Interesting about your friend's instructions; hope she does well.

Maybee, I understand the worry, but you have been blessed. I feel blessed, too. :)

Maybee...sounds like your friend is on strong immune-suppressants, making her more apt to not be able to fight off bacteria and germs.

That was exactly what I was thinking the other day. If you want to "cure cancer", the best course is freseh fruits and veggies only. Not cooked. Mostly veggies. It's what I've heard more than once. All of that advice to her makes loads of sense. No chemicals, nitrates, or germs. Sounds good to me!

Thanks for answering my question Maybee. It's kind of what a friend of mine did after her surgery & chemo. She cut out dairy, gluten and sugar. She feels fantastic. I have got to start taking small steps in my diet!

I find it strange that there's almost no nutritional advice given to cancer patients. My mom had lung cancer and all they said was to make sure she gets enough calories, with milkshakes and such.

It's a shame that so many people view nutritional approaches to fighting cancer as "alternative" when really it's just common sense. Fresh fruits and vegetables contain tons of things that help prevent and fight cancer...we just don't eat enough, and too much other stuff that helps illnesses, including cancer, to thrive.

There are other factors, of course, including environment and genetics and just plain rolling of the dice. But nutrition is so undervalued as a good health defender and promoter that it just baffles me that so few people pay attention to it beyond just saying they have a pretty healthy diet and just leaving it at that.

when I was going through my bone marrow transplant, and for a year after, I was also told many of those things. No potlucks, no parties, no church, no commercial buffets, no gardening, no live plants in home, no live Christmas tree. Triple wash everything. No shaking hands. Use hand sanitizers all day long. Wash hands all day long. For the first three months, they didn't want me having any uncooked produce, no salads, etc.

It has to do with not having any immune system. There were many things I had to wait for a year to do. Like gardening. Also, make sure you have a thermometer in your refrigerator to make sure it is cold enough. Most of us do not have it cold enough. Also, a thermometer for cooked foods.

Deli meats... too many hands have touched it. Often not kept cold enough. Using a commercially packed deli meat like the Hormel with no preservatives is better. But you still must heat them in the microwave to kill germs.

Some really good information here..but, a person needs lean meat, poultry and fish in their diets along with fruit and vegetables. They didn't say anything to me about what to eat before or after, but....I somehow was able to read my medical records and was also able to read the doctor's opinion of me :o) I was described as: A pleasant, white, slightly obese female. Dang...I hate the word "obese" and the "slightly" didn't help at all. I got myself to Weight Watchers...got to goal and have been there ever since...I knew I was carrying some extra weight, but seeing, "obese" on paper just did it for me :o)

You absolutely need protein but it doesn't have to be meat! Plenty of plant-based protein sources out there that are naturally fat and cholesterol free.

Well, this is true...I love beans, for instance, but I'm also a meat eater and would have a hard time not eating lean beef and chicken.

Well, this is true...I love beans, for instance, but I'm also a meat eater and would have a hard time not eating lean beef and chicken.

When I had lung cancer I was not told to do anything about my diet, which for me would be very hard because I am a very fussy eater. I don't eat fish or any kinds of fruit or veggies. NO I never smoked & the cancer I had is most times found in the stomach & goes through my blood stream. I don't worry about tomorrow just today. I was lucky it was found very early. It will be 20 years in March

I know lots of lifelong vegetarians, many vegans, and a few on the raw diet - guess what? They all got cancer.

Diet does NOT prevent all cancers. And there is NO "cure" for any invasive cancer.

I was never told to eat this, avoid that, etc., btw, after my diagnosis.

You know "lots" of vegetarians and "many" vegans and every single one got cancer? That's really high considering the lifetime risk in the general population is something like 1 in 3. I'd be curious to hear more about that.

Being vegetarian/vegan doesn't mean a healthy diet. You can eat nothing but grilled cheese and french fries and still call yourself a vegetarian.

And I'm certainly not saying diet prevents all cancers. There are many other things that are involved - some within our control and many outside of our control. My point was that there is a huge correlation between health and optimal nutrition that I don't think enough people, including doctors, properly consider.

Maybee I'm happy to hear how well you've done since your kidney removal. My BIL was just diagnosed with kidney cancer on Friday, he's having his left one out on Thursday. They've told him that kidney cancer does not respond well to chemo or radiation, so surgery to remove is of utmost importance. So far the CAT scans, etc. look good, it doesn't appear to have spread, but they will test the lymph nodes, etc. for cancerous cells when they do the surgery. Fingers crossed.

Chi, my apologies. I should have phrased my statement differently. In my support group of young breast cancer survivors, there are many women who fall into those categories who have breast cancer. Sorry I was unclear.

You are absolutely correct that proper nutrition- from birth- is crucial for health.

DH had lost a couple of inches in height, so I had been giving him a calcium pill along with his morning vitamin. Then I read something about calcium & prostate CA linkage. So I stopped that. I had been giving him a Vitamin D3 supplement, then I recently read some connection between those 2. So I stopped that also. There's a fair amount of stuff written on a link of red meats with prostate CA. It's all kinda scary & you don't know which way to go with foods & some minimal nutritional supplements. He still eats red meat, btw. His lipid profile is good, tho.'

I myself take Calcium & Vit D3 in the hope of preventing osteoporosis, since osteopenia was noted in past dexa scans. I don't want to take the biphosphonates. But the question then becomes.... are the Calcium & D3 doing something else to me that is untoward??? It's all very difficult to sort out. And I haven't found dr's very helpful in this regard.

This post was edited by BeeOHIO on Fri, Dec 7, 12 at 10:49

Thanks Chloe, that makes more sense, at least statistically. What a terrible thing to have to consider though. :(

Bee, you can have your calcium and vitamin D levels checked with blood tests. I don't take calcium because I tend to develop kidney stones, but I do make sure to get lots of calcium-rich foods like collard greens and my levels are fine. I do supplement with Vitamin D because I don't go in the sun much and having low Vitamin D is not good. It leads to a variety of health problems, but having too much also isn't good so finding out where you are first is probably the best course of action. I feel awful if I'm low on Vitamin D. Very, very achy.

Oh, I know about vit.D levels, Chi83 & have had them annually for several years. As is typical in the northern latitudes, mine is low & I am following dr's recommendations for the D, as well as the Calcium. But still.... I wonder what is the "unknown" downside, other than the obvious toxicity related to over consuming.

The serum (blood) level of Calcium reveals nothing in regards to Calcium stored in the bones & it is not used in diagnosing nor determining need for osteoporosis prevention. Your serum calcium can be "fine" because the body is pulling calcium out of the bones when you have conditions leading to low calcium; and conversely if you have a condition that causes hypercalcemia (high) your body excretes calcium in the urine & stool in a effort to normalize the high blood calcium.

You clearly know more about blood levels than I do! I stand corrected. My doctor tells me to supplement with calcium but I always get kidney stones so I just try food-based and hope for the best. I'll be 30 soon so it's probably time to start taking it more seriously.

Well, the main word in all of this "what to eat" information...is "healthy"...I'm trying my best to stay away from junk food and it's paid off in the weight department. Staying as healthy as possible through diet is very important. I "couldn't" have my entire kidney removed so they had to go in and remove the tumor and leave as much kidney as possible...it is functioning. I think maybe I would have felt a little better if they could have removed the whole kidney and been done with it. But...I had had to have the adrenal gland removed on my other kidney and there wouldn't have been any place for the remaining adrenal gland to rest had they removed the kidney. They told me that..if the cancer comes back, it will most likely be in my lungs or bones...it is still called kidney cancer even if it comes back in those places. After this length of time, the doctors feel that I don't need routine CAT scans. They consider me cured...I don't know if "I" consider me cured, but I try every day to be positive.....and now...I'm too old to die young :o)

When I was pregnant, I was told to avoid the obvious ones like alcohol, but also high mercury fishes, sushi, lunch meats and unpasterized cheese. The lunch meats and cheese can have high chance of listeria, a dangerous bacteria.

I try and eat well, but that doesn't happen every day. It's so hard to know what kinds of vitamins to take. You hear so much on this pill can cause this side effect or that one isn't absorbed unless eaten with food etc! Seems like a new news story each week!

I think a big culprit causing some cancers is, in addition to the environment,red meat and processed luncheon meats.Diet matters more than we think, and the best way to go is natural...fruits, veggies, and grains and plenty of them.

I don't take calcium pills either because digestive issues. My vitamin D is 81 whatever that even means.

My ex-, trained in hospital diets, and head of food service in a local hospital for about 20 years, said about 40 years ago that most doctors knew very little about diet and healthful foods, back in those days.

I have no more recent info to offer.

I've heard that getting one's dietary needs from food sources is preferable to going the supplement route ... but that might be hear-say (or inadequate information/prejudice).

Perhaps having grown up on a mixed farm 70 years ago, and having been involved in gardening in recent years might be colouring my judgement some?

ole joyful