Easy, Low Fat Food that Can Save A Triple Negative Life
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Hi there - I hope you don't mind me butting in since I'm not TN.... I too am trying to stick with 20% fat, because that's the recommendation from Keith Block MD, who is a traditional oncologist who also is really heavy into complementary medicine.
I have been a major junk food addict all of my life, but when I was diagnosed I treated myself to a Vitamix, and just recently a really good juicer.
I've been making low fat chocolate shakes in the Vitamix that turn out great - my husband even likes them.
Per serving I put in
1/2 cup unsweetened chocolate almond milk
1/2 frozen banana
1 tablespoon cocoa power
1 packet Stevia sweetener
3 ice cubes
Adding some protein powder is optional. It blends up in about 30 seconds to being just like a chocolate shake.
I also make fruit sorbet in it using bagged frozen fruit and unsweetened vanilla almond milk - I can't remember the ratio on that because I haven't made it for a while. It turns out like a low fat sherbet.
I'm also absolutely loving the juicing. I make combos like sweet potato, beet, spinach, apple, lemon, broccoli, cauliflower and carrot and it actually tastes good - and NO FAT! And it helps me feel like I'm doing something to keep the cancer away.
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Eileen
Thanks for the information. My dh and I were thinking of getting a juicer, but wondering if we would really use it or would it be just one more thing sitting around...were you into all of this before bc? We do try and eat natural, organic when we can..but still have a long way to go. Also, I am confused about the type of juicer to get...anyone have any input? Thanks
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Good idea - I'll try it tomorrow with my smoothie.
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Hi living!
What I think is kind of funny is that I was VERY into THINKING about nutrition before I got diagnosed. I even bought and read two anti-cancer diet books before I knew I had cancer. And I talked about it a lot so everyone thought I had an incredibly healthy diet. But I was such a junk food addict. The day I got my diagnosis it gave me the incentive to really start following what I knew was a better way to eat. I really don't miss the junk now. I could never lose my extra 20-30 pounds before, and now that's coming off, so really the only thing I've lost is weight, which is a good thing!
I was never into juicing before, but when I started reading about how high fruit and vegetable consumption really can affect recurrence I got the juicer as a way to get more veggies but not so much fiber. It's also important to eat some vegetables raw, cruciferous veggies in particular. I was getting pretty sick of just munching on them, since I had to cut way back on salad dressing to go low fat. I got my juicer about 2 weeks ago and I've used it almost every day, sometimes more than once a day. I love it!
I have an Omega 8006 and I highly recommend it. There are two kinds of juicers - the kind that shred the food and then spin it at high speed through a mesh filter. I had one of those way in the past and they are OK, but the filter is hard to clean usually, and they also put out foamier juice and splatter more.
The other kind is called a masticating juicer, and you can get single or double gear. Mine's a single. It looks more like a meat grinder - you drop the food into the tube, and then a long gear grinds it up and squeezes out the juice. There are quite a few parts to it, but it really is pretty easy to clean because most of them just take a quick rinse. The screen is really small and easy to clean. The drawback to this kind is that you have to cut the food up pretty small. With some of the centrifugal force juicers you can drop in a whole apple. I have to cut an apple into about 8-10 wedges, but I like the non-foamy juice so much better.
I also have been using it to juice fresh tomatoes from my garden and then I boil the juice down to make homemade spaghetti sauce. I works great for that. I used to go to so much work to prep the tomatoes for sauce, and this is really quick.
If your husband is into it with you that's great - mine isn't so much but I just make my stuff and he makes his. My juicer was pretty expensive - $300, but to me it was well worth it, because I know I'm not going back to the junk food. Let me know if you get one and we can share recipes!
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Jenn,
Ya know it was DOABLE....he put salsa all over the top of it. Then added fresh squeezed lime. Really was ok. I just hope it is boosting the iron. DH did go to store and bought some Total cereal and it says it is 100% iron....ate some of that today. Thanks for the spinach advice.
Living,
Gotta try that. That is definately one way to (slip) some spinach in there
MAY GOD BLESS US ALL!!!!!
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Eileen - my sister has a juicer, once she remembers to get it to me I'll get with you for some receipes. I too had started working on eating healthier before dx, but getting the dx has really whipped me into shape.
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Sounds good, Jenn! In the meantime, here's one "recipe" I've been having a lot. I hesitate to call it a recipe, because it's just a salmon salad sandwich...
Salmon Salad
1 6 oz. pouch Chicken of the Sea Pink Salmon (total 6 g fat)
3 T Hellman's Canola Mayo (13.5 total fat) - you could probably drop down to 2 T if you want
about 3 teaspoons dill pickle relish
about 1 1/2 - 2 teaspoons prepared yellow mustard
about 1/4 cup chopped onion
1/3 teaspoon turmeric
1/3 teaspoon black pepper
1/3 teaspoon kelp granules
For me this makes 4 sandwiches, so that's only 5 g fat plus your bread - I use light bread so it only adds 1 g fat. To me 6 g fat is pretty low fat for my main course. If you left out 1 T mayo you'd save about 1 g per sandwich.
I like it because it covers so many of the foods from the Anti-cancer diet - salmon, turmeric, and onions, and I throw in the kelp for the iodine. I think I've read that if you eat a lot of cruciferous vegetables you have to be sure to get enough iodine so you don't have thyroid problems.
You can tell me if I get too annoying - a low fat and anti-cancer diet has become kind of an obession with me!!
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Eileen,
Your not annoying at all....very informative an encouraging. I was really trying to get into the diet, however struggling just a bit towards the end of my radiation. One thing that I have found makes a big difference with my energy through radiation is a drink I have been making every night...no fat organic yogart, fresh raspberries, fresh peach and some organic kefer. I had blood count done the other day and after 5 months of chemo and 4 weeks of rads so far, my labs are perfect:)
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Eileen...I have been thinking about buying the Jack Lalanne Juicer. Have you tried it before? You can put whole fruits and vegetables in it. Also, Please post as many recipes as you want!0
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Eileen - Thank you for the receipe - I will try it this week. You are far from annoying - I've really been making changes to my diet and I say the more foods we can come up with together the better.
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We had a fabulous dinner last night. I cut slivers into tuna steaks and put slices of garlic in them, then seasoned the fish with a tiny spray of olive oil and some pepper. I grilled them on the George Forman grill and served them with a side of grits and some spinach. Even my picky 14 year old daughter (who has accused me of trying to turn her into a rabbit) loved it. Next I'm going to try a chicken, garlic and snow pea stir fry (once again, using very little oil).
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Living - congrats on your great labs! I really think eating right makes a difference. Your smoothie sounds yummy. I might try something like that with almond milk. I'm avoiding dairy products because I've read that the casein is bad for cancer. (Yet another thing I can't eat!)
ccbaby - I have not used a Jack Lalanne juicer. I would suggest going to amazon.com and searching for juicers - they have a lot on there with lots of user reviews. I did get a really cheap juicer before my current one, and it was more of a pain to clean - it had really large parts with lots of nooks and crannies, so it seemed messier to me. The juice also splattered out of the spout, and I've read that about the Jack Lalanne too.
Jenn and all - thanks for being welcoming! I've had trouble connecting on some of the threads, but this one seems right up my alley!
Here's the juice I'm going to have tonight: 1/2 sweet potato, 1/2 beet, 1/2 lemon, 1 small apple, chunk of fresh ginger, a couple big handfuls of spinach, broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage.
I had the same thing last night but added pineapple and cherry, and I think that might have given me indigestion. Suzanne Somers says you shouldn't eat fruit with any other food, so maybe mixing too much fruit in my veggie juice did it. It tasted good, though.
carolinachick - how long did you grill the tuna? Do you think it would work well with salmon? I've never tried those kind of grills - do you think it cooks fish better than putting it in the oven?
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I second the lean steak idea...you've got to find the package that lists the grams of fat.
Spinach salad is so yummy. I top it with goat cheese which is surprising low in fat.
PASTA: I take trader Joe's frozen uncooked shrimp, scallops and calamari rings (they come in a package together) cook and then put in fat-free spaghetti sauce. Add a little rum (I like captain morgans...boil to cook the alchohol out) and put over angle hair pasta...but whole grain pasta of any kind would be good.
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Eileen - I grilled the tuna for about 7 minutes. I'm sure you could use salmon as well, although it's not as thick as tuna steak so your garlic slivers would need to be smaller. I love my George Foreman grill - I've grilled veggies on it and use it for low-fat turkey burgers for a quick meal. If you're thinking of getting one, just make sure that the grills are removable for cleaning.
I haven't gotten into juicing, but am trying to eat more cleanly. It's amazing how much better I feel and how sluggish I am when I slip back into my old eating habits. That along with lowering my chance of recurrence should be all the motivation I need to keep this up!
Thanks for this thread, Meggy!
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My youngest daughter did a balsamic salmon dish that was wonderful!
2 cloves of garlic minced
1 tsp honey
1 tablespoon and 2 1/4 tsp of balsmic vinegar
1 1/4 Dijon mustard
Salt and pepper to taste
Mix all ingredients in the bowl except the garlic -Spay non stick pan with olive oil spray or cooking spray and cook the garlic until it starts to soften, then add the the other ingredients and cook for 3 minutes and turn off. Use this glaze to brush over the salmon filets (we've also used it on shrimp and I'm sure it would be good w/chicken). Place filets in a preheated oven of 400 degrees and cook for 15 minutes (or until done to your taste). For the shrimp we cooked them in another pan on the stove with some onions until almost done, then added the glaze and cooked together for a few more minutes. If I used chicken I would probably lower my oven to 350 and use thin pieces of chicken.
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Two questions: how does fat intake affect insulin levels? I thought insulin was about sugar and high glycemic foods. I'm on board with the insulin theory; just don't know how to implement it!
Eating low fat can interfere with some of absorption of curcumin, loxin 5 (boswellia, a very important supplement for us triple negatives) CoQ10 and others. I love the idea of eating lean and healthy, but how do we balance the two?
And, sugar/carbo loading is often suggested during chemo to get the chemo drug's uptake into cancer cells better. Don't know what to say about that one. Just putting it out there.
Meggy, I was wondering about our interpreting of this study. It says low fat eating reduces the actual risk of first occurence in the first part; and the second part says it reduces the recurrence rate after 5 years...but us triple negatives have very few recurrences after 5 years. And we already have a first occurence so...
One more caveat: Low fat eating tends to be higher carb and glycemics. For example, No Pudge Brownies is one of my favorites, but the reason it is low fat is because it is high sugar. Be careful not to sacrifice good fats for sugar.
You mentioned no olive oil on the vegetables, but I wonder. Olive oil, uncooked, is critically important for reducing inflammation, providing omega 3, and many other goodies. Inflammation fuels cancer. I have added olive oil to my diet to make sure the curcumin I take gets absorbed.
Exercise, oh yeah. Plenty of it. No way around that!
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I had the same numbness and weakness in the arm after mastectomy in 07 and again after removal of 18 lymph nodes on 6-22-09. In 07 nothing was done for a while and then I went to a lymphedma specialist who is also a physical therapist. Seems though I had lympadema which needed the gentle massage, the numbness and pain was nerve damage. She taught me exercises called "nerve glides" and actually did lots of them during therapy and I regained all the feeling in that arm. Now I have it again after the removal of lymph nodes (same side after mastectomy go figure) and am doing the exercises at home. I hope to loose all the numbness. The exercises are gentle but still really feel them with the nerve involvement. Check this out with a PT that understands the problem. It took more than one for me.
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I switched from regular ground meat to turkey meat a few years ago. At first my family was resistant. What I did was to slowly cut the turkey meat into the meals (50/50). Then after a while made the switch. Now it's what they're used to and when we have guest over for dinner they don't realize they're eating turkey in place of ground meat, except burgers. If we have a BBQ I offer both - turkey burgers are great and I love them, but some people just want a good red meat burger. I use lean turkey meat (93/7) in dishes such spaghetti, stuffed peppers, meatloaf, turkey burgers, taco, dirty rice..... Ground turkey is a great substitute for ground meat and lets us enjoy some of our favorite "feel good" meals in a much healthier way.
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Jenn3,
We too switched to turkey a few years ago. Now it is part of the NORM. We NEVER buy beef anymore. I do need to check though and see how much FAT is in the one we purchase. We do turkey chilli, spaghetti, burgers, taco.....EVERYTHING. I would like to know what you all think about fruit. I have been told something about Sugar feeds cancer.....We know fruit does have sugar.....Just curious
May God Bless Us All
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I've read that about the sugar too, but there are fruits lower in sugar that have many benefits. I have not stopped eating strawberries, blueberries and blackberries........
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I've read that about the sugar too, but there are fruits lower in sugar that have many benefits. I have not stopped eating strawberries, blueberries and blackberries........
With that said I do need to do more research on the fruits that are lower in sugar, but have not done so yet.
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MsBliss, I really need to read that study. Is there a link on this thread? I had read a summary of it and I do remember them saying that the participants ate low fat for 5 years....but I thought they looked at recurrance during the 5 year...not just afterwards...that would make no sense at all. I'm a computer idiot..can anyone put a link to the study on here so we can all read it?
Thanks!!!!!
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Meggy:
Thanks for adding the link to my blog. The WINS study on the influence of a low-fat diet on TNBC, I think, does offer great hope to women with this disease--and other forms of hormone-negative. The first link below is to the full study on the low fat diet. The second link is to the National Cancer Institute's article on the study.
http://www.cancer.gov/newscenter/pressreleases/WINSBreastStudy
http://jnci.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/98/24/1767
The comment about insulin came from an interview I had with Rowan Chlebowsk, the lead researcher in the study. It was something he thought was a factor, but it was not a formal part of the study. Other researchers have mentioned the insulin connection to estrogen-negative cancers as well. I am intrigued by the connection, but so far there is no research out there on it.
Fat, however, is associated with insulin resistance, which is a precursor of diabetes. Processed carbs--like sugar--are also implicated in the incidence of triple negative. Here's what I say about that on my blog:
A diet heavy in simple carbohydrates—sugar, white bread, cakes and cookies—can put a woman at risk of hormone-receptor-negative breast cancer, according to research in the American Journal of Nutrition’s May 2008 issue. French researchers studied the diets of 62,739 postmenopausal women from 1993 to 2002; 1812 of these women eventually were diagnosed with breast cancer. The researchers note that, because simple carbs are rapidly absorbed by the body, they elevate insulin levels, which can be the link to hormone-receptor-negative breast cancer. According the Centers for Disease Control, complex carbohydrates—whole grains, seeds, vegetables and most fruits—are more slowly digested and less likely to increase insulin levels.
I hope all this makes sense.
Pat
www.hormonenegative.blogspot.com
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Pat, thank you so much for that information! I am going to try to copy it into the thread I wish could get pinned about what we can do to lower recurrance after chemo is done.
Ms. Bliss, maybe we can really try to put our fat in the right place. In the study they ate an average of 33 grams of fat a day (I think) but I'm small so I'm going with a little less...but maybe those grams should be really good grams...like the omegas and olive oil...it just ads up really fast.
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I thought I was reading from the link you posted about the diet concept of low fat and recurrence. Let me check....
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I just love Pisto..it is a Spanish veggie stew...
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I had a Jack Lalanne juicer and it was brilliant. I gave it to someone who needed it and will be getting another one soon. Most people who have issues with it, like mess or leaks, are not clamping it and locking it correctly. I have had many diff kinds of juicer and for the money this is the most powerful and easiest to maintain. I re use the pulp too. It is my favorite juicer.
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I'm trying to keep my fat grams under 33 per day, which seems easier than trying to figure out whether what I'm eating has less than 20% of calories from fat. That way if I know that I'll be eating out I can keep my fat grams very low for the rest of the day. I'm also trying to eat high quality fats (like olive oil) when I do partake. I am enjoying cooking healthy and my family hasn't complained much at all.
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Jo,
That sounds pretty good. Thanks for the idea. I know I could sure use some pointers. I struggle with trying to eat the best all the time. I am hoping when I am done with treatment it will be easier. During treatment.....something strange is going on with my taste buds......
May God Bless Us All
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Years ago my oldest daughter had some stomach trouble, the doctor we went to was orginally from India. He was so incredibly smart, to start with he knew my daughter was a vegetarian by her skin tone, it wasn't in the charts and we had not told the nurse. He then talked to us about various foods, etc and one thing that stuck out and he is a firm believer in is lentils. He said they are great for avoiding various diseases that we suffer with, including cancer. He said add it to everything you cook. I was doing it for years, but then as time went on got out of the habit as we seem to do. Now that I'm exploring better eating habits again his converstion has come back to me. They're small and just a 1/4 - 1/2 cup of lentils in food will go unnoticed. I've put them in chili, spagehetti, soups, various bean dishes, crockpot dishes and then of course lentil soup is wonderful. This conversation is reminding me of another lowfat meal that is good.
Crockpot chicken
Boneless skinless chicken breast (3 or 4)
One large onion sliced thick
2-4 carrots sliced thick
1 can of lowfat/sodium cream of mushroom or cream of celery soup
1 1/4 can (use soup can) of water
Salt / Pepper / Natures Seasoning / Garlic Powder & Onion Powder to taste.
And...... of course you can sneak some of those lentils in while it's cooking.
Optional - add potatoes, but if you add potatoes add a little more water.
Optional - for a different flavor a can of French Onion soup - but use a little less water
I usually put 1/4 of water on the bottom then add 1/2 onion, then chicken and the rest of the ingredients, cover and cook on low all day. Check the water level 1/2 way through - it may need a little more water added. I usually serve this with brown rice or pasta.
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