Diet and Nutrition Tips for Breast Cancer Patients and Survivors

Nutrition is extremely important for overall health. The body needs the best chance to fight off cancerous cells and recover.

There’s always a buzz revolving around different "fad" diets or trendy juicing regimens, but really there isn't a magic pill or secret diet that can fend off cancer indefinitely.

Try to maintain as healthy a lifestyle as possible, and create healthy habits. What you put in your body is so incredibly important to your overall health. If you're healthier, you stand a better chance of fighting off bad cancer cells to achieve a successful recovery. But with all the different opinions and information out there on the internet, it can be tough to decipher what's truly good for you and what's not.

The National Cancer Institute has put together guidelines for a healthy diet that can help you prevent cancer or decrease the chance of breast cancer recurrence. A healthy diet can help to stave off stress and improve the immune system, and a healthy immune system is an important part of our defense against cancer. Nutritional guidelines include increasing amounts of fruit, vegetables, and grains that we eat. It's also good to limit the amount of fat we eat. Try to stay away from processed foods. Lastly, smoking tobacco should be avoided at all costs, and drinking alcohol should be limited to moderate amounts or even eliminated.

Choose a diet that is filled with lots of fruits, veggies, and whole grains

What if your food contains anti-cancer chemicals naturally? It turns out that this is exactly the case when you eat a mostly plant-based diet. Fruits, vegetables, and whole grains contain phytochemicals, which are molecules that have antioxidant and chemo-preventative properties that help prevent cancer. Some also have anti-estrogen properties, which are particularly useful when talking about breast cancer. Vegetables that are especially rich in phytochemical include broccoli, kale, cabbage, cauliflower, and Brussels sprouts. A recommended daily intake of fruits and veggies would be about 5 servings each day. Though there are many juices and drinks out there that claim they have that many servings of fruits and veggies inside, it's best to eat your servings directly from the food itself. Juicing and processing can sometimes take out or destroy the essential nutrients present in these foods, so watch out for prepped snacks and drinks that boast this impressive quality.

Eat the fruit or vegetable in its most natural form

Whole grains are better than processed and refined grains because they carry more complex carbohydrates. They also contain more fiber with nutritious vitamins and minerals, as well as some phytochemicals too. Whole grain options would include brown rice and whole wheat bread, for example. Eating a lot of fiber can also help by affecting hormones in breast cancer, helping balance them in a healthier way. People should be eating about 25-30 grams of fiber a day.

Read on to discover more tips to help you eat and live healthily.