have stopped using beta glucan (which reduces cholesterol ) due to comments made that it may aggravate CLL. Your view however is different with the suggestion that lower lipids are beneficial.
Any other comments on this aspect would be appreciated.
I had my worst blood test on April 15 followed three weeks later (on May 5) by my best blood test since I started the ABCDE-L diet. I attribute my bad test to the fatty foods that I ate throughout Passover (March 27-April 4). I attribute my good test to what I did between tests:
1. I cut my fat and lipid consumption to almost zero.
2. I stepped up my aerobic exercise program.
3. I cut out the curcumin that I was taking with lunch because it might have been interfering with the green tea that I was drinking throughout the day.
If I continue the progress shown by my May 5 blood test, I will be able to make more claims for the ABCDE minus L diet in the future. Right now, the only claim that I can make is that eating lipids (fats and oil) appears to be bad for you if you have CLL. For the scientific basis for minimizing lipids, see the following study:
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Change in my CLL. Faster doubling time
The Impact of Diet on CLL
CLL and the Keto diet
An interesting paper on diet and CLL progression 
