Easy, Low Fat Food that Can Save A Triple Negative Life
Comments
-
This might sound crazy but white corn tortillas can serve as a crepe but they have no fat no sat no sugar and if you slice bananas over one and a little cinemon, roll it up and heat the microwave, it tastes like banana crepe pie. Eat it fast though, it it cools down it turns back into a tortilla. So easy, so comforting and so low fat. You can also use berries.0 -
To all my sisters, I did the low fat diet that they found in a study reduced the rate of recurrence not for ER/PR breast cancer but for Triple Negatives specifically. There was a huge drop in recurrence. It is so easy to cut fat out of your diet and still eat totally yummy, comforting food. You may not want to do this while on chemo (talk to your doctor...but it is important to eat well to be strong so you can get your next dose of chemo on time)....but after chemo, this may be our saving grace. It lessens the fear too because you feel like you are doing SOMETHING to help your own survival. Also exercise was found to lower the recurrence rate...even just walking. So go out and kick some TNBC butt.
Hugs to all my sisters,
Meg
0 -
Hi. I'm very interested in this. I'm going through chemo now, but plan to follow these guidelines after. I can't wait to try some of these recipes. I'm also so glad you're still on here.
0 -
Yum..trader joes has organic salt free spaggheti sauce that is really low in fat...almost none. I cook up some whole grain pasta and instant comfort food. Tons of veggies on the side and it is really satisfying. Add a little super lean turkey meat and veggies if you want real spaghetti. I like tons of mushrooms in it. I at this a lot in my first years. It keeps well and gets yummier each day.
Also, just a can of vegetarian chili has almost no fat and is again, so comforting. Keep some cans on hand so you can go low fat even if you are too tired to cook. Easy to bring to a friends house in a pinch too. Love you sisters!!!!!
Meg
0 -
Meggy, Just discovered this thread. As TN really appreciate it! My husband is an excellent cook & makes a smoothie for us every morning with his Ninja, which he loves! He is doing the kale cubes tonight as a time saver. Thank you to whomever posted that! The smoothies have always been really tasty to me even when I was on AC and thought I'd lost my tastebuds. He uses several large handfuls of kale (the cubes will make it easier), plus fresh orange & apple, some vanilla whey protein powder, almond milk, & frozen fruit, eg, blueberries, or mangos, or peaches. Throws some ice cubes in there too.
0 -
I learned something today in reading your comments about reducing fat. I knew about sugar. My wife has TNBC 3a and I seem to be the research person for her and glad to do it. Last fall she was diagnosed with diabetes when they found glucose in her urine. About 60 days later she was diagnosed with TNBC. I believe the high glucose was fueling the rapid grow of the cancer for sure. Her onc. told her not to worry about diet while on chemo as the concern is with her getting enough calories and to prevent further weight loss. She has however stayed true to her keeping her blood sugar in check without medication. It's on the high-side of normal, but far better. I will discuss the issue of fat intake with her as well.
Thanks for the post!
Greg.
0 -
This forum is amazing, I am so happy that I found it. I was diagnosed TNBC August 2013 and recently with lymphedema. I have been revamping my diet to omit sugars, bad fats and salt. I didn't realize that all fats are bad for the fight against TNBC. This new way of life is a challenge but I am up for it.I have been eating a lot of raw nuts, should I stop eating them?
0 -
I'm also on an anti-cancer diet with the help of a family dr and a nutritionist. It is similar to a ketogenic diet (low carbs, no sugar, high protein). The idea is to force my cells to feed off of ketones instead of glucose. The healthy cells can switch over but the cancer cells can't and will die off instead. This is very challenging to me but am trying very hard to follow it. My blood has has higher levels of glucose for years and I think this was a contributor to my TN tumor. The only difference is I am able to eat healthy fats but not bad fats...
0 -
Hi Susan,
Thanks for the post. I've been working on getting my wife (stage 3b TNBC) to take Omega 3,6,9 caps I bought for myself prior to her diagnosis. She balks at anything that isn't prescribed by her oncologist or any natural remedies out of fear. I am going to have her read your post. I'd already read some others. I have also read about copper depletion therapy which has promise- her oncologist poo-pooed that idea right away. She is in a very high-risk group for recurrence and I am pushing her to do everything she could do to help her odds. Once her chemo and radiation were done, the doctors were basically done with her with exception to follow-ups. They do not put much emphasis on the natural approach to keeping the monster at bay but rather take a stance of "wait and see" which, if it metastasizes isn't very good. I cannot believe they aren't more pro-active. Thanks for listening. Greg.
0 -
Hi Meggy, my wife ( stage 3 tnbc) is diabetic so is watching the sugar, eating natural fruits though, avoiding carbs, but as a result I believe is eating far too much fat. Options get narrowed with that situation. Lots of green and colorful veggies is one thing we definitely have incorporated!
0 -
Hi Meggy, my wife ( stage 3 tnbc) is diabetic so is watching the sugar, eating natural fruits though, avoiding carbs, but as a result I believe is eating far too much fat. Options get narrowed with that situation. Thanks for the post. Lots of green and colorful veggies is one thing we definitely have incorporated!
0 -
Hello all my triple negative sisters. Please take the low fat thing seriously. So so so easy and can dramatically change your odds.
Use extra lean turkey meat to make spaghetti with whole wheat pasta. Total comfort food and almost no fat. Check the fat in the sauce. Trader joes no salt has almost no fat. Order on line if you have to.
0 -
Its as easy as a can of Hormel veggie chili. It can save your life (after chemo....nothing replaces chemo.)
0 -
I heard medical colleges are sending doctors to cooking schools and sometime soon insurance will cover cooking lessons.
0 -
Thanks for this thread Meggy! This is all very new to me but I've started by giving up all biscuits, cake, chocolate and sweets and have just got a Nutribullet (blender) so that I can make a low fat green smoothie to start every day. I'm definitely gonna do this, you are a fabulous inspiration, well done for sticking with it, I noticed it's been eight years since your dx with no recurrence that is so great, well done!
0 -
I was just diagnosed triple negative breast cancer in January 2016 and doing AC+T. This is my first response and trying to learn. Thank you for your post.
0 -
Nalagirl - welcome to Breastcancer.org! We're sorry to hear of your diagnosis, but you've found the best place for support! You'll find lots of great answers here.
You may want to join the Calling All TNs thread where many, many members share their experiences with triple negative disease -- you'll get great support there!
We hope this helps. Please keep us posted with how you're doing -- come back often, ask lots of questions, and share your story. We're all here for you!
--The Mods
0 -
Bump
0 -
I know this is an old thread but so glad I found it! I've been really depressed lately, reading the discouraging stats on TNBC. I've been trying to research what, if anything, will put me into the survivors category.
Prior to finding my cancer, I was awesome with exercise, but diet, not so much. I fell off the wagon about a year ago. Was eating fast food 5-6 times per week. I would literally teach kickboxing and then go to Arby's! I think that may have been what triggered all of this! I also think it is an addiction.
I'm 75% through chemo and like most of you, anything goes now. I've gained about 7 lbs so far & lost a lot of muscle. I have been depressed and fatigued and haven't exercised in a few weeks. That will change this week. I want to live!
So my question is- low fat, low sugar or both??? All of these dang nutrition plans make my head spin.
Because this thread is so old, I'm hoping commenters will check back in! Any reoccurrences with this group? If so, were you following a plan?
0 -
Hi Twaz, I feel exactly the same way as you. I want to live for a long time, and it's impossible to stay positive all the time with the stats we have. We all have good days and bad days. I asked my medical team about diet and lifestyle changes and they all said that the most reliable studies show the most important things to prevent recurrence are: 1 - reduce and ideally eliminate alcohol, 2- have a low and stable BMI, and 3 - exercise daily for at least 30 minutes at as high an intensity as possible. They said that dietary fat and sugar reduction were healthy things to do but less important than those top 3 things. This advice has really put me off alcohol, and I am now slightly less strict about the odd bit of sugar and fat than I was when first diagnosed. One problem seems to be that really large scale long term studies with proper controls are rare (prob because expensive), which means thatmuch of the evidence is anecdotal or based on small sample size, which makes it less reliable. Still, it can't do any harm to try to be as healthy as possible can it! Hope you start feeling more cheerful soon. XX
0 -
Thanks for your input Scotbird! I wasn't a big drinker before I got sick but gave up alcohol the day Ivwas diagnosed, so that is easy.
BMI is healthy! I'm borderline now thanks to weight gain from chemo. But for the most part it isn't an issue.
Vigorous exercise isn't a problem. Before I got sick, I was a kickboxing teacher. I plan to work much harder.
I will be implementing a low fat & low sugar diet. I really think my eating habits triggered my cancer. Anything I can do to get an edge, I will.
0 -
Hi Scotbird and Twaz, sorry that I'm late in seeing your posts. Scotbird, I see you are still active so hopefully you'll see this. The three things that your doctors mentioned as important 1)limit alchohol 2) good BMI and 3) exercise are all so important. The probable reason why they didn't specifically say to limit your fat intake is that that conclusion was literally in a footnote in the WIN study. It was a footnote, I believe, because lowering fat intake didn't change outcomes for ER and PR positive BC but it did for triple negatives. It was a really significant amount...something like 30 percent less recurrences.
I really think of the low fat diet as making our bodies into inhospitable hosts for triple negative cancer. Also, the women in the study who ate low fat and had this lower recurrence rate also lost weight so it's important to lose some weight as well to be sure we are getting the same benefit. I think they said the average fat intake of the low fat group was around 30 grams of fat a day. I took it a step further for a few years and only ate 20 to 22 grams of fat a day.
Oh and I remember them saying that there was no such thing as good fat. All fat was viewed as bad fat for that study. So even though avocados are awesome for the general population...looks like our TNBC really loves avocados too. Starve the cancer of it's fat.
I didn't do the low fat diet while on chemo. I think that it is much more important to eat well and be strong enough to get the next chemo dose on time and nothing replaces the amazing benefit of chemo. For some reason while doing chemo, I could only get myself to eat enchiladas so I ate them. They were loaded with fat but I never had to delay a dose of chemo...the timing of chemo is super important.
I've done really badly for the past few years because one of my kids got a brain injury. Life got really hard so I've eaten Mcdonalds, etc and it scares me. I'm also way up in my weight. I've gained 30 pounds. I am trying now to get it back together and start dropping weight and eating low fat again.
Also, don't forget vitamin D3. Women with BC are known to often have low D3 levels and I do. You have to throw in some sunshine to let your body get the benefit of the supplement.
For exercise, my was modest because of lymphadema. I walked 30 minutes 6 times a week (total of 3 hours of a brisk walk) for a couple years. I walked my kids to school.....10 minutes, walked back home, for another 10 minutes, came through the front door and just kept walking in a circle in my house till I had walked for 30 minutes. I don't know the name of that study but it was also something like 25-30 percent less recurrences with exercise.
Hugs to you all.
0
