I am only having rads but the onc said healthy diet and green tea is OK while having those. Planning to look more into supplements when treatment finished, have also heard good stuff about wheatgrass.
Hi
Conflicting advice - I drink lots of green tea with lemon as its high in anti-oxidants and I juice lots of veg and drink the juice (especially raw beetroot and carrots). So far bloods have been good, so must be doing something right. My ONC is not a fan of supplements, apart from mulibonita which is a probiotic which he says is fine to take whilst having chemo (500 time stronger than an pro-biotic yogurt) and helps balance out the bad bacteria in the gut. Certainly kept my iBS at bay. He has written a book, that you can buy off his website, which I have found invaluable. As with anything in there, always check with your ONC first before starting anything new. Link to website is canernet.co.uk. All the info in the book is availble on line, so don’t necessarily need to purchase.
x
Hi Annalou
Have a look at Jason’s Vales juice doctor book - lots of fab recipes for veg juice. As mentioned my favourite is beetroot, carrot and orange (and this is the girl who can’t stand carrots!).
Goji berries are also good and high in anti-oxidants - dried on porridge with raisins and seeds - yum, yum!
x
We all seem to be given conflicting advice. Personally I was completely dairy free from moment of diagnosis of secondaries. Also gave up red meat and alcohol, although I have had the odd tipple since chemo finished. I try to eat only organic fruit, veg, poultry and fish, although this is not always possible. I take a variety of supplements. I also drink loads of green tea and other herbal/fruit teas. I juice once a day and mix this with flaxseed, manuka honey and a blend of herbs and spices (a combination worked out from finding out which herbs and spices are supposed to have cancer fighting agents, are good for the digestion and other criteria). I don’t know if this is helping, but at the end of the day if I am doing something positive to help myself even if its only that that is helping then its worthwhile.
Snoogle
x
Snoogle I totally agree that doing something proactive is helpful psychologically. It’s helped me to feel more in control.
Perhaps its psychological but common sense would dictate that it is more than that too as we are doing everything to enhance our immune system. If we know ‘bad’ food can damage our bodies then ‘good’ food should surely help.
I am very worried about the green tea thing though. It’s all I’ve been drinking through chemo and no literature I’ve said says don’t drink it. It’s not a supplement so it hasn’t occurred to me to ask the Oncologist.
elinda x
Most of the veg and salad I eat is from OH’s garden, we also have a huge amount of rhubarb out there every year. I don’t really eat an awful lot of meat as we largely gave up on red meat back in the mid 80’s when it was linked to high cholesterol. I like to make all my own soups (at the moment I’ve got 6 different kinds in the freezer and had a watercress and courgette one today with a slice of walnut bread which was lovely).We probably eat vegetarian meals 2 or 3 times a week. I also make little cakes using olive oil instead of butter and I add different things to them like grated apple, dried fruit etc. I figure if I make my own cakes and biscuits I know what is in them, no preservatives like the supermarket ones. I picked loads of blackberries down near the seafront again today, so will either freeze them for winter or make jam from them. We do find now that if we get a takeaway from time to time, we don’t really feel that great the following day, a bit bloated and horrible.
OH is talking about wanting to make bread, so I guess I’m going to have a kitchen like a bomb has dropped on it, you know what blokes are like lol!
Hi Cherub
You and your husband sound very much like me and mine. We grew a lot of our veg this year - tomatoes, beans, courgettes, salad and also blueberries. We’ve got cabbages underway and are going to have apples trees in pots on our patio.
I too make my own cakes and biscuits occasionally using oil and sweetening with soaked chopped dates or a little agave syrup.
Once I’ve finished radiotherapy I’ve decided to start making my own bread. As you say it’s about knowing what’s in things but also tastes so much better fresh. Once you get into it its’ not the hard work you think its going to be and growing your own stuff is quite exciting.
Elinda x
Hello Ladies, I love this thread and reading everything you all do. We appear to be really lucky at my hospital with help and advice. On day 1 of Chemo the dietician came to se me, I was given various what to eat and not to eat leaflets and had an informative chat and 4 days after they called me to review how my eating was going and to talk about what would help with the SE and recovery. I eat as healthily as possible, whith occasional lapses that I plan! My blood count has gone very low but I believe my healthy diet has helped me. I was told to avoid crowds, children with colds etc but that’s difficult as I have a 6 year old who has come home from school with that many coughs and colds this term, so far I’ve had nothing - not even a sniffle! Mind you I have that much garlic I probably have a protective haze around me! LOL. When not on chemo I drink red grapefruit juice and I miss that more than anything else, when I finish that’s what I’ll celebrate with…
Hi All
For brocolli jucicing its just the same as jucing anything else, not a smoothy make though you can get ones that do both juicing and smoothies. If you can get organic if possible its much better.
ha ha just read it on the site i meant organic brocolli. I stood on my lap top so i cant see what I am writing so if things don’t make sense that’s whay. Shame I can’t use that excuse in the real world he he.
Hi, sorry to butt in on your thread, but I wanted to reassure Elinda as my Onc told me that Green Tea was one of things meant to help beat cancer, I struggle to drink it so I now take a supplement (am now 2 yrs past dx). But I did take supplements all thro treatment, I got them in the first week (the panic week where you think that everything you eat has caused it!) from the Penny Brohn Cancer site, they do a supplement pack that has high dose Vit C, multivitamins, omega fish oils and Antioxidant supplements. I took these all thro treatment apart from about 4 or 5 days after chemo (which is what they suggest). I know that it didn’t interfere with my chemo as I had chemo first and my lump reduced to just a few cells by the time I had my op.
I still beat myself up sometimes tho about what I eat now (especially if I have a bit too much wine!) but I do think it takes a while to find your comfort zone.
Good Luck
Mx
ps I did ask my Onc about supplements first and he just said that normal multivitamin types are fine
For some brilliant information and advise I advise “Anti-cancer - A new way of life” by David Servan Schreiber. It is really readable and gives lots of info about research and cancer fighting foods as well as a section on the mind/body connection.
I can’t do extremes so am just doing what I can which is taking a bunch of supplements and adding as many of the good foods as I can to my diet.
alex
xx
Excuses for butting in, but going back to Cherub’s comment about the bread - have you thought of getting a bread machine, cherub?
Lovely homemade bread with less mess and fuss!
X to all
S
Yes Bahons, I am considering getting one. Every time my OH does anything in the kitchen it looks like a disaster zone. However, I cannot fault his Iranian basmati rice (taught to him by an Iranian friend and it’s a secret lol) or his roast potatoes - both far better than I can make.
Hi i have another silly question, is brie unpastuerised?? and do we have to avoid them types of cheese on chemo??
thanks
anna
Hi Anna
I was told to avoid anything unpasturized (brie, pate etc) and no runny eggs, seafood or anything that could give you an upset stomach/injection. I love brie and it will be one of the first things I eat when all this is over!!! Ask the ONC or chemo nurses tomorrow to steer you in the right direction - every unit is different!
Take care
xxx
thanks for that, my friend has brought me a selection of cheeses as i love them, it says on most of them made from pastuerised milk, the brie included, (M & S) so i guess they are ok
thankyou
anna
Hi again
I think it is almost impossible, even in France where I now live, to get much, if anything, in the way of unpasteurised cheeses.
BTW, I’m currently having chemotherapy and my French oncologists/chemo nurses have said nothing about food whatsoever, so I’ve continued to eat exactly what I want. In fact, pate appears on the lunchtime menu in the chemo unit…!
Yes, I would thoroughly recommend a bread maker - I’ve got a Panasonic, myself.
X to all
S
Catflap - thanks for reassurance re green tea. I have been anxious about that.
Bahons - excuse my ignorance but what does the breadmaker actually do? Does it save time and/or effort? Would be interested as I’ve only made bread without any equipment but would like to do this more regularly.
Elinda x
Hi everyone
This thread is really informative. It’s great to hear from like-minded ladies who are doing what I’ve been doing for the last 18 months or so.
I try to buy organic where possible at my local supermarket and like Gardenbeetle also buy Able & Cole veg boxes sometimes. I’ve read David Servan Schreiber’s book a couple of times and think it’s really good. Jason Vale’s juice book was the one that got me started. Now I tend to throw lots of things together and enjoy experimenting.
I get dreadful heartburn after eating some breads but I can’t fathom out what is causing it because some other breads don’t bother me. Same with pastry. Is it yeast or gluten or something else causing this? I’ve been thinking about buying a breadmaker for ages. Does anyone use a breadmaker that doesn’t require either/or to make bread or is this not possible?
Love
Jibby X