When people are first diagnosed with breast cancer, many look for ways to change their diet to improve their chances of survival and reduce the risk of cancer recurrence. Given the amount of information available from clinics, books, and the Internet, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. So how do you start choosing the best diet for you?

A good place might be the nature of your cancer, with the first question: was your cancer hormonally responsive? The main culprit is often estrogen. If you’re not sure if your cancer was hormonally responsive, see your doctor. You should have been tested for this by now, and if you’re taking medications like Arimidex, Tamoxifen, and other aromatase inhibitors, then estrogen is probably a key factor.

This means that whatever diet you choose should help you eat to combat estrogen. Excess estrogen is linked to cancers in men and women, from melanomas to ovaries, from prostate to colon. And of course breast cancer.

How does your diet help control estrogen? Well, the following clothes will increase estrogen…

Eat high in fat and protein

Being overweight caused by eating too many calories.

High sugar diets

BUT, certain foods can reduce aggressive estrogen levels, converting it into less aggressive forms;

Eat natural compounds and sleep well; eating certain foods can block the action of some estrogens; and having a healthy intestinal bacterial flora may also be a factor.

If you have cancer that is triggered by estrogen, then any diet you choose should include phytoestrogens as a means of estrogen control.

Professor Trevor Powles, former head of the breast cancer unit at Royal Marsden Hospital, is quite clear about the benefits of phytoestrogens, calling them ‘antiestrogens’. Phytoestrogens, found in legumes, are weaker than and compete with estrogen to help control the level and effect of estrogen. Alarmingly, today only 2 per cent of our UK diet contains pulses. Compare this to 30 percent in 1900.

The following three breast cancer diets are probably the best known:

Dr. Johanna Budwig Diet (linseeds and cottage cheese basically

the gerson diet

The Rainbow Diet by Chris Woollams

The Rainbow diet is available on Amazon and you can find details about the others online or on our blog, Sian Scribbles.

One last point, in my personal experience, there are more benefits to being relaxed about diet and lifestyle than worrying about having everything perfect according to some book or diet guru.

Perhaps the best breast cancer diet is one where you relax and eat what makes you feel physically and mentally fantastic.