About one year ago I discovered this wonderful site. I had been diagnosed with Mantle cell lymphoma in July 2015 and had R Chop and a stem cell transplant. One year ago I had just started a gluten free and dairy free diet and I felt great. I suggested that anyone who had lymphoma and an autoimmune disease to eliminate gluten, dairy, and to go on a paleo diet as suggested by many authors on autoimmune conditions. My search for the best anti cancer diet has now l led me to the whole food plant based diet. I now believe that the paleo diet is bad for the heart and bad for cancer. Please read "The China Study" by T Colin Campbell Phd, "Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease" by Dr Caldwell Esselstyn, and "How Not to Die" by Dr Michael Greger. All give science based evidence that meat, chicken, fish, eggs, and dairy are bad for our health and are cancer promoting. Also please read "Radical Remission" by Kelly Turner, Phd. She interviewed 1000 people whose cancer went into remission and lists the nine things they all did. As for food, all gave up meat, sweets, wheat, and dairy. Please watch the above authors on you tube. I believe all these books are available at the library.
Peace and good health!
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Maltipoo
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Thanks for the book titles, Maltipoo. I'll order them at the library. I'm currently reading Eat to Beat Disease by Dr. William Li and enjoying it very much. Any positive changes we can make in diet and lifestyle will pay dividends even if we have to have conventional treatments. I've given up wheat, sugar and processed foods and only eat fermented dairy and feel much better for it.
Thank you so much for good information. I have NHL Waldenstroms. Did Bendamustine one time but didn’t continue. Just finished Ritixan. 4 treatments Not feeling sick
. Just light headed and a bit tired. And a rash. But doing normal activities.
His Maltipoo, Thanks for your information on diet.
However, I think it is always best to consult a medical practitioner before anyone embarks on a diet. We are all unique and what 'works' for one person may have detrimental effects on another. Only a dietitian/GP can advise you as to whether a particular diet will help you or not. It depends on your general health, weight, bloods, stage of treatment etc.
Thank you so much for your note. I would urge everyone to consult their doctor/medical practitioner before changing their diet. Last year my oncologist advised me that the statistics show my lymphoma could return within 2 years which would be 5 years from my stem cell transplant. I then asked what could I do to help keep it from coming back he said exercise can help but there is no evidence that one particular diet will keep the cancer from coming back. It was then I decided to do my own research which led me to go gluten free and then to also go vegan. I meet with my doctor four times a year and he has no issues with my diet. I have gone from eating bagels, pizza, chicken, hot dogs, hamburgers, cake, cookies, ice cream chips, bacon, eggs, to a diet of plant based whole foods. I eat more fruits and vegetables in a day than I would eat in a month. I am 64 years of age and I have dropped 40 pounds and feel great. I guess time will only tell if I have taken the right road. If the lymphoma comes back at least I have tried to eat the most nutritious diet that I could find. If I had not changed my diet and the lymphoma returned I would always wonder if I should have changed things up.
If you get a chance please read two of the books I mentioned in the post; "How Not to Die" by Dr Michael Greger and "Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease" by Dr Caldwell Esselstyn. Most doctors today receive very little training in nutrition. These doctors give scientific proof that the whole food plant based diet is the best diet for the prevention of many cancers, heart disease, hypertension, type two diabetes, stokes, and many others.
Good luck and good health!
Hi. I've believed this for a long time but i've suffered worse fatigue on it. I function now better on loads of cooked vegetables (supposedly better for absorption if minerals) and adequate animal protein and reduced carbs. Its been a long journey. I haven't cured the cancer but I literally can't function on plant based diet.
Hi inspiraller, thank you for your reply. I have been eating this way only a year and am still making adjustments. I follow Dr John McDougall's advise who believes in a starch based diet. He says you can not fill yourself up without having potatoes, sweet potato, or rice in your diet. Then you add the beans (kidney beans, chickpeas) and other vegetables and fruits in your diet. I am eating huge bowls of food and I have to weigh myself daily to make sure I am not losing too much weight.
Here is my typical daily diet:
Organic oatmeal with half cup frozen organic blueberries and 1 tablespoon flaxseed meal. Also a banana, apple, orange. Cup of green tea.
5 cups of organic greens (lettuce, kale, spinach, arugula) with 2 tablespoons of hummus with one quarter teaspoon of turmeric and black pepper. Fruit as needed.
Can of chickpeas or kidney beans (3 servings) with either a lot of potato, sweet potato, or rice, with vegetable like squash, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, turnip, onions.
Hot air popcorn with no added oils and/or hummus and rice cakes and tomatoes.
I am able to eat as much as I want and have no fatigue. I play handball or racketball 3 times a week and walk my dog daily. I wonder if you were eating enough starch (potato, sweet potato, rice) or beans (chickpeas, kidney beans) I also cook everything except my greens at lunch time. I don't think I could survive on eating my other vegetables raw.
Please let me know what you think. I would love to find out what is causing the fatigue.
Starch foods, especially potato, oats, rice spike my blood sugar. They do give me energy but they can also drain it. Potatoes help me sleep so sometimes i have 1 jacket potato with my last meal. Oats are great for bowel movements but they can exacerbate my ibs. I haven't sussed my routine yet but getting closer to it. I get regular htma diagnostic and bloods.
My father was diagnosed with MCL at 84. I tried hard to change his diet to a plant based one. I also changed mine. When I was plant based I had more energy and was more supple. I started gymnastics and while I was on a plant based diet I didn’t pull any muscle or have any injuries. At the age of 48 I managed to do a backward walkover! Then things changed and I went back to eating meat. I put on weight and had less energy. I’ve just started my vegan diet again. I will now stop eating gluten after reading Maltipoos advice as I also have an under active thyroid.
I’m really writing to give you some ideas of how to eat health and feel full.
Any vegetable soup with yellow mung daal. Roast the daal first. Add lentils to rice. Eat sesame paste like tahini. I make a sauce with this by blending green chilli, green coriander, lemon juice and tahini and salt. You can heat crushed garlic in olive oil and add this to make it even more tasty. I do eat a lot of olive oil. I read that a healthy first should be 40%carb 30%protein and 30% oil. Extra virgin olive oil,coconut oil or avocado oil. No sun flour, corn, peanut etc. This is to keep
Omega 3 high and omega 6 low.
Lentils beans and pulses are great for protein and sesame paste feels like a cream. You can get dosa mix and make pancakes too. I hope this helps.
Hi Lails, thank you for the post and the very tasty sounding vegetable soup. I will definitely try it. It is not easy to get people to change their diets and I am sure if my dad was still alive he would not want to change his lifelong way of eating. I have been eating vegan and no gluten for a year now and I try to read as much as I can on the benefits of a whole food plant based diet. From what I have read, please be careful about eating so much oil. Dr Caldwell Esselstyn has done amazing work with heart patients who were in very tough shape. He advises a whole food plant based diet with no oils at all. Also Dr McDougall would say the fat you eat is the fat you wear. Oil has no fiber, no antioxidants, no vitamins. It is purely dense calories. Please search the internet and listen to Drs Esselstyn, McDougall, Popper, and Greger. I believe they are on the right path but research and decide what you think is best. Thank you again!
I have been plant based for 7 yrs and read all of the books you mentioned. The China Study was the book that rocked my world. Any book by John McDougall has also helped me cure my colitis,skin flare ups. Stay well!
Thank you for your reply! I wish I had read their books years ago and had followed their advise on plant based whole foods. Better late than never! I have been re reading the China Study the last week and last night watched T Colin Campbell on you tube for two hours. I guess I better get a life, but I believe following their works I will hopefully continue my life! Are their any other books you recommend?
Well I've eaten all that stuff in moderation all my life and I am 83 now. Have lived in remission with Folicular NHL since 1984. Of course, I could die anytime now, but I don't believe those things you mention are that bad. Unless we can grow our own food organically, nothing is very good for us anymore. Living a long time depends a lot on our DNA and who our ancestors were, I do believe. Mind you, I have never smoked and I drink moderately, so that probably helped. I think that there is nothing wrong with the Canadian Food guidelines and they include all those things.
Hi, I've read many book re nutrition and believe if you have an autoimmune condition (like mine under-active thyroid), the best diet is low Gi, low carb paleo or keto diet. The legumes and grains are actually not good for bodies as you can find out in the following books. There seem to be a common ground between the authors (mentioned further) of autoimmune diets and cancer diets, they both suggest low carb. The difference is see is that the anti cancer diets contain animal protein only as a side & preferably fish or chicken. (The autoimmune solution - Amy Myers, Dr. Terry Wahls - Wahls Protocol, Isabella Wentz - Thyroid Pharmacist, Jane McLelland - How to starve cancer, Dr. Nasha Winters - Metabolic Approach to Cancer).
Thank you for you reply. I do not profess to have all the answers but let me tell you about my journey in the world of nutrition. About 3 years ago my daughter started to develop autoimmune symptoms. Her symptoms looked like Sjogrens, Hashimoto's, chronic fatigue. I read "The Autoimmune Solution" by Dr Amy Myers, "The Wahls Protocol" by Dr Terry Wahls, and "The Autoimmune Fix" by DR Tom O'Bryan. These books were lifesavers for my daughter since she had been to 8 different doctors at a world famous hospital here in Boston and they could not come up with a diagnosis. Her giving up dairy and gluten as suggested by the books relieved her symptoms by 80%. 2 years prior to this I came down with Mantle Cell Lymphoma and my diet was the typical SAD (standard American diet) diet. Since my daughter gave up the dairy and gluten I decided to give it a try and within a week my morning stiffness in my joints disappeared. I swore by their books but I was reading a book review where someone wrote in to look at T Colin Campbell's "The China Study", Dr Michael Greger's book "How Not to Die" and Dr Caldwell Esselstyn's book "Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease". All the books promote a whole food plant based diet. I believe this is the best diet for preventing heart disease, high blood pressure, cancer, and diabetes. Also please look at the books and youtube presentations by Dr Joel Fuhrman, Dr Michael Klaper, Dr Goldhamer, Dr McDougall, Dr Kim Williams, Dr Milton Mills. Finally please look at the short youtube video by Dr Lim who went from a Paleo diet to a whole food plant based diet. His patients have had some amazing results on a whole food plant based diet. youtu.be/tbH6TIdtZ3Q
5 years ago a professor of oncology suggested keto which 'shrinks tumours'. One year ago when my husband's remission ceased we started on keto. difficult but for me it lowered my cholesterol to 3. Husband has yet to show any tumours and has good bloods. 75% fat is hard - seems very counter intuitive but plenty of books with diet suggestions and internet is good. All fats must be organic and range/grass fed - only coconut and good (organic) butter, lard and duck fat for cooking. Lots of organic cheese and we have access to raw full-cream milk. Heaps of pre-biotics and fermented foods.
Thank you very much for the reply. I have listened to a number of talks on line by Dr Thomas Seyfried about cancer being a metabolic disease and not a genetic disease. It appears that cancer cells get their energy from fermentation and not respiration and that cutting down carbohydrates to a very low level will prevent the cancer from getting the energy it needs. I am open to anything but I think I will stick to the whole food plant based diet for the time being and if the cancer comes back I will look more into Dr Seyfried's work. I am kind of afraid to eat so much fat. It may help the cancer but I feel it will do havoc to the heart and arteries. I think I will try fasting and intermittent fasting which may disrupt the energy to the cancer cells. I am so glad the keto is working for you and your husband. Thank you for sharing!
I have been Plant based for 10 yrs now and feel good. I think my diet helped me recover faster after a stem cell transplant in November 2020. My doctors told me I was an A+ patient. I also think exercise, prayer, meditation, and keeping stress low is important. Thanks for sharing!
Thank you for the reply. It is great to see another follower of the whole food plant based way of eating. I totally agree with you about exercise, prayer, mediation and stress reduction. I try to get to Mass every day that it is open and have increased my exercise to 5 days a week. My pre cancer diet was horrible and now I eat more fruits and vegetables in one day than I would eat in a month. Do you follow any particular plant based doctor or dietician and what does your typical daily menu look like.Thank you and good health!
I have been following Dr. McDougall for many moons. I was a sloppy vegetarian for many years. I became vegan and started getting rid of old unhealthy habits. I eat at least 1lb of fresh vegetables and 1 lb of steamed vegetables everyday. I love starchy veggies and tofu. I eat at least 3 pieces of fresh fruit daily. Air popped popcorn is a favorite snack. Blessings to you!
Congratulations on how you deal with your illness, we have the same disease and when I read your comment, I got strength to deal with my illness, thanks
Thank you for your reply. Besides the radical change in my diet, I also try to walk or exercise daily and I also attend mass 4 days a week. All of these things have helped me greatly. Good luck and good health to you!
I read those books and I agree that the WFPB diet makes me feel great. The China Study really woke me up. Dr. John McDougall is another author I recommend reading. May we all stay in remission forever.
Thank you for the reply. I have read The China Study three times and it is an amazing book, especially for people with cancer. Dr McDougall is great. I have read his book "The Starch Solution" and it showed me that eating potatoes, sweet potatoes, rice, and corn is the way to feel full and satisfied. Have you gone on line at drmcdougall.com and under his newsletter article index you can read all his past newsletters. Very informative.Peace and Good Health!
I am on alkaline diet, use super greens, barley grass, no meat., CBD oil as part of my change regime. My treatment was out on hold a s condition stabilised, bloods were healthy again, 3 years now watch and wait. Look at book Chris best cancer, good info. I will read your references and see if I can build on what I currently do. Good health.
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Advice for new lymphoma diagnosis
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