Food philosophies

biz
biz Member Posts: 60 Member
edited August 2011 in Colorectal Cancer #1
It has been fun and interesting to read everyone's thoughts on nutrition. So I thought I would share what I feel (through study and prayer) is right for me. Isn't it great that we can all work out for ourselves what is best for each of us?

Abundant vegetables and fruit (I like to blend, rather than juice. Or I eat them whole, raw or cooked.)

I believe that whole grains are good for me, refined flours are not.

I have given up milk but eat unsweetened yogurt daily.

No coffee, tea, alcohol, or tobacco.

Very little meat, but I don't ban it altogether.

Very, very limited sugar and artificial sweeteners. (My tummy is still paying for those donuts I ate today.) This is a tough one for me as I come from a baker family. My grandpa and dad were in the bakery business, and up until a couple years ago, I ran my own cupcake business.

So there you have it. We're all a little different, aren't we? I think it is wonderful!

My best to all of you!
-Biz

Comments

  • Kimo Sabe
    Kimo Sabe Member Posts: 64
    My sources tell me that red meat from grass fed cattle is alright. The meat from corn fed cattle is the problem. Of course the corporations can raise more cattle on corn.
    Norm
  • pete43lost_at_sea
    pete43lost_at_sea Member Posts: 3,900 Member
    mine is pretty similar to yours
    except the daily juicing.
    its easy to be good except for parties. had a few pieces of kfc today. god it was so good.

    i hope hope its an annual treat. my goal is to be slim per naturopaths advice, that cancer likes fat. i have a few kilos to go, so i am trying to be pretty strict.

    i very rarely eat read meat as my research indicates its a risk factor and i have had enough crc for this life.

    hugs,
    pete
  • Buckwirth
    Buckwirth Member Posts: 1,258 Member
    Diet on/off chemo
    A chemo diet should be a bit different from one off of chemo.

    The therapy is attacking your white blood cells, which consume an inordinate amount of protein to regenerate, so the general recommendation is to add a protein supplement to your diet, as well as to consume as much protein as you can via normal meals.

    The other main area of deficiency is iron, for the red blood cells. In my case my Oncologist prescribed an iron supplement, but I found it caused me digestive problems, so I just made sure I ate an iron rich cereal in the morning, and added iron rich vegetables (like spinach) to my daily routine.

    Off (and for the most part on) chemo, all of the things you posted above are great suggestions.
  • Buckwirth
    Buckwirth Member Posts: 1,258 Member
    *
    Double post

    *
    Double post
  • coloCan
    coloCan Member Posts: 1,944 Member
    Buckwirth said:

    *
    Double post

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    Double post

    try eating like the Maori-they rarely get CRC......
    healthskep.com/colon-cancer-the-maori-factor.html

    They consume much red berries, which article deems more antioxidant containing than other color berries......
  • Buckwirth
    Buckwirth Member Posts: 1,258 Member
    coloCan said:

    try eating like the Maori-they rarely get CRC......
    healthskep.com/colon-cancer-the-maori-factor.html

    They consume much red berries, which article deems more antioxidant containing than other color berries......

    That used to be true
    Maori and Cancer

    Colon Cancer Rates for Maori:

    "...Blakely et al. show
    that when considering age-standardised mortality rates
    (within the 1–74 age group), Māori men had a lower rate
    than European men for the 1981–84 cohort. However,
    mortality rates have been increasing for Māori men and
    decreasing for European/Other men, so that for the
    2001–04 cohort colorectal cancer mortality rates were
    higher for Māori men. For Māori women, the estimates
    move around more, but for the 2001–04 cohort Māori
    rates were still marginally below that of European/Other
    women...
  • tanstaafl
    tanstaafl Member Posts: 1,313 Member
    carbs, lipids
    We try to reduce sugar and starch content further by adding fruit powder extracts and more low carb colored vegetables, less fruits and grains. We choose our lipids from olive oil, MCT range coconut oil, butter, fish oil, GLA (primrose oil). Good luck to all.
  • daBeachBum
    daBeachBum Member Posts: 164
    I'm probably in the minority
    I'm probably in the minority here, but I haven't changed a thing about my eating habits since I was diagnosed. I have always been a foodie. I worked in great restaurants when I was younger.

    I eat what I feel like, when I feel like it. I love fish and grilled meat, vegetables and salads. I sometimes have some wine with dinner and enjoy a drink or two at the bar watching the Phillies, or hanging out with friends. I'm pretty active and typically kept my weight in check.

    When I was in the hospital, they didn't feed me for over two weeks, to make me immediately available for the surgeries they were contemplating/arguing about (I only ever ended up getting a colon stent). I was dying and what did I fantasize about? Was it sandy beaches, more time, or sexy women? Nope, its was icy grapes and a fruit salad.

    In March, I finally got back to the beach with my nephew (a nurse) in tow. One night we were in the mood for a drink and some grub. I told him I was in the mood for a great big mojito and a Cuban sandwich, neither of which can be found around here that time of year. We headed out an hour later for something else. But not before I booked flights and a condo for South Beach, Miami for later in the month :-)

    Since there is always the possibility that things can go downhill quickly for me, I eat (and do) the things I love with the people I care about. I eat like a king, drink like a fish, smoke like a chimney and dance like ... well, an epilectic. I am more than comfortable trading some of my savings and possibly some of my remaining time to enjoy my guilty pleasures.

    All the best to y'all on whatever road you take!

    Ray
  • biz
    biz Member Posts: 60 Member
    Thanks for sharing!
    I love reading your posts. Here is some personally meaningful scripture from my church:

    "The fulness of the earth is yours, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the air,...and the herb, and the good things which come of the earth, whether for food or for raiment, or for houses, or for barns, or for orchards, or for gardens, or for vineyards;

    "Yea, all things which come of the earth, in the season thereof, are made for the benefit and the use of man, both to please the eye and to gladden the heart;

    "Yea, ... for taste and for smell, to strengthen the body and to enliven the soul."

    ****

    Yesterday, a friend brought me a basket of colorful fruit. It really did please my eye and gladden my heart!
    -Biz
  • ron50
    ron50 Member Posts: 1,723 Member

    I'm probably in the minority
    I'm probably in the minority here, but I haven't changed a thing about my eating habits since I was diagnosed. I have always been a foodie. I worked in great restaurants when I was younger.

    I eat what I feel like, when I feel like it. I love fish and grilled meat, vegetables and salads. I sometimes have some wine with dinner and enjoy a drink or two at the bar watching the Phillies, or hanging out with friends. I'm pretty active and typically kept my weight in check.

    When I was in the hospital, they didn't feed me for over two weeks, to make me immediately available for the surgeries they were contemplating/arguing about (I only ever ended up getting a colon stent). I was dying and what did I fantasize about? Was it sandy beaches, more time, or sexy women? Nope, its was icy grapes and a fruit salad.

    In March, I finally got back to the beach with my nephew (a nurse) in tow. One night we were in the mood for a drink and some grub. I told him I was in the mood for a great big mojito and a Cuban sandwich, neither of which can be found around here that time of year. We headed out an hour later for something else. But not before I booked flights and a condo for South Beach, Miami for later in the month :-)

    Since there is always the possibility that things can go downhill quickly for me, I eat (and do) the things I love with the people I care about. I eat like a king, drink like a fish, smoke like a chimney and dance like ... well, an epilectic. I am more than comfortable trading some of my savings and possibly some of my remaining time to enjoy my guilty pleasures.

    All the best to y'all on whatever road you take!

    Ray

    G'day Ray
    I am very much the same. I pretty well eat the same things now as when I was dx'd. It's funny with the exception of things that tasted off I ate a normal diet during chemo. To explain off,I was on a chemo enhancement drug called levamisole. It was horrible stuff,an anti-parasitic for cattle and sheep. It alterred taste dramatically and to stop from ruining my enjoyment of some foods I just did not eat them. My onc was always surprised that in twelve months of weekly chemo,my blood counts never ever dropped below normal.
    The only thing that has changed is alcohol. I take some pretty harsh arthritis drugs nowdaws and they just dont mix with alcohol.
    Apart from that I eat lots of fruit ,not that fussed on veges,red and white meat ,bacon eggs all the dairy stuff. I'm a bit like the ancients I eat what is in season it only seems natural. I'm not that keen on sweets,fruit is all I need. Above all I eat lots and lots of fish.
    In Australia we suffer a lot of sun cancer and most of us realise that the damage that caused the skin cancers was done when we were kids. Perhaps the same is true for crc. I consumed a lot of a chemical called creosote when I was a kid.It was for a lung complaint I didn't have(wrong diagnosis) Creosote is a known carcinogenic so I figure I'm in the zone anyway so why not enjoy my food.
    I have been ca free since treatment in 1998 for stage 3c colon ca (6 nodes)so my diet hasn't worked against me so far. It may help that I have no great fear of ca any longer It just annoys me to see what it does to my friends....Ron.
  • daBeachBum
    daBeachBum Member Posts: 164
    ron50 said:

    G'day Ray
    I am very much the same. I pretty well eat the same things now as when I was dx'd. It's funny with the exception of things that tasted off I ate a normal diet during chemo. To explain off,I was on a chemo enhancement drug called levamisole. It was horrible stuff,an anti-parasitic for cattle and sheep. It alterred taste dramatically and to stop from ruining my enjoyment of some foods I just did not eat them. My onc was always surprised that in twelve months of weekly chemo,my blood counts never ever dropped below normal.
    The only thing that has changed is alcohol. I take some pretty harsh arthritis drugs nowdaws and they just dont mix with alcohol.
    Apart from that I eat lots of fruit ,not that fussed on veges,red and white meat ,bacon eggs all the dairy stuff. I'm a bit like the ancients I eat what is in season it only seems natural. I'm not that keen on sweets,fruit is all I need. Above all I eat lots and lots of fish.
    In Australia we suffer a lot of sun cancer and most of us realise that the damage that caused the skin cancers was done when we were kids. Perhaps the same is true for crc. I consumed a lot of a chemical called creosote when I was a kid.It was for a lung complaint I didn't have(wrong diagnosis) Creosote is a known carcinogenic so I figure I'm in the zone anyway so why not enjoy my food.
    I have been ca free since treatment in 1998 for stage 3c colon ca (6 nodes)so my diet hasn't worked against me so far. It may help that I have no great fear of ca any longer It just annoys me to see what it does to my friends....Ron.

    Hey Ron!
    I have always been a little jealous of your fishing stories. That is a monster in your picture :-) I get out on party boats a few times a year here, but unless we book an eight or twelve hour trip, the pickings are mighty slim here these days. Unfortunately we have overfished the waters around here for decades.

    I know a number of Australians from work and my travels through Europe when I was in college with a group of them. I really dig the Australian spirit. Forgive me for stereotyping, but I find Aussies entertaining and fascinating. They have always seemed to me to be friendly, outgoing, rowdy and love the outdoors and travel.

    I always look forward to reading your posts and admire your perseverance, good nature and (of course) the fish stories. I'm sorry to hear that you are not getting around as well as you would like these days. I'll dedicate one of my drinks to you tonight - lol

    All the best!

    Ray
  • laurettas
    laurettas Member Posts: 372
    biz said:

    Thanks for sharing!
    I love reading your posts. Here is some personally meaningful scripture from my church:

    "The fulness of the earth is yours, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the air,...and the herb, and the good things which come of the earth, whether for food or for raiment, or for houses, or for barns, or for orchards, or for gardens, or for vineyards;

    "Yea, all things which come of the earth, in the season thereof, are made for the benefit and the use of man, both to please the eye and to gladden the heart;

    "Yea, ... for taste and for smell, to strengthen the body and to enliven the soul."

    ****

    Yesterday, a friend brought me a basket of colorful fruit. It really did please my eye and gladden my heart!
    -Biz

    Some questions.
    This is a topic that I follow with much interest since it would be so nice if we could prevent something as dangerous as cancer with a few diet changes. Some of what is being proposed, however, has brought a few questions to my mind. For example, how did people in the past eat in the way that is being proposed--lots of fresh fruits and vegetables, etc. I have lived most of my life in an area that does not grow vegetables for many months of the year. How would you get the vegetables if there was no mass transportation system to bring them from thousands of miles away?

    Also, the people living today that are old came through the Depression. According to my father, they ate lard sandwiches and shared one apple with seven siblings, etc. etc. Not what we would call a healthy diet. My father did get colon cancer (stage 3 over ten years ago) but none of his siblings did.

    Is the Mediterranean diet the reason for the low colon cancer rates or is it the abundant sunshine in those areas? Maybe those ethnic groups have less of a predisposition for that type of cancer.

    My husband has stage four colon cancer now but we have always eaten the same foods. I had a colonoscopy and did not have one polyp. I am also heavier and more sedentary than he has been for the past several years.

    I have pondered these things a lot trying to find answers. I tend to think more like Dr. Servan Schreiber in that I don't think the foods such as animal products are bad for us in and of themselves. I think that the way we raise our food has much more to do with it than the foods themselves. We have raised our own food for many years, totally organic. We raised our own beef, pork, chicken, turkey, vegetables etc. Watching how things are grown commercially makes me ill. We have seen farmers spray herbicides on their lentils three days before harvesting them. They spray wheat several times a season, fertilize heavily to the point of causing a disease in animals eating the young wheat that brings about instant death from a severe magnesium deficiency.

    I think that many of our problems may stem from deficiencies rather than certain foods being bad. The way we grow our food causes them to be not as nutritious as they should be because we try to increase the yield to increase profits. Many other countries still rely on much of their food being grown by local farmers who do not use the same methods for farming.

    Also, what are the many medications that we take doing to us? My husband was on PPIs for many years. Now the FDA says that we should not use them for over three weeks a year because they cause a lack of calcium in our bodies. The signet ring cell cancer that my husband has is caused when a certain molecule in our cells malfunctions. This molecule is dependent on calcium to work properly. Is there a connection between calcium deficiency and this type of cancer? Who knows?!
  • Buckwirth
    Buckwirth Member Posts: 1,258 Member

    I'm probably in the minority
    I'm probably in the minority here, but I haven't changed a thing about my eating habits since I was diagnosed. I have always been a foodie. I worked in great restaurants when I was younger.

    I eat what I feel like, when I feel like it. I love fish and grilled meat, vegetables and salads. I sometimes have some wine with dinner and enjoy a drink or two at the bar watching the Phillies, or hanging out with friends. I'm pretty active and typically kept my weight in check.

    When I was in the hospital, they didn't feed me for over two weeks, to make me immediately available for the surgeries they were contemplating/arguing about (I only ever ended up getting a colon stent). I was dying and what did I fantasize about? Was it sandy beaches, more time, or sexy women? Nope, its was icy grapes and a fruit salad.

    In March, I finally got back to the beach with my nephew (a nurse) in tow. One night we were in the mood for a drink and some grub. I told him I was in the mood for a great big mojito and a Cuban sandwich, neither of which can be found around here that time of year. We headed out an hour later for something else. But not before I booked flights and a condo for South Beach, Miami for later in the month :-)

    Since there is always the possibility that things can go downhill quickly for me, I eat (and do) the things I love with the people I care about. I eat like a king, drink like a fish, smoke like a chimney and dance like ... well, an epilectic. I am more than comfortable trading some of my savings and possibly some of my remaining time to enjoy my guilty pleasures.

    All the best to y'all on whatever road you take!

    Ray

    Maybe not
    I have been in the alcohol business for the last 20 years, and one of the things I enjoyed most was how it attracted foodies and led to lots of memorable meals. Enjoyment of food is part of life, good for you or not.

    In 2010 we had a meal at Chateau Clarke, and the husband/wife team that was managing the property had at one time been personal assistants to Baroness Philippine de Rothschild, and the husband was a great storyteller.

    The meal had been cooked on an indoor, wood burning grill, and when served looked like tri-tip. Paired with a spicy french mustard it was heavenly! The wife was sitting next to me, and as I was digging into a second serving asked if I liked duck, it was at that moment that about half the table realized we were eating duck breast as only the Europeans can prepare it (my wife, who professed earlier to hating duck meat, was also digging in to seconds).

    Chops in Chicago, dogs in Atlanta, BBQ in Texas, Korean tacos in Portland, sausage off a street cart in New York, add in some great wines and unique cocktails along the way, and these are the kind of things that brought joy to my life. (Oh yeah, I also enjoy the occasional Cuban sandwich at the circle in Garden Grove where the Southern California Cuban community has taken hold, and I make a mean mojito on my own.)

    So, with the exception of smoke like a chimney, I am with you all the way!
  • dasspears
    dasspears Member Posts: 227

    I'm probably in the minority
    I'm probably in the minority here, but I haven't changed a thing about my eating habits since I was diagnosed. I have always been a foodie. I worked in great restaurants when I was younger.

    I eat what I feel like, when I feel like it. I love fish and grilled meat, vegetables and salads. I sometimes have some wine with dinner and enjoy a drink or two at the bar watching the Phillies, or hanging out with friends. I'm pretty active and typically kept my weight in check.

    When I was in the hospital, they didn't feed me for over two weeks, to make me immediately available for the surgeries they were contemplating/arguing about (I only ever ended up getting a colon stent). I was dying and what did I fantasize about? Was it sandy beaches, more time, or sexy women? Nope, its was icy grapes and a fruit salad.

    In March, I finally got back to the beach with my nephew (a nurse) in tow. One night we were in the mood for a drink and some grub. I told him I was in the mood for a great big mojito and a Cuban sandwich, neither of which can be found around here that time of year. We headed out an hour later for something else. But not before I booked flights and a condo for South Beach, Miami for later in the month :-)

    Since there is always the possibility that things can go downhill quickly for me, I eat (and do) the things I love with the people I care about. I eat like a king, drink like a fish, smoke like a chimney and dance like ... well, an epilectic. I am more than comfortable trading some of my savings and possibly some of my remaining time to enjoy my guilty pleasures.

    All the best to y'all on whatever road you take!

    Ray

    In the minority too....
    I consulted a nutritionist and a dietician - consensus: eat a balanced diet, including meat (red or not - seriously, what else color is meat?). Nothing is guaranteed!
  • herdizziness
    herdizziness Member Posts: 3,624 Member
    Opposite
    I actually increased my milk intake (or try to)still eat my red meat (must have red meat), still smoke, still drink, still laugh, still play. I try to throw in a leafy vegetable, or even a root vegetable on occasion. Did juice some fruits with ice cream and I think even yogurt, but it proved too healthy for my body and taste buds weren't that "in to it". I bake my cake and eat it too, and coffee... oh heck, must have a few cups in the morning, or else the day just isn't started right (it goes great with chocolate cake first thing in the morning, well, that and a coke cola).
    Still though, I do find myself THINKING about eating healthier.
    Winter Marie
  • Buzzard
    Buzzard Member Posts: 3,043 Member

    Opposite
    I actually increased my milk intake (or try to)still eat my red meat (must have red meat), still smoke, still drink, still laugh, still play. I try to throw in a leafy vegetable, or even a root vegetable on occasion. Did juice some fruits with ice cream and I think even yogurt, but it proved too healthy for my body and taste buds weren't that "in to it". I bake my cake and eat it too, and coffee... oh heck, must have a few cups in the morning, or else the day just isn't started right (it goes great with chocolate cake first thing in the morning, well, that and a coke cola).
    Still though, I do find myself THINKING about eating healthier.
    Winter Marie

    Winter Marie....
    You are just so damn witty..........thats funny, don't care who ya are.....thank you for the chuckle this morning.....love at ya.....buzz