Diagnosed in October and have just had my lumpectomy for ER+ / PR+ / HER2- BC this week. I am looking at complementary actions that I can take to help my body do well and prevent recurrence.
Based on various books / articles that I read - e.g. Radical Remission, Jane Plant’s work and others, it seems like it would be beneficial to reduce / restrict dairy, particularly cow’s milk. This is particularly tough for me as more than half our family’s breakfast’s are cereal + milk or porridge. I dislike most of the plant-based milks that I tried, particularly in coffee. Also, I LOVE cheese and greek yoghurt.
I have far fewer issues with giving up / reducing red meat and sugar. Also, our son is only 5, and am considering how to keep his diet balanced without having to prepare 3 different breakfasts, as obviously he will have very different needs to mine and so will my husband.
Any advice out there from people in a similar situation?
Thanks
As you are Er+ positive are you on / starting endocrine therapy ? If you are on or going to start an AI ( Letrozole Anastrozole Exemestane ) there’s a risk of osteoporosis and you will need to have a calcium rich diet . Whole milk is usually better as it contains more calcium naturally - it has to be added to skimmed and other types of milk.
This is not an issue if you’re on / starting Tamoxifen.
I have read some of Tim Spector’s book and according to him and other sources live fermented foods including some dairy ones like kefir and Greek Yoghurt may help to prevent cancer because they support the immune system which helps to prevent chronic inflammation and disease . I am having kefir and live yoghurt and unpasteurised cheese occasionally , plus kombucha , sauerkraut and kimchi - i thought i would hate the last 2 but I actually like them.
I wouldn’t be in a hurry to give up dairy especially if you don’t like the alternatives but maybe you could go Organic that way you know that there aren’t things added that might not be good for you . An alternative might be goats milk which is higher in fat sugar and calories than cows milk but also has more protein vitamins and minerals - it’s often tolerated much better by the human digestive system than cows milk as it’s also lower in lactose . From that point of view it might be considered healthier .
As a cautionary tale I was eating a lot of soy at one point to help with AI side effects as I understood this was not the same as taking oestrogen or taking Soy supplements which are very concentrated and possibly not good for ER + cancer . I had no problems til I started drinking soy milk at which point I had a mild episode of post - menopausal bleeding . The Nurses thought this could not be related to the soy milk but it stopped when I stopped drinking it. I then remembered that just before my periods stopped I had bled for a whole month - at that time I was also drinking soy milk and my friend told me to stop having it after which the bleeding also quickly stopped . I don’t seem to have a problem with tofu or soy in sauces etc but I’m wondering if the soy in milk is more concentrated somehow - I won’t be having it again.
I honestly think that most things are ok in moderation . One thing I have been doing is a 13 hour + fast overnight between evening meal and breakfast as cancer cells need more energy than normal cells to grow so that overnight fast is supposed to starve them out .
I have to say though Christmas has wrecked my healthy eating habits and I need to get back on track !
It’s a bit of minefield with diet and supplements after BC - best of luck , you will find your way through it
I wouldn’t start restricting your diet in any way. Eat a healthy balanced diet of whole foods. Keeping weight down and weight bearing exercise are known to help reduce ER+ BC recurrence, apparently by up to 50%. Losing weight is hard when your taking hormone therapy but any reduction in weight and upping exercise is going to massively help. All the best for your recovery.
Hello thanks all for your thoughts. After reading this, my gut feeling tells me to do the following:
replace cow’s milk with alternatives (can try a variety and see how I respond to either soy or other options)
replace cow’s cheese where possible with goat’s (if solid) or other spreads (hummus, guacamole)
keep yoghurt in the live form such as kefir
This seems to me like the right thing at the moment and already a massive improvement compared to my previous diet.
Weight isn’t an issue for me (although might be once I start on Tamoxifen) and I do believe that some intervention on the nutrition can be helpful, numerous scientific articles and doctors to recommend it.
If anyone did go this way and has recommendations on good milk alternatives with added calcium, that would be great!
For what it’s worth, my son has been vegan for years (with a very active job as a tree surgeon!) and his wife adopted the diet and their daughter(6) and son (5) have been brought up on a vegan diet. They are very healthy inquisitive and active kids! Consequently we made changes to our diet to make things easier for visits or days out together. (And we’re stock farmers!) First we ate less meat, until we began to prefer a meat-free diet. (I’m sure it would have been harder to say ‘we stop eating meat today’!) But taken in steps, it’s not so hard at all. When my husband developed heart disease he decided to work harder still at a totally dairy free diet. I still enjoy a meat meal occasionally - a really nice (small) steak for instance. Then it’s quite a treat! I thought I’d find bacon hard to give up at first but having it less and less, I now find it horribly strong and salty and don’t like it at all. My husband has gone right off meat and milk now and doesn’t miss it, but he does miss a bit of cheese. However, there are so many meat and cheese substitutes now - they’ve all improved hugely over the last few years but you DO have to look for them and experiment. I always use vegan stocks for every meal or soup ( the best is Veg (vegan) Bouillon by Marigold health foods) Interesting how we can gradually change our tastes! I don’t mind the various milks (again there are so many!) but I have tended to stick with semi-skimmed cows milk - although I intend to use it gradually less and less. Our fridge offers a wide choice!
It helps that my son and daughter in law are very good cooks and everyone looks forward to a meal at their house! Their wedding was vegan - they and their friends made all the food - and my meat loving relatives were very sceptical! They made jokes about bringing their own meat sandwiches etc etc… but then they went home with vegan recipes - I kid you not!
Having said that - they/we do eat eggs - we have friends with free range chickens!
My grandchildren drink special fortified children’s vegan milk. You do have to make sure kids get the right vitamins etc but from looking at my grandkids a meat/dairy-free (or even just a bit less meat and dairy) diet can be as healthy for them as for us! Sorry if I’ve rambled😂 good luck with it!
Hi I have been recently diagnosed and have two young children ( 8 and almost 6). My cancer is also er+ pr+ and her neg. I have also been looking into food and breast cancer. I have been eating lots of fruit and veg and have cut out sugar and most refined carbs e.g. white bread pasta ( I usually ate whole/ brown versions anyway). I am pescatarian and haven’t eaten meat since I was 14. The problem is every time I google most foods I get such contradictory information. For example, I have seen information both for and against eggs. I also have seen for and against dairy. I gave up caffeine and then read something saying that evidence shows it can reduce recurrence!!! So am now having coffee again. It is a complete minefield. Also I am very slim and with the stress of my diagnosis I have lost too much weight so it’s important for me to not have a limited diet . I found out future dreams hold webinars about live courses about nutrition so I think I might go on one of these.
@Geeps Thank you that is very helpful, I already found a couple of fortified milks and will give them a try. Also your advice to change diet gradually makes sense, although it’s been years we said as a family that we would reduce our meat intake and haven’t really. Hope this time around the motivation will be sky-high and my husband will also support. If we do it together it will definitely be easier.
@eb13 I definitely see what you mean, it’s a minefield out there with conflicting advice. A friend recommended Radical Remission (a book about “spontaneous” remissions) - and although I highly doubt I’d be in that case and will definitely take everything that conventional medicine has to offer, it recommends these changes on nutrition:
reduce or eliminate sugar, meat, dairy and refined foods
increase vegetable and fruit intake
eat organic foods
drink filtered water
It all seems more than reasonable to me and anyway I will not have the will power (or desire) to eliminate but heavily reducing foods that I think will not help gives me some sense of empowerment. As long as I don’t do anything too radical and that can be sustained long-term, focus on why I do it (have more time in this world with my son and husband) and not on short-term outcomes, I hope I’ll be able to write an update on this in 10 years time
I do get however what you say, I don’t believe that my diet was particularly bad before, I’m a healthy weight and relatively fit. What I do think is that possibly the genetic or hormonal profile that I had heavily predisposed me to this, and coupled with the stress and lack of sleep of the past few years, this tumour came to life. So, I’m throwing everything at it.
A bit of a long post, thanks for the patience in reading it!
I know what you mean and I’m sure stress had a part to play in me developing BC .
If you want to try different milks I can recommend oat milk in lattes and tea and hot chocolate made with coconut milk was delicious ( though obviously not that healthy ) .
A product called ‘This Isn’t Chicken’ is good! You can get these ‘chicken’ pieces for a casserole or similar. Linda McCartney veggie sausages too. I don’t think you’ll be able to tell the difference! Quorn can be a good substitute although it’s not vegan and products differ quite a bit. I agree, it can be a minefield, but once you learn what hidden things to look for (like sugar/dairy/salt) it gets quicker and easier - and very interesting too!
Yes it can get so very confusing! I have a friend who is overweight and counted drinking healthy fruit juice as one of his five a day but didn’t realise how much sugar that was!! Every time you ‘find’ an answer, you find a contradiction somewhere! Is there a dietitian available at your local surgery/hospital?
We gave a meat-eating farmer friend Linda McCartney sausages with veggie gravy, mash and peas…when we told him he’d eaten veggie sausages he wouldn’t believe us! If I’d told him before, he’d have probably refused to try them!!
I definitely think stress could be a factor for me. I am still a bit stuck on the dairy aspect. At home we have organic dairy and I actually just have natural yoghurt, cheese and butter as I have oat milk. I have red low fat dairy is fine ( although I have b en having full fat cheese). One of my problems is that I think that the dairy I have is an important source of protein and fat for me given my low weight. Organic is great but it’s so expensive. My husband was happy to get the organic dairy but feels like organic everything else is just too much.
I just want some really reputable strongly evidence based information. I am going to follow advice from here and ask at my GP surgery.
For me a Mediterranean diet, resistance exercise, meditation and a focus on self care have helped me on this journey. If you are really interested “ anti-cancer: a new way of life “ is well worth a read and browsing https://pennybrohn.org.uk/our-approach/services/ a UK charity with lots of useful and interesting information available.
I wish you well . It is an endeavour and one which you will eventually make work for you and yours. Hope this helps.
Take care
Organic milk is best I believe. I always buy it. It is sad that organic food is so expensive. We used to farm organically for many years -beef/lamb/potatoes/carrots/cereals.
It costs more to produce and so should have a higher price but I think that middle men are cashing in and charging far too much, making it almost a niche market for the rich! Here’s a case in point:
We sold organic potatoes to supermarkets. We hand lifted them into 25kg sacks - we were penalised for any small potatoes under a certain size, in fact we were not paid anything for any small spuds in the sacks. When I went into our local supermarket I saw they were selling SMALL organic ‘salad’ potatoes for a premium!!! Well, they’d got them for free from us!!! I realise it’s all to do with the logistics of packaging and handling, but still, it rankled!!
Organic should cost more but NOT as much as some places are selling it!
I feel for you Geeps - I think many people now are divorced from the source of their own food and have no idea of the work that goes into producing it. You all deserve a lot more respect and consideration than you have been getting and a much fairer deal from the supermarkets .
Re the small potato story - I would have been livid if I was you - I’m quite angry on your behalf actually .
Joanne x
) .
