Breast Cancer: Eating & Cancer

Your best defense for keeping your immune system in peak condition is to keep your body in balance, with nutrition. The diet is one very important facet in the treatment of cancer. One third of all people with cancer die due to being malnourished. One challenge for the cancer patient, as it relates to nutrition, is consuming a nutrient dense diet. The challenge presents itself as such due to the feelings of nausea and general unwellness the cancer patient may feel when going through cancer treatments.Cancer treatments...surgery, chemotherapy, radiation are very hard on the body.

The body requires vitamins, carbohydrates, minerals, fat, water and especially protein, which is very important for promoting healing. At some point during treatment, a cancer patient may lose the desire to eat. This may be due to the change in food taste, the smell of food, the general feeling of not being well, and fatigue. This will become a problem if the patient cannot consume enough calories and protein to sustain life. It would be a good idea to seek consultation with a nutritionist prior to and after cancer treatment. With professional guidance, the patient can be assured of eating the correct foods for good health and healing.

Research has found that women who eat lo-carb, lo-fat diets have less chance of recurrence. Did you know that cancer's fuel of choice is glucose? That is why they inject glucose along with tracer, when you have a PET scan. The cancer cells gravtate to it. Cancer cannot survive without glucose. There is experimentation going on, right now, where researchers are testing 3-bromopyruvate, which blocks glucose from the cancer cells. They tested it on rats with huge liver tumors. Once the glucose was blocked, the cancer cells started dying immediately and the rat's tumors shrunk and eventually disappeared.

The body makes its own glucose, as it is needed for survival; however, all of the extra glucose that is created by eating junk foods, is out of control and over the top, which has caused a lot of disease (heart, hypertension, diabetes, etc.). Carbs turn into glucose in the body.

Juicing versus eating the whole fruit/veggie: Eating the whole fruit or veggie is actually better for you. When you juice, you remove the fiber from the food . When juicing fruits, you are ingesting a lot of sugar, which causes the pancreas to work overtime in kicking out the insulin which then helps all of that sugar make its way into the cells...very fast. Eating the whole fruit/veggie allows the fiber to interfere, where the stomach has to work to digest the fiber, thus allowing slower absorbtion of the glucose into the cells.

Work toward recognizing and eliminating junk foods and foods high on the glycemic index. Strawberries are okay in moderation as are some other lo-glycemic fruits. Think complex carbs, which are veggies with lots of fiber. The fiber slows down the carb breakdown in the body and therefore there are no great insulin spikes. Think lo-carb, lo-fat foods. And guess what...you lose weight, lower your blood pressure...quick. Your blood chemistry will change within 24 hours...for the better. The saying "You are what you eat" is absolutely true. Your body will respond, in kind, to what you put into it.

Visit the bookstore for an excellent selection of reading choices on Healthy Eating & Cancer

Disclaimer: Information presented within the pages of this website is, for the most part, that of my opinion and for informational purposes only and not to be used in place of the advice of your medical provider. You are strongly encouraged to seek the advice of your medical provider and to conduct your own research on any topic of interest, for fact finding.