Diet and phytoestrogens
Hi All. I am 44 years old and six months ago had treatment, BC ER+. Stage 1, breast preserved. My own aunt also had breast cancer but the tumour was detected when she was 67. I suspect I may have accelerated the development of the tumour in some way. For example, I drank a lot of sweet lemonade, liked ice cream, beer, smoked sometimes. Now I'm trying to live a healthy lifestyle. I've given it all up.
Doctors can't advise me on what I can eat and what I should refrain from. I'm trying to organise and stick to a safe diet. For example, I am trying to understand if I and others like me can eat foods high in phytoestrogens. There is different information, some say it is dangerous, others say it is beneficial. Which one is right? Share your opinions, I will be very happy.
hello friend! First off, thank you for sharing this with us. I am happy you feel safe enough to come here and do so!
In my opinion, and the opinion of others as well, cancer just happens. It doesn’t matter if you are a raw vegan, or you enjoy the occasional McDonald’s. Cancer happens when cells divide too rapidly, and that is just how it occurs. Folks who exercise regularly get cancer, children unfortunately get cancer, and people like us get it too. I did a lot of self reflection when I got diagnosed, and it can cause some mental harm blaming yourself. Take good care!
I brought up phyoestrogens to my original oncologist, and she told me that the amount in foods is trace amounts. However, I would suggest talking to your medical team before changing anything in your diet.
I hope this helps a bit!
-Steph (team member)Hello, Steph. My doctor didn't say anything. There is a lot of information and it's hard for us to understand without them, but doctors are often not wordy. if your team or cancer center offers a nutritionist, it might be worth it to look into. If you don’t know where to start, you can always ask for the assistance of a social worker and they can find it out for you as well. Alternatively, if your insurance plan offers coverage for a nutritionist, you can find out that way!
-Steph (team member)
Hello. I have triple positive breast cancer. I'm in treatment, and I'm very concerned about this issue. I asked my doctor about phytoethrogens, too and he said in a different way, he said that there are products that have a lot of phytoestrogens, but they have a very low effect on our cells. He said to not drink soy milk, by the way. I didn't feel very confident in what he said. The scientific articles don't quite clear to me, they say it's both healthy and not safe. I once read an article half a year ago that even with three times negative BC phytoestrogens can be useful. But whether they are dangerous in triple + need clarification! ER + and Trpl+, for us it is relevant.We need to find a way to ask some distinguished professor who knows exactly that
I really want to figure it out, but it's hard to do it alone, my doctor doesn't give it much thought. I've been trying to study articles with the latest research lately, but they are few and far between and really hard to understand. I read that there are foods rich in phytoestrogens and that there are varieties of these phytosterols and some of them can have a strong effect on the body, and this is alarming. So I'm sitting wondering if I should give up nut and sesame paste or not ? I have heard the same about soy milk as well. It’s hard to know what is correct and what isn’t exactly right. I wish I had more knowledge on the subject, however, so I could speak a little better on it. I hope you can get some answers as well- chatting with a nutritionist is never a bad idea especially if you want to be absolutely sure about what it is you are intaking.
-Steph (team member)
It seems that phytoestrogens are useful. I understood that they can restrain the progression of cancer, slow tumor growth, and this is not a small thing. for example, in millet and oat groats phytoestrogens are few, and how much do not eat porridge from these groats, the body will not feel, but in soy milk, almonds, peanuts, sesame they are very much.
Here I found articles and links to studies (phytoestrogens and at ER +). https://academic.oup.com/jcem/article/83/7/2223/2865105
http://dong-pha.com/articles/breast_cancer/
And this article, i din't get it https://obgyn.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/jog.13982
No, I've only recently begun replacing cow's milk with soy milk and drastically changing my diet due to my diagnosis. Me too, it wasn't until I was diagnosed that I started to think about it. I gave up sweets completely, beer with barbecue is very rare now, but before it was 2 times a week for sure. I'm a little late in giving up junk food.
