My breast cancer spread to my bones something like eight or nine years ago, and ever since then I've wondered if all the information about supposedly cancer-fighting foods applied to me.
My e-mail box and this blog attract a lot of press releases from cancer centers, universities, and the like, and I ignore most of them, but when I get a press release announcing new research on a food or natural substance that supposedly helps prevent cancer, I usually e-mail the sender and ask if this research applies to people like me, people who already HAVE cancer.
The reply, typically, is: We don't know. This study didn't look at that.
Finally, however, here is a study that seems to have addressed that question. Thank you, Ohio State University!
Granted, so far the research has only looked at mice with breast cancer tumors (my kind of cancer, even!), but it showed that a substance in broccoli and brussels sprouts caused the tumors to shrink.
Now, I like broccoli, and some years I even grow my own, so it is no hardship for me to add a bit more broccoli to my diet. I especially like homemade cream of broccoli soup--this requires a blender, but other than that it is really simple to make.
I don't have a link to this research online, but it was published online June 29 in the journal Cancer Prevention Research.
The Metastatic Cancer Patient Diet
So, back to my original question: Does it matter what we folks living with metastatic cancer eat? If you are a member of this exclusive club, please feel free to weigh in below, in the comments box. I would like to know what you think.
For now, let's leave supplements out of the discussion, and just focus on real food. We can have a conversation about supplements another day.
My personal feeling is that I should eat as healthy a diet as possible, because while my cancer is taking up most of my attention, it is also possible for me to develop another health condition or disease, and some of these are related to diet.
For me, this means eating a vegetarian diet, with only organic, hormone-free dairy products. I eat as much produce, preferably fresh from my own garden at this time of year, as my GI tract will tolerate.
I do pay attention to which foods supposedly have the most anti-oxidants, because I figure I might as well hedge my bets there, too.
And then, just as I was working on this post, in comes an e-mail about antioxidants with this headline:
Antioxidant benefits a myth?
Argh. If you live long enough, and I'm talking about life in general, not life with cancer, you will see eggs go in and out of popularity, then butter vs. margarine and back again to butter, and so on with coffee and many other foods. Types of sugar. Oils. Beef is out right now, but who knows? It may come back into dietary fashion, although I won't be eating it, regardless.
Of especial interest to me is that the headline above refers to an article written for food marketers--those folks trying to sell you products with the word ANTIOXIDANTS slapped across the label. We'll come back to this when we discuss supplements in more detail.
Here's the link: Antioxidants?
@ Jeanne Sather 2010.