Thoughts on changing diet?

NWmom
NWmom Member Posts: 80
edited March 2014 in Colorectal Cancer #1
Hi all,
Curious if anyone has changed their diet as a result of diag. Heard something about cancer not surviving well in an alkaline body. Wondering if it would be beneficial to change hubbys diet (age 36 stage4 mets to liver)...thoughts?

Comments

  • lfondots63
    lfondots63 Member Posts: 818 Member
    Hi,

    You have come to the right place to find this out. A lot of us (me included) have changed their diets. Our two "resident" experts are Scouty and 2bhealed. I'm sure they will chime in. If you google alkaline diet you will find tons of information. Cancer is supposed to have a hard time living in an alkaline body. A good book (out of many) to read is Patrick Quinlin's "Beating Cancer with Nutrition". Also juicing is good. You will see a previous post about that. I'm in the crowd that has done both traditional (chemo) and alternatives. Good luck

    Lisa F.
  • shmurciakova
    shmurciakova Member Posts: 906 Member
    I think the majority of the survivors on here have changed their diets substantially. The first thing, and maybe most important thing you can do is cut out sugar as much as possible. This is good anyway, but important for cancer patients. The theory is that cancer cells readily absorb sugars in the body. That is why a PET scan reveals cancerous tumors, because they suck up the radioactive glucose. It is true that many foods, all carbs for that matter convert to sugar in the blood stream. The thing is that some are more readily absorbed into the blood than others. WHITE sugar, bread, rice, pasta, etc. are all very bad. You may as well be eating a piece of birthday cake.
    On the other hand, anything with the fiber still intact, such as WHOLE GRAIN pasta, brown and wild rice, and very heavy, seed laden breads digest more slowly and do not affect the blood sugar so drastically.
    Try to get him eating as close to natural as possible. Juicing green foods is a good idea, I do not really agree with juicing fruits, carrots, beets, etc. because of the sugar content, but it is not refined sugar and these veggies certainly are beneficial. That is up to you personally to explore.
    AVOID high fructose corn syrup, partially hydrogenated oils, processed meats including bacon, lunch meat, summer sausage, Canadian bacon, hot dogs, etc. unless you get them from a health food store and they state NO NITRATES. Processed meats have been confirmed to be linked with colon cancer....because of the preservatives.
    Cutting back on red meat, obviously is a good idea and eating more fish like wild salmon is a good thing.

    Another diet you might consider is one that cuts down on inflammation in the body, like the Perricone Diet. Another good book is called WIn the War Within by Floyd Chilton, Ph.D.
    This is a difficult thing to explain, but angiogenesis (tumors creating a blood supply) is often dependent on inflammatory enzymes, such as the Cox-2 enzyme. That is why meds like Celebrex prevent polyps from forming and in some tumors (like mine which was tested to be Cox-2 dependant) can help prevnt recurrences. However, taking Celebrex is not the only way to stop inflammation, as these books explain.

    I hope that gets you started. If your husband goes on a Low GI diet (glycemic index), his blood sugar will stabilize and I am quite sure he will be at a good pH as well.

    I hope that gets you started,
    Susan H.
  • scouty
    scouty Member Posts: 1,965 Member
    Hi There,

    2 years ago I completely changed my diet (from a not too bad but not too good either) to an all natural and/or organic diet. At the time I had been on chemo for 8 months (stage 4 with mets to liver and left lung) and it was no longer working and my body could not tolerate it anymore (I was 49 at dx and think as you get older, the chemo is harder on the ole bod). I stopped it and fought the cancer with a very alkaline diet as well and supplements prescribed by my Naturopathic Doctor with a PhD in Clinical Nutrition.

    I have now been NED (no evidence of disease) for a year and I can't tell you what it was like watching the tumors literally disappear over time!!!!!!!!

    My philosophy is my old diet and lifestyle "invited" cancer cells into my body and made it comfortable for them to grow, so I knew I needed to reverse the **** cells' comfort zone. Surgery/chemo/and radiation can get rid of cancer but if you keep living like you were before diagnosis, it will most likely come back.

    I highly recommend all the books already listed especially Quillans', it was the one that got me started.

    I hope Jana11 chimes in also since she changed her diet while on chemo and really thinks it is helping her endure it much better.

    Lisa P.
  • ReorgeDaughter
    ReorgeDaughter Member Posts: 5
    Hi,
    My Dad was recent dx with stage 3. I am a dietitian and have been putting together a diet for him. I have found the Cancer Nutrition Info web site extremely helpful. Here is the link.

    http://web.cancernutritioninfo.com/main.cfm?id=1

    Also there is a article about the acid-base balance that I found helpful. It is in the Q&A section.

    http://web.cancernutritioninfo.com/main.cfm?id=1537&display=yes&RequestTimeout=500

    I wish you and your family all the best on this difficult journey!
  • KathiM
    KathiM Member Posts: 8,028 Member
    Count me IN! Partially because of my desire to eat healthier, partly because I have less colon to process with...I get punished almost immediately if I 'sin' with certain foods!

    I used to be very mean to my body...hardly anything other than fast foods! No more...and if it IS 'fast foods', I order apples instead of fries!

    Hugs, kathi
  • 2bhealed
    2bhealed Member Posts: 2,064 Member
    Hi there,

    i defintely tweaked my diet to focus on curing cancer. I say "tweaked" because I already was a "crunchy granola" type who hadn't had refined sugar or dairy products for 20 years when dx'ed. But I didn't follow an alkaline diet and wasn't balanced. I was heavy on the carbs even if they were whole grain etc.

    I did not do any chemo for my Stage 3 colon cancer and opted to cure my cancer through nutrition and lifestyle changes. After my tumor was removed I went home and started juicing like crazy--up to 3 quarts of carrot/veggie juice a day mixed with protein powder and flax seeds. (the only fruit I juice is an apple). I based my veggie choices on digestive properties such as parsley, ginger etc.

    Carrot and beet juice are usually the cancer curing and liver detoxing poster children in the juicing world. Like anything, there are differing opinions. All I know is what i did and it has worked for me as I remain cancer free for 5 years and was declared CURED last week! All with never having done any chemo.

    Added to the juicing protocol, I followed a macrobiotic diet (The Cancer Prevention Diet by Michio Kushi). It is a gentle plant based diet that helps the body detox and repair itself. It i s also an alkalizing way to balance the body.

    I agree with Susan that reducing inflammation is key also. These things all work together and while the diets may differ in focus the outcome can be the same---reduce inflammation.

    I have an article in the Resource Library on this site that will explain the Secret Weapon of healing the body and that's LIVE ENZYMES. Do a search--it's listed as Juicing I and Juicing 2 put up by nanuk.

    Cancer likes acid based bodies and those are ones that usually are fueled by sugars and simple carbs, meats and dairy products, processed and fried foods.....basically the Standard American Diet.

    I hope this helps.

    peace, emily who also likes the book The Makers Diet for wonderful intestinal health information
  • 2bhealed
    2bhealed Member Posts: 2,064 Member
    2bhealed said:

    Hi there,

    i defintely tweaked my diet to focus on curing cancer. I say "tweaked" because I already was a "crunchy granola" type who hadn't had refined sugar or dairy products for 20 years when dx'ed. But I didn't follow an alkaline diet and wasn't balanced. I was heavy on the carbs even if they were whole grain etc.

    I did not do any chemo for my Stage 3 colon cancer and opted to cure my cancer through nutrition and lifestyle changes. After my tumor was removed I went home and started juicing like crazy--up to 3 quarts of carrot/veggie juice a day mixed with protein powder and flax seeds. (the only fruit I juice is an apple). I based my veggie choices on digestive properties such as parsley, ginger etc.

    Carrot and beet juice are usually the cancer curing and liver detoxing poster children in the juicing world. Like anything, there are differing opinions. All I know is what i did and it has worked for me as I remain cancer free for 5 years and was declared CURED last week! All with never having done any chemo.

    Added to the juicing protocol, I followed a macrobiotic diet (The Cancer Prevention Diet by Michio Kushi). It is a gentle plant based diet that helps the body detox and repair itself. It i s also an alkalizing way to balance the body.

    I agree with Susan that reducing inflammation is key also. These things all work together and while the diets may differ in focus the outcome can be the same---reduce inflammation.

    I have an article in the Resource Library on this site that will explain the Secret Weapon of healing the body and that's LIVE ENZYMES. Do a search--it's listed as Juicing I and Juicing 2 put up by nanuk.

    Cancer likes acid based bodies and those are ones that usually are fueled by sugars and simple carbs, meats and dairy products, processed and fried foods.....basically the Standard American Diet.

    I hope this helps.

    peace, emily who also likes the book The Makers Diet for wonderful intestinal health information

    ps. toxic emotions can also create an acid body so not only changing one's diet is good, but changing one's lifestyle makes healing optimal. Avoiding toxic people along with toxic food can do wonders!!

    peace, emily