Nutrition
Since my cancer diagnosis I’ve gone dairy-free (except for occasional treats) and severely limit my red meats. I love fish, organic chicken and beans, legumes and nuts for protein. Knowing that our protein needs are much less than advertised (closer to 15% than 30% of total calories) lets me eat a lot of food volume through fruits and vegetables and still maintain my svelte (smile) figure! Actually, eating this way fills me with energy to enjoy all the sports and other active family outings I love while maintaining a healthy weight.
My breast cancer quest led me to a wonderful website dedicated to nutrition for prevention and survival of breast cancer. Food For Breast Cancer is based on current evidence and scientific studies, is updated regularly, and contains a lot of information. It primarily talks about foods and their effect on cancer cells and/or the cancer treatment being used (chemotherapy, radiation, etc.).
More than just food information, it also contains information on other things to include/avoid (supplements, medications, etc). Common side effects of conventional treatments and foods to help manage them (heart health, blood clots, cholesterol, sister cancers ovarian and endometrial) are addressed as well. Probably not an exhaustive list, but quite large. So much so that I found it a bit overwhelming at first. Once I poked around a bit, I realized I needed an easier way to look at information specific to my triple positive diagnosis. I created a spreadsheet containing this information which I carried with me (still do in fact) throughout my different treatments. The spreadsheet changed as I went through each treatment phase. This information became my eating “bible”. It was one thing I had complete control over.
Here are a few food highlights I found interesting.
My eating “bible” at different stages in my journey**:
**The last page of the food list includes extra information detailing what bold and italics foods mean and what foods/supps to avoid. To get the most bang for the buck, I concentrated on the foods crossing multiple columns (I shaded these).
Exercise
New research indicates that exercise may reduce tumor aggressiveness.