Friday, December 10, 2010

Nutrition

OK, I have a pretty long history of weird nutrition, allergies, and dumbkopf nutritionists. I assign this to the fact that I'm in LA, and that my needs are specific.

So are yours, if you're reading this.

If you are young, despite your cancer, I am assuming that you, like me, are in relatively good shape, have a relatively good diet, quit smoking years ago, and etc.

I get to do this because I am not a medical professional. I also get to do this because I am a woman. Brushes with anorexia, bulemia, and hormonally-induced obesity: yes, I share your pain. And frankly, if you're female and overweight, YOU KNOW IT and it has been something that has caused at least some psychological pain, even if you have Grave's Disease, or never lost your baby weight, or hate sweating, or your husband enjoys ample curves. And, unfortunately, it is not time to "go on a diet" -- it is time to commit to being slim(mer) for the rest of your life.

For me, part of the nutritionist-world is that most of these people can't cook, don't really deeply CARE about delicious food or the social aspects of food and drink, view food as medicine, and are being very judgmental in an area that we, as women, are of course super-sensitive. I have had female nutritionists (I think most are).

So:

First of all, if you're not going through chemo, you should not suddenly become lactose intolerant, celiac, or suffer from IBS. If you think this is happening to you, it is totally cool to say, look, I seem to be suffering from something, and I want to be recommended to a gastroenterologist, immunology/allergy person, and tested, BEFORE doing radical things and trying to get through a serious health event without the comforts of Cheddar Cheese.

Corollary: if you are doing chemo at stage II or less, it is probably optional. SO -- ask your oncologist if s/he is open to you protecting your immune system and gut from chemo side effects, especially since the necessity of really slashing & burning isn't there in your case. My oncologist, speaking before we knew if chemo was even on the table or not, said, SURE. SAVE YOUR GOOD CELLS. YOU DON'T NEED TO DO THE MOST EXTREME CHEMO IN ANY CASE.

Secondly, though I haven't read deeply in the Greek, I assure you that Hippocrates didn't say sick people should become caffeine-free vegans because there's nothing harmful in becoming an ascetic. Unfortunately, when asked point-blank, in the U.S., your doctors have no choice to make recommendations (generally, consult a nutritionist/CYA/pass the buck) or to make "harmless" recommendations. No one is ever going to tell you to eat steak and chocolate cake. Although, I have heard of cancer patients with a chronic cancer -- towards the end of their lives -- being recommended an occasional glass of white wine, especially if they have loss of appetite. [Note, this blog isn't for people with anything more than Stage 2 breast cancer!]

Look at this bobo rec:

If you have been diagnosed with cancer (or just want to eat a healthy diet) it is prudent to eat about 25% of your calories from fat predominantly from fish or plant sources.

It is probably also not prudent to live in the street, sheltered only by the buzz you hang from bum wine and doritos. Duh.

Thirdly, the biggest stat -- i.e., from a nutritionist cancer site -- about nutrition and cancer is that 30% of cancers are impacted in some way by nutrition. Awfully vague and unscientific, huh? "In some way"? Like, I dunno, how many cancers are influenced by barometric pressure? We know lymphodema is influenced by altitude...

Another search about the relationship between saturated fat and breast cancer returned NO RESULTS that stated there was ANY TESTED CONNECTION and two results that reported that saturated non-transfat actually HELPS some cancers by boosting "good" cholesterol.

What I did find was the connection between fats and colon cancer. C'est someone else's vie. PASS THE CHEDDAR.

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