Diet - are anticancer foods a thing?

There are a few different theory's regarding cancer and diet. I stopped carbs and sugar as soon as I found out mainly to prepare myself for surgery as overweight and unhealthy. Felt better in my self almost immediately and have made a very good recovery. Keto is supposed to be beneficial . I think it helps to look after your self eat well low carbs less processed food. A bit of chocolate never hurts. 

I'll let you have chocolate.....perhaps dark is better than milk.....as the evidence about diet for cancer is quite patchy.

However, there are one or two things which continue to be said.

Firstly eating a healthy diet is never a bad thing. Fruit , veg, protein, restricted sugar, is good for health in genetal.

Secondly, I was told by a dietician after treatment to reduce diary products. It's a personal thing but I thought ' what if I didn't and the cancer came back' I would never know if cutting out diary might have helped. So I decided to do that. Not obsess.......if the alternative wasn't available or I was at someone's house but generally replace things....so I replaced all cow's yogurt for either plant or chevre or brebis. Cream I replaced with soya products, milk I replaced with calcium enhanced almond milk and that meant changing my tea to the Perfect for non dairy selection. I eat mainly goats cheeses. I do eat meat but try to eat plenty of poultry and rabbit to reduce fat.

Has it worked or helped? Who know's? But I have never felt deprived and I have never chosen a ' fad' food or some of the disgusting concoctions ( sorry if they're anyone's  favourites. I know it's  personal taste.) which you can read online . Has it worked? My cancer was in 2015 and was TNBC. Therefore after chemo and radiotherapy the only control I had was diet and to date my cancer hasn't returned. In fact my surgeon signed me off at 5 years saying TNBC rarely returns after that time although remain vigilant in case of a different one. With that information, I continue to eliminate as much dairy as possible.

Hope your treatment goes well. Obviously your head is spinning at the present so I shouldn't worry too much about diet just yet. If you have chemo you will probably find you have to make diet changes as your taste can change or your appetite. 

Take care.

Love Karen

I received an interesting booklet as part of the wad of info I got given. It was just on eating healthily and more of a Mediterranean diet. go for the healthier options like brown bread, rice, pasta not white. less pastry, less processed foods, less cakes n biscuits. Like you I could not go without a small choc fix in evening but have cut down and go for quality not quantity. Also with the diet it did encourage exercise but this is hard for me as I already have a crap hip and with the bad sleep I'm constantly tired. Also, give up smoking and drink less (luckily I don't do either!)

To be honest, its up to you and your body. I found my appetite went off mainly due to stress and anxiety, post op drugs and tiredness so I tend to snack a little and often. google is not always a good idea, try the Macmillan site too as I've found this better like here:

https://www.macmillan.org.uk/cancer-information-and-support/impacts-of-cancer/healthy-eating-and-cancer

take one day at a time x

Hi I suffer with ulcerative colitis too and in 2012 was so bad basically couldn’t eat anything without living on the toilet. I researched on google because I had to find something that would help me. I found a book called Breaking the Vicious Cycle it’s a very interesting read, about diet and the part it plays in disease in the body. So I tried the diet it tells you about. Eating whole foods cutting out dairy ( I still make my own goats milk yogurt that’s lactose free), eating simple carbohydrates and cutting out sugar,I used honey instead. I stuck to it for about 2 years and I was really healthy my colitis was controlled, but the problem is that I didn’t continue with it altogether,  there’s so many things that I wanted to eat, I just wanted to be normal again and eat what everyone else was eating and chocolate, the first time I had chocolate after 2 years it tasted so sweet.

Anyway if anyone is interested the book is called Breaking the Vicious Cycle and is by a lady called Elaine Gottschall.

I've done most of the changes that Lacomtekp has made to my diet, though certain things like the occasional pastry and biscuit have crept back in. When I was first diagnosed I chose all my foods from foodforbreastcancer.com where there's a section for tnbc. I read lots about carrots! and have a glass of juice a day. Plus I get vitamin D from my GP every two months, my onco thought it was worthwhile keeping up the levels. I haven't. touched alcohol since; not easy as loved a glass of chilled white and champagne oooo.

However, can but try. I'm nearly three years since diagnosis, so a way to go yet to the magic 5 years. But grateful for being here today and as I'm 71 things start to wear out anyway

Thank you to everyone for your replies. Really appreciate all your advise and wise words.

I drink lactose free milk at home as the hubby is slightly lactose intolerant, but other than a splash in my morning coffee I don't really drink much milk. I'm changing my coffee for green tea as I know thats way better - in general not just for cancer. 

I'm such a foodie, eating makes me happy. But I know I need to make sure I look after my body better. I'm going to cut out as much sugary and processed food as possible. I do love salads and stirfrys so I may just have those all the time with chicken or salmon.

I'm pretty active, I have a 6 and 9 year old and my job is quite physical. So i'm always on the go - or at least it feels that way!

Once again, thank you all for you replies. The support on this website is amazing xxxx 

Sounds a bit like my diet was, I even made my own sauce when I was having stir fry, because I couldn’t eat anything with sugar.

Sweet and Sour Sauce

1 large spoon of honey

Pinch of paprika

Pinch of cayenne pepper

1 centimeter of ginger grated

1/4 bulb of garlic crushed

Splash of apple cider vinegar

2 tsps of lemon juice

Mix all together then heat in a small saucepan before serving.

obviously it’s done to your own taste and I also made it with honey, lemon juice, paprika and apple cider vinegar and added the ginger and garlic to the stir fry instead.

I haven’t had a proper cup of tea with milk for 8 years because I can’t drink milk. Pukka green tea is lovely not quite as bitter as some. Just don’t put boiling water on it as it scorches the leaves.

Wow thanks for asking this.  I have not made drastic changes to my diet and this is very helpful.  Thank you so much.

Wow, that sounds good!!! I'll try that. Thank you.

Hi Karen

Having been recently diagnosed with TNBC, I have tried searching for foods to assist me with this fight and have read about cutting out dairy products, but I love cheese and milk......

What are the alternatives?

Also, having not received a date to start chemo yet (have MRI & CT scans tomorrow) wondered if I can continue to eat dairy until this starts?

Louise x