Diet for a veggie hater

markatger
markatger Member Posts: 314
edited March 2014 in Colorectal Cancer #1
Hi again,

I tend to post in twos, hope you all don't mind. So I'm trying to get motivated to change my diet, specifically by cutting our sugar and getting more vitamins. I have seen a lot of recommendations about books to read. I will try to get them soon, which may answer my questions.

I am a little confused and very challenged about making diet changes. I am a big carb eater and a big dairy eater. I love beans and rice. I also love fruit juice like Odwalla Superfood.

My concerns are that I have been told to cut down on sugar and that fruit contains sugar. I am a life-long veggie hater, so fruit is how I get my vitamins. Another rec is to cut down on gluten-containing foods. I am a big carb lover - rice, bread, pasta. But, this rec seems to contradict another recommendation to lower how much animal protein you eat - or maybe its just red meat. Yet another source of confusion is supplements. I have been told that anti-oxidants can actually interfere with chemo. So it makes me nervous to take any sort of supplement.

Ugh...I'm confused about the contradictory do's and don'ts. And also very challenged to force myself to change my diet completely especially during a time that I feel like I just want to eat my comfort food. And all this confusion just makes me want to just say "screw it" and keep eating how I do and not take supplements.

Thanks for any thoughts on this,
Maria

Comments

  • ron50
    ron50 Member Posts: 1,723 Member
    #2
    Hi Maria,
    I remember when I started chemo one of the nurses sat with me and had a talk about foods. By that time I had gone off 5fu leucovorin and was on an old regime of 5fu and levamisol. Levamisol is a cattle drench and the all time great at changing taste ie salty became sweet delicious became disgusting ect. She said while u are on chemo avoid foods u really love as u might put yourself off them for good , she advised bland stuff like fruit and cereal so I lived on fruit ,paw paw was good and ate rolled oat porridge sweetened with honey . I made it through chem albeit about 30 kilos heavier than I started,now I eat pretty much simple foods ,still love fruit ,I eat red meat (lean) chicken and fish but I also walk around 5 miles a day ,so far so good the friut keeps me regular and I'm still enjoying what I eat so why worry be happy,cheers Ron.
  • markatger
    markatger Member Posts: 314
    #3
    ron50 said:

    Hi Maria,
    I remember when I started chemo one of the nurses sat with me and had a talk about foods. By that time I had gone off 5fu leucovorin and was on an old regime of 5fu and levamisol. Levamisol is a cattle drench and the all time great at changing taste ie salty became sweet delicious became disgusting ect. She said while u are on chemo avoid foods u really love as u might put yourself off them for good , she advised bland stuff like fruit and cereal so I lived on fruit ,paw paw was good and ate rolled oat porridge sweetened with honey . I made it through chem albeit about 30 kilos heavier than I started,now I eat pretty much simple foods ,still love fruit ,I eat red meat (lean) chicken and fish but I also walk around 5 miles a day ,so far so good the friut keeps me regular and I'm still enjoying what I eat so why worry be happy,cheers Ron.

    Hi Ron,

    Thanks for your post! LOL..you must be a brit or another Aussie, right...with your kilo use and what is Paw Paw??? : )

    I have expressed my concerns to a nurse before and she urged me to eat however I want, that to fret over trying to be nutritionally perfect when undergoing chemo is being a little to hard on yourself. I'm trying to avoid sugar, though...which is hard becaue I have kind of a sweet tooth. I don't drink soda, though which is a plus for me. But refusing sweet snacks will be tough.

    I got some exercise playing frisbee yesterday...woohoo.

    Thanks again for your post and hope you are doing great!

    -Maria
  • 2bhealed
    2bhealed Member Posts: 2,064 Member
    #4
    hi maria,

    Though I can give you no advice on eating during chemo (maybe it's like pregnancy--hard to eat and keep stuff down?? I dunno) I can share cancer-fighting eating.

    Depending on what info you want to latch onto you may still eat carbs--as long as they are NOT refined or white.....NO white pasta, rice, grains--wheat etc.

    If you follow the Cancer Prevention Diet by Michio Kushi you may eat BROWN rice.....it is a basic macrobiotic staple.

    Red meat is not advised due to the sluggish transit time in the tubes--time to putrify and turn toxic in the colon--something you obviously will want to avoid. Now there is some evidence that GRASS -FED beef is actually good for cancer fighting. But truthfully, how many of us buy ORGANIC grass-fed beef?

    Dairy is something to be avoided during cancer healing due to the mucous forming gunk in the tubes. Cancer feeds on mucous. It also coats the colon so that nutrients are harder to absorb.

    If you truly do not like veggies I recommend you try juicing them and drinking your veggies in fresh organic juices. If you add an apple it gives it some natural sweetness. There are green powders that you can drink and get a ton of veggie nutrition in one 8oz glass. Hold your nose and suck it down if you must. haha! :-)

    It IS confusing out there---you have the raw food advocates and the macrobiotic advocates and they are on different sides of the cancer healing fence. I combined the two--I juiced and ate macrobiotically. I love carbs too. I ate beans and rice and veggies. It's amazing how your palate changes when you cut out refined sweets and junk.

    Hope this helps.

    peace, emily who is a reformed veggie hater herself!
  • nanuk
    nanuk Member Posts: 1,358 Member
    #5
    there are definitely more questions than answers, and researching diet, supplements & doctors will make your head spin..here's some sites to get it started..
    http://www.townsendletter.com/Dec2002/artemisinin1202.htm

    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?CMD=search&DB=pubmed

    http://www.acam.org/dr_search/index.php

    http://www.aaem.com/

    http://www.nutricology.com/store/product.php?productid=16414&cat=0&page=
  • markatger
    markatger Member Posts: 314
    #6
    2bhealed said:

    hi maria,

    Though I can give you no advice on eating during chemo (maybe it's like pregnancy--hard to eat and keep stuff down?? I dunno) I can share cancer-fighting eating.

    Depending on what info you want to latch onto you may still eat carbs--as long as they are NOT refined or white.....NO white pasta, rice, grains--wheat etc.

    If you follow the Cancer Prevention Diet by Michio Kushi you may eat BROWN rice.....it is a basic macrobiotic staple.

    Red meat is not advised due to the sluggish transit time in the tubes--time to putrify and turn toxic in the colon--something you obviously will want to avoid. Now there is some evidence that GRASS -FED beef is actually good for cancer fighting. But truthfully, how many of us buy ORGANIC grass-fed beef?

    Dairy is something to be avoided during cancer healing due to the mucous forming gunk in the tubes. Cancer feeds on mucous. It also coats the colon so that nutrients are harder to absorb.

    If you truly do not like veggies I recommend you try juicing them and drinking your veggies in fresh organic juices. If you add an apple it gives it some natural sweetness. There are green powders that you can drink and get a ton of veggie nutrition in one 8oz glass. Hold your nose and suck it down if you must. haha! :-)

    It IS confusing out there---you have the raw food advocates and the macrobiotic advocates and they are on different sides of the cancer healing fence. I combined the two--I juiced and ate macrobiotically. I love carbs too. I ate beans and rice and veggies. It's amazing how your palate changes when you cut out refined sweets and junk.

    Hope this helps.

    peace, emily who is a reformed veggie hater herself!

    Thank you very much Emily! Like everyone says it really is great that you contribute your knowledge on this site. I'm trying to improve my diet and have been very confused. Your reply really adressed some of my confusion. I defintely am taking some basic steps to cut out sugar. And am going to try with the veggies. I wonder how good Odwalla Superfood is? You know it green, wheatgrass stuff? I have drank it for years, and always hoped it would help with my lack of veggie eating!
    Well cancer is a big motivator to get your diet in shape that is for sure. Maybe if I do it a little bit at a time, I can do it.

    Thanks again....I hope you are feeling great, naturally! : )

    Maria
  • markatger
    markatger Member Posts: 314
    #7
    nanuk said:

    there are definitely more questions than answers, and researching diet, supplements & doctors will make your head spin..here's some sites to get it started..
    http://www.townsendletter.com/Dec2002/artemisinin1202.htm

    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?CMD=search&DB=pubmed

    http://www.acam.org/dr_search/index.php

    http://www.aaem.com/

    http://www.nutricology.com/store/product.php?productid=16414&cat=0&page=

    Thanks again Nanuk for the links...I think I am ready to do more research. I was kind of burnt out from doing a lot after my initial diagnosis in Feb. But I'm getting motivated to do more. and hopefully motivated to make some diet changes....one step at a time.

    Thank-you and hope you are good,
    Maria
  • 2bhealed
    2bhealed Member Posts: 2,064 Member
    #8
    markatger said:

    Thank you very much Emily! Like everyone says it really is great that you contribute your knowledge on this site. I'm trying to improve my diet and have been very confused. Your reply really adressed some of my confusion. I defintely am taking some basic steps to cut out sugar. And am going to try with the veggies. I wonder how good Odwalla Superfood is? You know it green, wheatgrass stuff? I have drank it for years, and always hoped it would help with my lack of veggie eating!
    Well cancer is a big motivator to get your diet in shape that is for sure. Maybe if I do it a little bit at a time, I can do it.

    Thanks again....I hope you are feeling great, naturally! : )

    Maria

    Hi maria!

    I am not familiar with the Odwalla juice. The thing about juicing is the LIVE ENZYMES. You can only get them from freshly juiced veggies as they start dying off about 20 minutes after being juiced. Also bottled juices are often pasteurized and that kills about everything. So I would focus on fresh juices. (www.discountjuicers.com---I recommend the champion juicer)

    Wheatgrass juice is fabulous for health. It is one of those foundational greens that most powders are based upon. the green powder that I use is Perfect Food by Garden of Life. I have used Kyo-Greens and Green Magma also but have settled on Perfect Food. It is a personal palate thing--except that Perfect Food has many more ingredients than the other two. (also uses Stevia for sweetener--an herb that does not mess with your glycemic levels).

    So since you are already into drinking your superfood try making it fresh and see what that does!! I promise you will feel a difference.

    hope this helps.

    peace, emily

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