Oat milk IS oK in coffee as long as you let it cool down. YOu can also get almond milk, sounds nice tho I havent tried it yet. suzzanne you are so right in your post, it is so tempting to beat yuorself up wondering ‘what did I do to myself to make BC happen’, thanks for your sensible comments!
Mand x
i don’t very often post here anymore - trying to be more focussed on “normality” (not really succeeding though as I sit here with my rock hard tissue expanders and rubbish short hair normality seems a lifetime ago) - but anyway found this thread.
I agree with all of you - the whole soya/dairy thing is very confusing. My diet was low in dairy, always soya milk in tea and on cereal, the odd coffee with cow milk, and goat yoghurt, goat cheese etc. Soya does not cause breast cancer and actually the more traditional and natural forms like tofu are possibly (not proven) protective against breast cancer and could account for the lower incidence in far eastern countries (this benefit is lost if oriental women adopt a western diet). However, soya does contain phyto-oestrogens which can mimic natural oestrogen and so COULD encourage an oestrogen receptive breast tumour to grow, the other possibility is that it fills the oestrogen receptors on the tumour with a weaker oestrogen and so slow the growth. There are questions over how the qualities of soya may be altered by turning it into things like soya mince and soya milk that need quite heavy processing to produce (oriental diets include soya in the less processed forms like tofu etc). It seems to be difficult to answer these questions, if the answers are out there i havent found them yet - but actually have stopped looking. I am happy to use rice milk in tea and on cereal, and oat milk or a non dairy creamer like coffeemate for coffee (rice milk is not good in coffee, neither is soya not to my taste anyhow). I miss my capuccino but to be honest after a while the cow milk tastes nasty anyway, so these choices are every day and not even thought about anymore. If I have a cup of tea when I’m out then I have skimmed milk or have it black and either option id fine and neither are going to be a big deal. I have the occasional yoghurt but stick to organic cow or goat versions. The thing with dairy is that milk comes from recently pregnant cows, they have circulating hormones due to pregnancy which include oestrogen, then milk yield can be increased by giving oestrogen to stop the milk from slowing down - this additional oestrogen is not given to cows from organic herds although the natural oestrogen is still present. I guess there must be a certain amount in goat milk products too but this seems less talked about. Goat and sheep yoghurts and cheeses are really creamy and yum!
by the way I don’t agree with Jane Plant’s views, at all, what I say here is what suits me and my tastes. None of us shoudl ever feel that what we have or havent eaten has caused or made worse the breast cancer that barged in on us. Nothing is proven, many of us ate the “wrong” things many of us ate the “right” things, breast cancer is indiscriminate and many things link together to affect how it happens. My high soya milk intake might have promoted my tumour’s growth, it also might have slowed it down and stopped it from being worse than it was, no-one knows.
I am now taking tamoxifen. As far as i know soya doesnt interfere with how tamoxifen works, but tamoxifen blocks the oestrogen receptors that the phyto-oestrogens work on; but if some are not blocked there is the chance that soya coudl cause an oestrogen like effect on an oestrogen fuelled tumour; this is why you might hear to avoid it.
I avoided dairy for other reasons before breast cancer - mostly because it gave me sinus/nasal problems and after a while of going without it doesnt taste so good. If I hadnt avoided it before i might not do so now either, but organic seems sensible to me. As for soya, well the jury seems to be out so for the time being I wont check every label but I will eat natural foods most (as I always did) and I will stick with the rice/oat milks and eat as much broccoli and
tomatoes as i can as they have proven anti cancer and anti inflammatory good things in them, and anyway I like them!
I’ll also partake of the odd glass of red and enjoy every sip! Same goes for chocolate.
IMHO go with what you like, don’t tie yourself in knots but be happy with your choices and most important enjoy!
sorry if that was long winded, I was hoping to unravel a weeny bit of confusion!
good luck and best wishes to you all
Thank you Suzzanne and Mandyx.
You know what it’s like though, when you’re sat quietly reflecting on the ‘why’s and wherefore’s’ and for myself, being the type of person who likes answers, well…
Thanks again, very interesting Mandyx
Linda
I bought some almond milk, it is quite rich & sweet ( & £2 40 for a carton!) & absolutely gorgeous on cereal, gives coffee a nice almondy flavour, my favourite non-milk so far!! Going to try making custard with it
Mand
Hello all, just read through your threads because I shall have to start tamoxifen before long. I too tortured myself having taken HRT for 2 years, but grilled the oncologist who said the cancer would have started growing long before that…
also I have been a lifelong veggie(not much soya), slim, fit, brest-fed my child in other words all the right things to avoid breast cancer. I feel sure it was because of extreme stress leading up to the diagnosis last year. I spent 6 years getting a degree and a PhD while still working and also looking after my Mum with dementia and becoming a granny x 2. Not boasting but just saying not to worry about the diet too much, its ohter things or maybe just plain bad luck that it happens to you and not the woman next to you. There are a few studies inthe scientific literature that really point to a big link between stress and cancer, all those bad chemicals in your blood. Well, the message to me loud and clear was ‘change your priorities’ and I have…
Warm greetings to the rest of us, Lynette x
Hi all,
I have been following this thread since my WLE on the 10th Jan and I started looking into the question of what to eat to avoid BC again.
I started tamoxifen yesterday and just wondered if any of you ladies could help me. I know its me being paranoid but is there a time when the side effects (if any) start is it instant or do they creep up on you over the next few weeks. I keep sitting thinking am I just warm or is this a hot flush??? Its like I’mwaiting forthe menopause to hit me like a brick wall (Captain Paranoia is a good friend of mine by the way!!!LOL ) I know its silly but I stupidly forgot to ring my BC nurse to ask today and they have gone home now.
Shonagh xx
Hi Shonagh,
Sorry can’t help with the timescale, as my chemo hot flushes just merged into the tamoxifen ones…
However, from my experience I would say that when I have a hot flush I’m in no doubt about it. They vary in intensity, from a welcome warm through when I’m otherwise cold, to a full on heat assault when I start stripping off layers. I sit opposite a young man at work, and often wonder what he thinks when my jacket is on/off/on/off throughout the day.
My flushes started after I finished chemo ( Sept) I started on Tamoxifen almost straight away, I think they are worse now, have quite a few every day /night, they dont last too long & I am beginning to learn to live with them!! As roadrunner says you will know when you are having one!! I also find that I ofen go cold & shivery before a hot flush, esp at night, I know lots of other ladies find this too.
cheers
Mand
I went straight onto the change after chemo.Apart from one or two hot flushes it came and went unnoticed! After a lifetime of PMT I was pleasantly surprised.Thanks for all the gen on dairy alternatives girls.I’ve been dairy free now since chemo 4 years ago and although triple neg I think it’s time I changed from soya milk to ‘Oaty’.
Hi Shonagh,
I started Tamoxifen last June and I would say it took a little time for ‘my’ side effects to kick in. I say MY, because my friend and neighbour took Tamoxifen for ten years and didn’t have one single side effect, so it doesn’t always follow that you will get any side effects.
Mine are subsiding a little now, apart from the heartburn which is driving me up the wall and to which I am going to see my GP about next week.
I think it took about two months on Tamox when I started to feel sick and a little poorly, but after about five months in all, I started to feel better.
Good Luck Shonagh
Hi
I too am confused about soya! I have oestrogen + bc (and secondaries) and am vegan who eats soya and have for years!
Anyway, on trying to find info regarding whether we should have soya or not, I stumbled across a clinical trial that (I think) is underway looking at diets, its thought that high levels of soya help to block the oestrogen but then also, when taking tamox or arimedex etc which is supposed to reduce/block oestrogen by taking phyto-estrogens (ie.soya, other foods) this can mimic oestrogen, and potentially it could be feeding oestrogen (a weaker form) into our bodies when the drugs are trying their hardest to reduce/block the oestrogen! So there is a two fold theory! So i think the trial was looking into both theories… Not much help to us at present - Im going to continue eating soya and veg - only have soya twice a week really so I certainly wont increase my intake (and I will use rice milk in lieu of soya milk) but otherwise will keep a balanced vegan diet!
Zippy 
Hi all,
I know zippy its a mine field and I have given up looking into it on the net, for every theory there is a counter argument and I have decided life is too short as it is without spending hours researching it on the net. Soya wasnt really a problem for me as I wasnt using it anyway but I have tried to cut back on the dairy in my diet. I use rice milk on cereal but its too weak for a coffee for me so am currently trying to source oat milk (aparently creamier??) My GP said my cutting down dairy and upping veggie intake and cutting out processed foods was definately a good way to go so thats what I’m trying.
So far so good on the tamoxifen, no side effects as yet but not started the zoladex yet!!!. My GP bless his cotton socks has given me 6 months of tamoxifen on one prescription as he will be seeing me every month for my zoladex anyway. Woo Hoo. at least that means only £13 prescription charges a year.
Shonagh xx
Hi Shonagh,
I am buying ‘Oatly’ from Sainsburys. I find its perfectly acceptable on cereal, but not in tea.
Hi Roadrunner,
Thanks for that, I could’nt find it in Tesco. Off to find a Sainsburys.
Cheers Hun Shonagh xx
Hi everyone. I found Jane Plant’s book disturbing as well. One theory is that she was on the right track with her theory that women from china who drink little milk don’t often get breast cancer. but it is NOT the milk that causes it for western women, rather the fact that the Chinese drink soya instead and that protects them. Soya immitates oestrogen, but is not the same. So it is harmless, and prevents the real oestrogen from doing any damage.
It is very important that we have enough calcium. So I intend to continue to drink milk, although I might chose organic to avoid any hormones that may have been given to the cows.
It is only one theory though. There are many more out there just trying to confuse us.
Heidicat x