Please read this

Has anyone read the March copy of essentials? On page 81, no 10 ‘have cereal not grapefruit for breakfast’; ‘eating just a quarter of grapefruit a day can increase the risk of breast cancer by A THIRD, according to a study in the British Journal of Cancer.’ Iam so worried as I have had breast cancer twice now, and do eat grapefruit. Has this been the cause? Has anyone read/heard of this study?

Hi I have just put a thread back to the top for you to read, hope it helps

Karen

So confusing all these reports, aren’t they, there was I wondering if it was the hair dye, the glass of wine with dinner, the power lines - or now the grapefruit! If it’s any comfort at all my grandmother lived to 107 and my mother is 80 and both had/have half a grapefruit after supper for as many years as I remember - and no breast cancer. I haven’t, and I have breast cancer. Not of course saying the study is not right (haven’t seen it), but we could all drive ourselves quite barmy wondering what happened to give us breast cancer - perhaps in the future I will look into it all in more depth, for myself I am just concentrating on getting treated now, feel I can’t change what’s happened already. Sarah. x

Hi Roxy

I didnt read the article that you are talking about but when I was dx wtih 100% er+ tumour in Dec 07 I started surfing the net for nutrition info for breast cancerand came upon an article on the Guaridian on line about phyto-oestrogen. Aparently some foods mimic the oestrogen out bodies produce. Grapefruit was one of the suspect foods and so was soya. Its all a bit sketchy to be honest and there is nodefinate link study as yet. They do day soya is good against fighting cancer but it appears they are now thinking if you are er+ and on tamoxifen etc you should avoid soya, dairy(cows milk is full of oestogen) and aparently grapefruits are in the list too.

I nearly drove myself mad on the nutrition front tying to find foods I was safe with but just got confused with all the conflicting information. One is saying eat everything leafy and green and the next is saying brocolli is full of phyto-oestrogens. I had a word with my GP and he said cut right back on dairy for health reasons and the oestrogen thing. All veg is good and eat as much as you can, avoid soya and cut back on processed foods. Basically eat healthy balanced diet.

Check out NHS Choices on this link for more info …http://www.nhs.uk/News/2007/July/Pages/Grapefruitandcancer.aspx

Hope its of some use. Its all so confusing. I just wish they would give me a list of what I can eat sometimes but wouldnt lfe be so boring. I just try to eat my 5 aday have cut out sugar as much as possible cut back on dairy (not completely as I cant live without a couple of coffees and cant stant rice milk) and avoid soya. Good news is I am on Tamoxifen and still managing to lose some weight. Every cloud and all that.

Good luck and remember dont panic. Love Shonagh xx

I think we could drive ourselves barmy trying to figure what did and what didn’t contribute to our dx. There will always be some study or another pointing out the dangers or otherwise of certain foodstuffs. You could go on forever trying to find the root cause - but you won’t - if you could there’d be a cure by now.

There is another study that points to nail varnish and lip gloss as containing elements that ‘encourage’ certain cancer growth factors. I have decided that if I believed every thing I read, and abided by it all, my existence would be so miserable that I would rather not be here any way.

Everything is moderation is my motto I’m afraid

Sorry if this offends anyone - just my opinion

Margaret x

Hi everyone

Hope this makes you feel better - I can’t stand grapefruit and have not eaten it for years and I’ve had BC twice.

Cheers
Anne x

Hi, I’m new to the forum and feel a lot calmer after reading through the comments. I thought I’d got myself in a good place with my diet, exercise, getting on with living life, then another report is published and whoops, I start worrying again. Thanks so much everyone

Love Jane x

Hi Roxy,

I have said this before, so I will say it again. Its a scatter gun effect, blast enough ideas into the air and just maybe one will hit the target. Lets look at what we are told:

Don’t drink cow’s milk,
Don’t smoke,
Don’t become obese,
Don’t wear under-wire bra’s
Don’t use deodorants
Don’t drink too much alcohol
Don’t consume soya
Don’t eat red meat
Don’t eat farmed salmon
Don’t eat vegetables where pesticides have been used
Avoid GM products

What next?
Don’t park the car facing the sun
Don’t listen to the radio whilst cooking spaghetti
Don’t telephone your friend on a Wednesday,
Don’t Don’t

Roxy, I do not wish to undermine your concern and I do believe in a positive lifestyle change when we are faced with the treatment of BC. However if we took on board everything every article printed suggested we would hardly live at all would we.

I have never smoked, always eaten a balanced diet and yes I did used to dink three or four bottles of wine a week but I was generally fit and well at the time of diagnosis.

Everything in moderation I would say.

Take care