WHAT IS AN ANTI CANCER DIET

[ricky23]

Hi there I have never heard of an Anti Cancer diet. Can someone fill me in I tend to eat what I fancy but if this diet can help then I'll give it a go !! Thank you

[Annr5h]

Never heard of a anti cancer diet, if I asked my ongologist about it he would say nothing has been proved eat what you want in moderation. Keep it healthy.

[Yoshbosh]

Hi Ricky,

There are several books on 'anti-cancer' diets. I can't remember all the things they cover, but things like cutting back on dairy, meat, sugars, eating more whole foods, lots of veg etc. I'm sure Amazon sell them!

Yosh x

[SCWI]

You can read all about anti-cancer diet in Chris Woolams's book The Rainbow Diet and How it can help you beat Cancer. Full of good ideas and tips and available online. You want to keep your diet as alkaline as possible as cancer thrives in an acid environment. Loads of vegetables of every colour, non acid fruit, complex carbohydrates like brown rice and protein from lean chicken, fish and occasional organic red meat maybe once a week. Also juicing veggies and cook using Asian spices like turmeric, cumin and herbs. Lots of raw garlic in dressings too. Good luck. Xx

[Purple-iris]

Hi Ricky

There is so much conflicting advice about diet. I have always eaten more fish and chicken than red meat and I asked about cutting out diary and keeping to alkaline but was told by my team that a balanced diet is best and not good to cut out a food group. My daughter was into blending , we were then advised best to stick with whole foods where possible and not to blend ! So confusing . Have every respect for those ladies trying 'anti-cancer diets ' but it does imply that we have control over our cancer and as many lovely ladies on here have proved ,despite their best efforts this is not the case .

As far as I know there is no medical evidence that alkaline diets work and the body adjusts back to its own level .Trying to remember the name but there was a good TV documentary about this where a dr investigated the claims . If you are still on chemo you have to be careful with spices especially turmeric so check with your oncolygist . I was told not to have it while on Avastin as it can also thin the blood.

After lots of confusion and discussion with the supporting services at Guys I have decided to take my teams advice and stick to their recommendations for a balanced diet from all food groups, making healthy options where possible and avoiding too much sugar but still allowing myself to enjoy a skinny latte and cake with friends. 😀

Think we all have to find what works for us . Macmillian web site has some info on diet and have heard that Penny Brohn does a great course. Good luck with your research and remember to be kind to yourself and the important thing is to enjoy your food whatever options you go for. Love and best wishes Kim x

[eileen_alberti in reply to Purple-iris]

I LIKE THAT ADVICE. Stay as normal as possible in spite of what you can't control. I believe that the body knows what it needs and with prudence we should eat accordingly. Amen. Blessings to all, Eileen

[eileen_alberti in reply to Purple-iris]

I'm all in with your post. having grown up with a Mother that started fad diets and tried to push them on us kids, I early on knew it was all bogus.

I've been drinking lots of water [good girl] but crave Sunkist orange soda [? what's up with that] so I have 2/6 oz. a day. Then I feel better. Yesterday I woke up with a craving for a slice of bread with butter. Boy, that was good. Then I cut into an avocado, yum.

Blessings to all, Eileen

[lesleysage]

A dietician worked through with me during second chemo, when I was struggling to eat, what foods my tummy enjoyed; to concentrate on these (narrowed a lot as chemo progressed but recovered when through it all) and then 'bulk up' the quality using different oils instead of dairy, have snacks of medool dates, semi-dried figs and what nuts settled in my tummy, use honey & coconut oil as the base for my home-made flapjack & cut out sugar, which wasn't difficult for me.

If I recall correctly some experiments, about four years ago or so, in mice suggested it worth looking at how sugars (& 'simple' carbohydrates) could be linked to a faster growth of cancer cells - or rather the lack of them was associated with slower growth. The periods of almost 'starvation' from simple carbohydrates (sugars) and reduced proteins with the focus on complex carbohydrates and smaller quantities of protein (meat, eggs etc) seemed to be linked with much slower cancer rates and when this was coupled with a chemo drug (they used a breast cancer drug) the growth rate slowed again. The researchers were clear that for a phase 1 trial in humans they would need to be very careful about the length of 'starvation periods'; don't think it has got to the point of testing in humans but the principles are there if we take great care of ourselves and just do a day or two of complex carbs + small amount of protein of what you fancy is what 'my' dietician would have suggested.

In the end, with the dietician's advice, I pretty much ended up with many of the ingredients mentioned by SCW1 from The Rainbow Diet that settled well in my tummy. And still enjoy this mix of foods, now with a lot more variety, almost four years later....with no recurrence so far...next three-monthly CA125 in 2 weeks!

Hope today is as good a day as it can be for everyoone,

Lesley

[Emsymits]

I've been doing basically what Lesleysage says. The rainbow diet book is good but I think 'Life over cancer' by Keith block is better as by an oncologist and a bit less full on. I've had the odd grumpy blip and taken solace in wine and choc biscuits but been quite good overall although not completely ruled out any food group just really reduced them.

It may be coincidence but I'm about to have my last chemo (fingers crossed for bloods this pm!) and have had virtually no side effects except for a bit of fatigue in the week post each treatment.

Em

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