macrobiotic diet

sandyjg
sandyjg Member Posts: 71
edited March 2014 in Colorectal Cancer #1
Help needed yet again. My husband had his 1st appt with a homeopathic MD to help us with nutrition and supplements. He is recommending a macrobiotic diet. I tried to research this on the internet and it appears to be way complicated. I understand very little of it. Does anyone out there have info on this type of diet. We have only had 1 appt, so it is early on, but I would love to read or hear something about this diet. It appears similar to what we have done in the past. Thanks everyone.

Comments

  • shmurciakova
    shmurciakova Member Posts: 906 Member
    #2
    Hi there,
    Hopefully Emily will reply to this post. I know she has more or less followed a macrobiotic diet for years..I have never been on a macro diet but as far as I know it is a mostly vegetarian diet focusing on lots of raw foods. Congratulations on seeking an integrative doctor. I think you are on the right track. Please keep us posted and let us know more specifically what the specifics of the diet are. Personally I feel like sticking to a good diet, being on the right supplements and having a good state of mind are very important to healing.
    Best of luck,
    Susan
  • sandyjg
    sandyjg Member Posts: 71
    #3
    shmurciakova said:

    Hi there,
    Hopefully Emily will reply to this post. I know she has more or less followed a macrobiotic diet for years..I have never been on a macro diet but as far as I know it is a mostly vegetarian diet focusing on lots of raw foods. Congratulations on seeking an integrative doctor. I think you are on the right track. Please keep us posted and let us know more specifically what the specifics of the diet are. Personally I feel like sticking to a good diet, being on the right supplements and having a good state of mind are very important to healing.
    Best of luck,
    Susan

    Thanks, all I can say now is how confused I am. The macrobiotic diet looks very odd, Lord give me strength!!!!!
  • scouty
    scouty Member Posts: 1,965 Member
    #4
    Sandyjg,

    Interesting!!!!!! Susan is right on about it being mostly vegan and "raw" but most of the books I have seen on it recommend a gradual approach like one meal a day at first and they also have a hit list of what the priority foods to stop and to eat are. My diet changes 2 years ago are still evolving, but started as slowly as I needed them too. If you cut out everything all at the same time, it usually brings on binge eating later on. I tried to make my changes fun and thought of them as more of a lifestyle change then a diet.

    AND my tastebuds learned to crave other foods and forget about others. It was a pretty interesting experience. Now 2 years later, my old favorite McDonalds cheesburger with extra pickles and small french fries gives me headaches almost immediately and diarrhea within 15 minutes. I have only tried that once thinking I couldn't live without them. I don't crave them anymore, neither tasted like my mind thought they used to.

    Please keep us posted!!!!

    Lisa P.
  • shmurciakova
    shmurciakova Member Posts: 906 Member
    #5
    sandyjg said:

    Thanks, all I can say now is how confused I am. The macrobiotic diet looks very odd, Lord give me strength!!!!!

    Well, sticking to a diet of any kind is difficult, but the benefits can be tremendous. I am quite sure that, like Bud says, 80% of cancer is dietary.
    -Susan
  • sandyjg
    sandyjg Member Posts: 71
    #6
    scouty said:

    Sandyjg,

    Interesting!!!!!! Susan is right on about it being mostly vegan and "raw" but most of the books I have seen on it recommend a gradual approach like one meal a day at first and they also have a hit list of what the priority foods to stop and to eat are. My diet changes 2 years ago are still evolving, but started as slowly as I needed them too. If you cut out everything all at the same time, it usually brings on binge eating later on. I tried to make my changes fun and thought of them as more of a lifestyle change then a diet.

    AND my tastebuds learned to crave other foods and forget about others. It was a pretty interesting experience. Now 2 years later, my old favorite McDonalds cheesburger with extra pickles and small french fries gives me headaches almost immediately and diarrhea within 15 minutes. I have only tried that once thinking I couldn't live without them. I don't crave them anymore, neither tasted like my mind thought they used to.

    Please keep us posted!!!!

    Lisa P.

    Hi, any specific books you can recommend. I haven't been to the bookstore yet, but the internet reading was not nearly as easy to understand as your email. We can do it. We did 3 months, no meat, fish, cheese, dairy or oil. But the tumors in the liver grew during that 3 month period and we got a lymph node by the lung, that is terrifying me. This is what finally motivated us to call in for extra help from a professional.
  • 66Rose
    66Rose Member Posts: 58
    #7
    sandyjg said:

    Hi, any specific books you can recommend. I haven't been to the bookstore yet, but the internet reading was not nearly as easy to understand as your email. We can do it. We did 3 months, no meat, fish, cheese, dairy or oil. But the tumors in the liver grew during that 3 month period and we got a lymph node by the lung, that is terrifying me. This is what finally motivated us to call in for extra help from a professional.

    Emily(2bhealed) referred me to this book:

    Beating Cancer with Nutrition by Patrick Quillin.

    I am almost done with it and I love it, so eye opening. Basically we as cancer survivors and to keep this beast away should follow a whole food diet, unprocessed. As much organic as you can, it is expensive, yes I know.

    Get the book, I got it on Amazon.com, worth it!

    Liz
    Arizona
    www.runlizrun.com
  • JADot
    JADot Member Posts: 709 Member
    #8
    scouty said:

    Sandyjg,

    Interesting!!!!!! Susan is right on about it being mostly vegan and "raw" but most of the books I have seen on it recommend a gradual approach like one meal a day at first and they also have a hit list of what the priority foods to stop and to eat are. My diet changes 2 years ago are still evolving, but started as slowly as I needed them too. If you cut out everything all at the same time, it usually brings on binge eating later on. I tried to make my changes fun and thought of them as more of a lifestyle change then a diet.

    AND my tastebuds learned to crave other foods and forget about others. It was a pretty interesting experience. Now 2 years later, my old favorite McDonalds cheesburger with extra pickles and small french fries gives me headaches almost immediately and diarrhea within 15 minutes. I have only tried that once thinking I couldn't live without them. I don't crave them anymore, neither tasted like my mind thought they used to.

    Please keep us posted!!!!

    Lisa P.

    ....so Lisa, the Mac Attack means something entirely different with you, teehee :)

    Sandy, I've gone entirely vegetarian and very nearly vegan. It was easy and hard at the same time. First time I tried this was when I was on chemo, ugh, big mistake. Chemo burns off calories so fast that you really need to pack in the food and calories during it. So I had to get off. Once chemo was over, I went back to vegan again, and this time it was easy.

    I eat a lot of organic whole grain, beans, legume,quinoa and veggies that my blood sugar remains more or less flat, leavig me craving nothing. My husband, who's European, grew up on pastry and loved the stuff. On our current diet, he doesn't even touch the stuff any more because his cravings have completely gone away. I've even got him off milk. This, for a milk-fed central-european, it a major undertaking. It really is mind boggling.

    The key is to have lots of recipes on hand and experiment with variety and spices. I can honestly say that we've never eaten so well as we do now :)

    Good luck to you and your husband. Let me know if you want recipes.

    Cheers,
    Ying
  • hicarm
    hicarm Member Posts: 57
    #9
    JADot said:

    ....so Lisa, the Mac Attack means something entirely different with you, teehee :)

    Sandy, I've gone entirely vegetarian and very nearly vegan. It was easy and hard at the same time. First time I tried this was when I was on chemo, ugh, big mistake. Chemo burns off calories so fast that you really need to pack in the food and calories during it. So I had to get off. Once chemo was over, I went back to vegan again, and this time it was easy.

    I eat a lot of organic whole grain, beans, legume,quinoa and veggies that my blood sugar remains more or less flat, leavig me craving nothing. My husband, who's European, grew up on pastry and loved the stuff. On our current diet, he doesn't even touch the stuff any more because his cravings have completely gone away. I've even got him off milk. This, for a milk-fed central-european, it a major undertaking. It really is mind boggling.

    The key is to have lots of recipes on hand and experiment with variety and spices. I can honestly say that we've never eaten so well as we do now :)

    Good luck to you and your husband. Let me know if you want recipes.

    Cheers,
    Ying

    Hey Ying,

    I would like to see your recipes. So no more Chinese diet for you? What about anchovies? I am curious.

    Carm
  • scouty
    scouty Member Posts: 1,965 Member
    #10
    sandyjg said:

    Hi, any specific books you can recommend. I haven't been to the bookstore yet, but the internet reading was not nearly as easy to understand as your email. We can do it. We did 3 months, no meat, fish, cheese, dairy or oil. But the tumors in the liver grew during that 3 month period and we got a lymph node by the lung, that is terrifying me. This is what finally motivated us to call in for extra help from a professional.

    You should venture out to a big bookstore or better yet a large health food supermarket (Whole Foods, Wild Oats, and Earthfare are a few of the chains) and look thru the books they have. I pick and chose after thumbing thru them now since there are so many out there and my experience is such an evolutionary one. I totally avoid the ones that are sealed books!!

    Lisa P.
  • scouty
    scouty Member Posts: 1,965 Member
    #11
    JADot said:

    ....so Lisa, the Mac Attack means something entirely different with you, teehee :)

    Sandy, I've gone entirely vegetarian and very nearly vegan. It was easy and hard at the same time. First time I tried this was when I was on chemo, ugh, big mistake. Chemo burns off calories so fast that you really need to pack in the food and calories during it. So I had to get off. Once chemo was over, I went back to vegan again, and this time it was easy.

    I eat a lot of organic whole grain, beans, legume,quinoa and veggies that my blood sugar remains more or less flat, leavig me craving nothing. My husband, who's European, grew up on pastry and loved the stuff. On our current diet, he doesn't even touch the stuff any more because his cravings have completely gone away. I've even got him off milk. This, for a milk-fed central-european, it a major undertaking. It really is mind boggling.

    The key is to have lots of recipes on hand and experiment with variety and spices. I can honestly say that we've never eaten so well as we do now :)

    Good luck to you and your husband. Let me know if you want recipes.

    Cheers,
    Ying

    Thanks Ying!!! YES it does and I haven't been back in one since (that was 18 months ago). Yes, please share recipes!!!!!!! I love cookbooks and really enjoy cooking.

    Hugs and I can't wait to meet you in Nastyville....oops I mean Nashville.
  • JADot
    JADot Member Posts: 709 Member
    #12
    scouty said:

    Thanks Ying!!! YES it does and I haven't been back in one since (that was 18 months ago). Yes, please share recipes!!!!!!! I love cookbooks and really enjoy cooking.

    Hugs and I can't wait to meet you in Nastyville....oops I mean Nashville.

    Maybe I'll do Friday Yummies from now on. I've run out of clean jokes :)

    I'll round up a few recipes for you guys shortly.

    And Carm, I cook Chinese food still, but pretty heavily modified. Gone are the white rice and brown tasty but greasy sauces, said goodbye to roast duck, but do make tofu and cabbage a bunch. I sautee a lot of veggies in the Chinese style. Anyway, I'll share some of my modified Chinese recipes with ya'll shortly. It'll probably be close to the weekend when this happens tho. I am crazy busy this week at work.
  • lfondots63
    lfondots63 Member Posts: 818 Member
    #13
    sandyjg said:

    Hi, any specific books you can recommend. I haven't been to the bookstore yet, but the internet reading was not nearly as easy to understand as your email. We can do it. We did 3 months, no meat, fish, cheese, dairy or oil. But the tumors in the liver grew during that 3 month period and we got a lymph node by the lung, that is terrifying me. This is what finally motivated us to call in for extra help from a professional.

    I had a book given to me called Rawsome. It is all raw fruit and veggies. I guess a little more drastic then macrobiotic? It looks good except for the dehydrator. I don't think my hubby would let me buy another "toy". Good luck and keep us posted.

    Lisa F.
  • 2bhealed
    2bhealed Member Posts: 2,064 Member
    #14
    Hi Sandy!

    After being dx'ed I did two major focuses in the dietary genre: Juicing and Macrobiotics.

    They have different approaches. Actually, macro has plenty of cooked foods but they are all whole foods and some fish. I haven't eaten dairy in 24 years so that's no biggie for me. I use soycheese if I really need a cheese fix.

    A good resource is The Cancer Prevention Diet by Michio Kushi.

    I have a wonderful easy cookbook too but the name escapes me and I am upstairs and too lazy to run downstairs. Besides, I have to get up early so I better go to bed.

    Email me on here and give me your "home" email addy and I can send you more info if you want.

    Just be prepared to eat brown rice and sea veggies (I LOVE nori sushi) and lots of veggies (not raw). For sweetener you can use brown rice syrup (later).

    When I eat a macro meal it honestly truthfully makes me feel happier. It's hard to explain. I feel lighter and healthier.

    One of my favorites is aduki beans with tofu, onions, ginger, celery and carrots on brown rice. I sprinkle a little Braggs Amino Acids on there and voila! Happiness!

    It will help, like scouty says, to go to a health foods store or your local coop armed with a list and have someone show you the foods. Coops are wonderful about this......get someone from the front desk to give you a "tour". They often hold classes too (ours does and I happen to give a Juicing Workshop called Juicing For Life -- oh surprise! haha). Just ask.

    Hope this helps.

    peace, emily who is gonna regret it tomorrow at work staying up this late......ZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
  • kiera3
    kiera3 Member Posts: 1
    #15
    Hi Sandyjg, I saw your posting from a few days ago and signed up so that I could provide you with some info that I learned on my path. 7 year stage IV colon cancer survivor - went through campostar (irinotecan) with a 5FU push. Benedryl was used to control initial diarrhea. I found that any food products with citric acid or fumaric acid caused a reaction within 20- 30 minutes. Food included all bottled sodas (pop), juices, jams and the fumaric was found in english muffins (crumpets) and most tortilla wraps, pita pockets. My solution was just to simplify my diet - fresh fruits, vegetables, easy digestible meats (fish, chicken), rice etc -- kind of a "simple mans" approach to microbiotic. The less I aggrivated my bowels the better! Hope the info helps.

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