In Focus: Diet and Cancer

[OvacomeSupport]

Dear All

As I mentioned in a previous post, the In Focus topic for May is diet and cancer. I asked what you'd like information on as part of this and so far the requests have been veganism and bowel issues. So the sub-topics will be veganism/anti-cancer diets; bowel issues; and possibly sugar for the final post, although if you have any other requests do let me know.

As you'll all be aware, there is an awful lot of information out there about diet and cancer! I'm not a dietitian and for specialist advice you can always ask your oncology team for a referral to a dietetics service. These posts will just be to provide some sources of reliable information and prompt discussion of your own experiences.

Here are some general sources of diet information to start off:

Macmillan: macmillan.org.uk/informatio... Macmillan have information on managing weight gain after cancer treatment, the building-up diet if you've lost weight during treatment, recipes, and healthy eating.

Cancer Research UK: cancerresearchuk.org/about-... Including an interesting section on food controversies here: cancerresearchuk.org/about-...

The World Cancer Research Fund does a lot of work around prevention, but they also have booklets on eating well during cancer and healthy living after cancer here: wcrf-uk.org/uk/here-help/pu...

Those of you who have visited the Penny Brohn centre in Bristol will know they do a lot of work around food and nutrition. They have some resources available here on healthy eating, some recipes and information on the idea of mindful eating. pennybrohn.org.uk/services/...

I hope this information is helpful. Please do let me know what else would be useful and I'll include it in upcoming posts. (I'm away Mon-Wed next week so apologises in advance for any delay in responding to comments but I'll look at them all on Thursday),

Best wishes

Anna

[riverside]

Hi Anna. One of the issues I have discussed with Hani Gabra who is my consultant and about which I get very cross is the constant reporting in the press about the link between being overweight and getting cancer. I think it is disgraceful that we are accused of bringing this on ourselves. I was a little overweight when I was diagnosed and the 4 lines of chemo I have had have not helped but I am relatively fit and have run my own business for many years including during treatment. It is very hurtful and I have yet to see any supporting evidence - almost all the women I know who have the disease are normal weight and pretty fit. My onc has told me many times that it is either genes or bad luck! In my case bad luck. When one is feeling horrible having chemo the last thing you need is people playing the blame game. Thanks for listening to my rant!! Marie

[OvacomeSupport Partner My Ovacome Team in reply to riverside]

Hello Marie

Thank you for your reply. As you say, it is very hurtful and not at all helpful if there is any suggestion that people are to blame for their cancers. I'm not planning on doing any posts regarding obesity. The purpose of the series of diet posts will just be to share links to information that is reliable and useful, if people are interested. There is so much misinformation around food and cancer so this will be to provide some safe resources.

Please feel free to rant whenever you need to! The forum is here for that and you can also ring me to rant down the phone if you need to

Best wishes

Anna

[Neona]

Hi Anna, I am interested in how diet may be able to help the kidneys after they have been damaged by chemo. Many thanks, Wendy

[OvacomeSupport Partner My Ovacome Team in reply to Neona]

Hi Wendy

That's a really interesting question. I will look into this and post to let you know what I find out.

Best wishes

Anna

[Neona in reply to OvacomeSupport]

Thank you.