Healthy diet and wellness tips to reverse breast cancer
A breast cancer diagnosis often leads to a change in your relationship with food. Treatment related symptoms, disrupted routines and increased stress can affect your appetite, causing you to eat more or less than normal. The main question one wonders is, what should I eat while living with breast cancer?
Maintaining a healthy diet during your breast cancer journey offers a multitude of benefits.
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This includes helping you maintain a healthy body weight, ensuring the well-being of your body tissues, alleviating cancer symptoms and treatment side effects, bolstering your immune system, sustaining your strength while reducing fatigue, and ultimately enhancing your overall quality of life.
Here are strategies for maintaining your diet during breast cancer treatment:
Don’t skip water: It is important to stay hydrated during cancer treatment. For that, you should at least try to consume 2 to 3 liters of fluid per day. It is also important to avoid caffeine fluids whenever possible. Staying hydrated will help regulate your body’s temperature, blood pressure, and electrolyte balance. It also helps prevent or minimize constipation and allows your organs to filter out wastes and toxins.
Add more plant-based foods in your diet: Eating various plant-based foods can help support human health as they contain phytonutrients, which are important for fighting breast cancer. These foods include fruits, vegetables, beans and grains. It’s important to eat a balanced diet rich in phytonutrients.
Eat small meals through the day: During treatment it’s important to consume enough calories to gain energy. Eating small meals five to six times a day is a good practice. Your body can only take in a certain amount of nutrients daily. Hence, it’s better to distribute your meals throughout the day. Moreover, if you have a poor appetite, a smaller meal or snack would be more appealing and encourage better intake.
Increase protein and nutrient intake: If you are fighting cancer or are undergoing cancer treatment, your protein intake needs are higher as it helps maintain strength. Proteins help preserve body mass and can be found in pulses, meat, fish, seafood, eggs, beans, lentils, nuts, seeds, soy, and dairy products. Small amounts of protein are also present in vegetables and whole grains. A person’s needs vary depending on several factors, such as age, weight, height, and activity level.
Choose the right treatment for yourself: It is important to choose the right treatment plan as each option has certain side effects. For instance, chemotherapy can lead to a loss of appetite. Therefore, having an extensive conversation with your doctor about the treatment options available and how they align with your health and symptoms is crucial. Advance therapy options can minimize the side effects like loss of appetite and provide insight into what you can expect during the treatment process.
Dr. Krishana Mohan MVT, Senior Consultant Medical Oncologist, Basavatarakam Indo American Hospital Hyderabad, “During treatment, many patients don’t feel like themselves, which can lead to heightened concerns about dietary choices. I’ve observed that 50% of patients with breast cancer become particularly anxious about their food choices. The crucial aspect is to ensure that you incorporate all the necessary nutrients and maintain a balanced diet in consultation with both your oncologist and nutritionist. Additionally, exploring advanced treatments with fewer side effects and symptoms can not only reduce the impact of side effects but also improve your overall quality of life.”
Tips to ensure breast cancer prevention
According to Dr. Devavrat Arya, Senior Director, Medical Oncologist, Max Hospital, Saket, New Delhi, “There is no guaranteed way to prevent breast cancer, there are certain lifestyle factors that can help reduce the risk.” Here are a few:
- Maintaining a healthy weight is one of the most important things you can do to reduce your risk of breast cancer. The ideal weight for someone with height 175CMs is 75kg (175-100=75).Excess body weight is associated with an increased risk of breast cancer, especially in postmenopausal women.
- Eating a healthy diet that is rich in fruits, vegetables, and whole grains and low in processed foods, red meat, and sugary drinks can also help reduce your risk of breast cancer. Antioxidants, which are found in fruits and vegetables, can aid in preventing cell deterioration. Whole grains are good sources of fiber, which can help the body by eliminating excess hormones such as estrogen. Estrogen can promote the growth of breast cancer cells.
- Exercising regularly can also help reduce your risk of breast cancer. Exercise helps to maintain a healthy weight and reduce levels of estrogen in the blood. The recommended exercise regimen is 300 minutes of mild to moderate intensity exercise or 150 minutes of vigorous exercise per week.
The takeaway
It is essential to monitor your diet on a daily basis as it may change throughout your breast cancer journey. Additionally, it is necessary to support your treatment and diet with some form of movement. Yoga and meditation are seen as a great complementary therapy for metastatic breast cancer patients. Lastly, it is necessary to maintain open communication and consult a doctor for personalized guidance. This can help you make informed decisions about your diet to optimize your health and well-being during and after treatment.
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