Diet and nutrition...

Brock1969
Brock1969 Member Posts: 80
in Kidney Cancer #1

Hello all. I know many of you have sought out nutritionists in your post op kidney cancer lifestyles. I have also started researching things myself. Other than the obvious of leafy greens, lower sodium foods, etc., does anyone have any advice for some basic foods/dietary advice that are good for people who are in our situations that may even fend off a return of RCC? Thanks for anything you have. 

Comments

  • stub1969
    stub1969 Member Posts: 985 Member
    #2
    Question

    A couple questions for you:  1. How would you rate your current/past diet and nutrition?  Did you have a well-balanced diet that included veggies and fruit?  Or did you reach for the processed food, chips and junk food?  2.  What was your level of fitness?  Did you exercise regularly or was exercise more of a passing thought?  

    As far as supporting research for a diet to fend off cancer--just look at the food and nutrition section of your local book store to see the many options and opinions.  No doubt eating healthy is incredibly important.  I believe if you have a balanced diet that include a variety of veggies and fruit.  Some red meat with more fish and chicken.  Reduce your salt and rid yourself of process foods high in sugar (look at the ingredients on a box panel.  If you can't pronouce the ingredient, avoid the food).  Plus, get regular sustained moderate to high excertion exercise then you are doing your part in fending off cancer. 

    Good luck!

    Stub 

  • Brock1969
    Brock1969 Member Posts: 80
    #3
    stub1969 said:

    Question

    A couple questions for you:  1. How would you rate your current/past diet and nutrition?  Did you have a well-balanced diet that included veggies and fruit?  Or did you reach for the processed food, chips and junk food?  2.  What was your level of fitness?  Did you exercise regularly or was exercise more of a passing thought?  

    As far as supporting research for a diet to fend off cancer--just look at the food and nutrition section of your local book store to see the many options and opinions.  No doubt eating healthy is incredibly important.  I believe if you have a balanced diet that include a variety of veggies and fruit.  Some red meat with more fish and chicken.  Reduce your salt and rid yourself of process foods high in sugar (look at the ingredients on a box panel.  If you can't pronouce the ingredient, avoid the food).  Plus, get regular sustained moderate to high excertion exercise then you are doing your part in fending off cancer. 

    Good luck!

    Stub 

    Thanks Stub

    Yes, I am active, work out 5 days a week and eat healthy "overall" (does anyone truly and fully eat healthy 100% of the time? :)

     

    Thanks for the advice 

  • stub1969
    stub1969 Member Posts: 985 Member
    #4
    Absolutely not!

    My recent post of "Pizza and Beer" should tell you where I'm at with a complete healthy diet.  IMO life is too short to restrict yourself like that.  But, my body prefers eating healthy--I just feel better.  On occasion, I have ice cream with the kids or we have a pizza and movie night.  Moderation is key.

    When I was first diagnosed I spent a lot of time wondering if I had done something to bring this on.  I thought about diet, lifestyle, even environmental or genetic things. With the help of my doctor and reflection I ruled out diet and lifestyle leaving the environmental factor or genetic issues.  This spring I'm meeting with my doctor about genetic testing.  I may get answers from that.  The only thing left is environmental things, which I lean towards.  Why?  Well, I live in a town of 2,500 people and in a 6 month period me and another young man (mid 40) were diagnosed with RCC.  Seems kind of fishy.

    Of course, I am leaving out one other possible answer--just plain bad luck

    Stub

  • Supersum
    Supersum Member Posts: 109 Member
    #5
    There really is a lot of talk

    There really is a lot of talk about diet it is difficult to know what approach to take.

    Some people suggest avoiding sugars in carbs where possible so suggest avoiding sugary fruits and I suppose it might be best to avoid eating too much white bread and white rice. I can't give up my favourite good quality sourdough rye bread even though I tried. This is a difficult one because we also need to keep up our weight if we are having trouble in this area so we can't be too choosey about what we eat to do that.

    Greens are good but maybe we need to think about the high levels of oxalate in spinich and swiss chard which can cause kidney stones which although I have never had any problem with I sure don't want to have one now that I only have one kidney. This doesn't worry me too much I eat spinach and swiss chard when I want, but I wouldn't be eating it too much certainly not every day.

    More importantly, I read a while ago an article written by two Roche researchers who said they weren't sure how immunotherapies worked but most likely there was some contribution of the three factors of exercise, stress, and gut flora (they were probably assuming a healthy diet in general).

    Gut flora is something we should think about, fermented foods can be good but they often have high levels of salt. I eat a small amount of fresh sauerkraut (from the cooler not the shelf) nearly every day. Yoghurts can also be good but I am not eating dairy. Probiotic supplements can also be used. Regular foods can also be good for gut flora such as cabbage if you can including this in your greens (try the chinese cabbage wombok it can be quite sweet sometimes). Other foods can also be good for gut flora there should be some info online.

    Greens in general can give you a healthy gut (and keep the colorectal surgeon happy), but an extra consideration of gut flora might be worth it going forward.

    Anyway that's just some thoughts you might not have considered I suppose the main thing is to just generally eat healthy and if you are exercising regularly and trying to keep stress under control then you are doing the best you can.

  • Steve.Adam
    Steve.Adam Member Posts: 463 Member
    #6
    Just Realised...

    Hi SuperSum,

    I only just realised that your photo is a Wedge Tailed Eagle. I live in Rosewood Qld.

    Anyone with diabetes must consider a low carb diet.

    Apart from that I agree that it's difficult to know what to do. People like Weston Price have studied traditional societies around the world and found them to be exceptionally healthy until exposed to a 'western' diet. Traditional Innuit are supposed to have had almost zero cancer while their non traditionally eating cousins had the same disease rates as their western benefactors.

    There are some modern nutritional ideas that are much more seriously disputed than we might think. They are worth investigating.

    - should we avoid eating saturated fat?

    - should we avoid eating cholesterol rich foods?

    - should we avoid eating salt?

    - should we take calcium supplements?

    - what science is behind the idea that we need 5 serves of fruit and vegetables every day?

    Search youtube for 'Georgia Ede red meat' and watch her talk about a study claiming that red meat causes cancer.

    Search youtube for Amber O'Hearn and watch one of her talks. She has been eating a 100% meat diet for about 10 years. She's not the only one. 

    Steve.

     

     

     

  • SkepticalRealist
    SkepticalRealist Member Posts: 4
    #7
    New Diet

    Australia's CSIRO have just released and new diet plan that throws conventional thining on it's head. While the diet has been designed primarily for sufferers of type 2 diabete's , it's believed it will potentially benefit sufferers of many diseases. The diet is low in carbohydrates and high in protien and seems very versatile. If you want to check it out just google CSIRO Diet.

  • Steve.Adam
    Steve.Adam Member Posts: 463 Member
    #8
    Veni Vidi Googli

    Hi Skeptic,

    I checked it out but it's no good for me. 36% carbs is way too much. I aim for close to zero. It actually looks like a high carb low fat diet, to me.

    I read some comments about it. There is a suggestion that it is high in protein because they get funding from the meat industry.  There might be something in that but what about diets funded by the vegetable industry!!!

    Steve.

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