Jackwagstaff - I’m a bit late to this thread. I have just read, and would highly recommend Anti Cancer a New Way of Life, by David Servan Schreiber. It has a lot of information on diet, and isn’t at all crackpottery. I was quite stunned how much diet can affect the progress of your cancer, and will be following his recommendations religiously.
surely if anti cancer diets do actually work people who religiously stuck to these principles should never have managed to get cancer in the first place.
however if it works for you go for it but there are people who do everything right… eat the right food, dont smoke, dont drink, excercise regularly, main a healthy weight, have children at the right time and breast feed them for years on end and still get cancer and likewise there will be obese women who smoke 20 fags a day drink a bottle of whiskey every week, have no kids and veg on the sofa all day and will live to a ripe old age, without a days illness.
nothing is 100% certain, but if dieting in this way helps you to feel you are benefiting personally then thats a positive thing, however if its a real struggle and you do have to weigh up whether living in this way is actually benefiting you physically and emotionally.
im an ‘everything in moderation’ type of girl.
Lx
I think the point with these anti-cancer lifestyles/diet is that they make you look at all areas of your life and take a portfolio approach to change. My BCN poopoohed (?) the idea that going vegan might help me at all on the experience of having had some ladies under her care who had been vegan prior to diagnosis. As if that proved a point. Just as much as my experience before BC might make someone think that there is no point eating organic - I have been growing most of my own organic veg & fruit, and eating home grown organic beef, lamb, chicken eggs & dairy for years - and I still got BC. But as well I was overwieght, I drank alcohol on a regular basis, and had a whole number of other risk factors (female, age, middle class, etc) - which I can’t change. These anti-cancer diets are about how we face the future, not how we explain the past - knowing that if there are some things we can change then maybe, just maybe, that might increase our chances of being healthier, and help us cope with whatever else comes along (more cancer or other things).
I like the Servan-Schreiber book too - I guess that shows!
Cheers
Maggy
Lulu I think the issue is the anti cancer diet is very different from the general healthy diet advice of eat a balanced diet and 5 fruit and veg a day, and I very much doubt that many people in the west have been eating the way the book recommends. In the East of course, many have, and their rates of cancer are much lower. It will certainly not guarantee you don’t get cancer or that you will not have a relapse - but it will tilt the odds a little in your favour. I have secondaries, and am willing to do almost anything to give myself a few extra years. For me the anti cancer diet has been a real eye opener.
Also, Meggy, your BCN dismissing the diet is short sighted. There may well be women who are vegans with BC - but have they been vegans all their life? I doubt it. It is known that environmental causes of cancer can take 30 years or more to manifest as disease - so we may have to go right back to our childhood diets for answers.
Just come back from the UK ,interrested to read how this thread has gone . The problem with looking at "east / west " divides is that there are so many other factors to look at , for instance , in the east (generally ) there is a much higher incidence of bowel cancer . It´s so difficult to find the "key " . The same as with the Mediteranean diet , lots of olive oil , red wine , fresh veg . Unfortunately thats now changing . Now the poorer people have got more money they are turning from the red wine to whiskey , and there´s a lot more liver problems , plus they are still smoking the fags , lots of lung cancer , and lettuce and red peppers from Spain have very high levels of lead .So this really good healthy diet is now on it´s way out for many of the spanish , hence the advent of fat little spaniards .
Trying to buy organic food here is a nightmare . Fields are never left fallow , chemicals are dug in two or three times a year , high cropping is the name of the game .
I´ve just peeled and washed prawns ready for cooking . But these are i believe high in colestrol , and with any fish , I´m always concerned that if I put the lights off they would Glow in the dark !
It´s a minefield out there , but every little bit of information helps us to make a better choice , one that is better for each of us individually .
I quite understand Flinty why you are prepared to try to control your cancer by diet and wish you all the best .
Kris