There are no foods that will prevent you from getting cancer, and no foods that will cure your cancer.

Category : Breast | Sub Category : Breast Cancer Posted on 2026-03-26 14:11:32

That said, one thing I’ve discovered about cancer is that I actually don’t feel that bad much of the time except when something else is wrong, and then I feel it 10x as strongly as I did before the cancer.

Note that the following is based on my own experiences, and will not be useful for everyone.

When I’ve been constipated for several days, I feel like I’m dying, and when you have a cancer in your abdomen, no matter which organ it’s attached to, it messes with your digestive system and either diarrhoea or constipation or some combination of the two is the default unless you pay really close attention to what you eat, so I eat as much fibre as I can handle - rye crackers, chia seeds, flax seeds, avocado, raspberries - and only occasionally have to use things like Movicol. I can get away with not watching my diet for about 24 hours, but any longer than that and I wake up feeling like death.

I eat plenty of fruits and vegetables, and take vitamin C and vitamin D supplements (note: any supplements should be discussed with your oncologist first; sometimes they interact with your meds). They’re not going to cure me, but I know I’ll feel worse if I also get scurvy. Scurvy was bad enough when I was mostly healthy, and like I said, all illnesses and physical issues that I’ve had since getting cancer have been about 10x worse than normal, I DO NOT want to find out what scurvy feels like now.

I totally lost my thirst when I got cancer, after a lifetime of being well-hydrated, and I actually have a bit of an aversion to water now for reasons unknown, so I have to monitor my drinking carefully to ensure I don’t get dehydrated, because dehydration leads right back to constipation and feeling like I’m about to die. I’ve said this a couple times and you’re likely thinking I’m exaggerating. I am not. I don’t know if it’s something to do with the location of my cancer, perhaps when I’m constipated it compresses the tumour or presses a nerve or something, but I can go for days feeling basically normal, and then wake up barely able to move from back and abdominal pain, and every time that happens, I can trace it back to constipation and usually either dehydration or ignoring my diet.

Protein is important. I just finished a course of radiation yesterday, and I didn’t find out until a month or so in that I was supposed to be eating about 1.5x my normal daily protein - so about 150g/day would have been ideal for someone of my weight and activity level, though in reality I’m lucky if I get half that. (Protein is expensive and satiating, and I frequently find I’m still full from my morning coffee in the mid-afternoon. Eating is hard.) I personally find it much harder to get any benefits from dairy or eggs or plant sources, and the days when I eat meat, I feel very much better than days I don’t. (I am having a hard time with this; I much prefer a diet with limited or no meat.) But whatever your chosen protein sources, getting enough of it will help with healing from things like radiation, and from injuries and infections - or rather, a protein deficiency will make healing much harder.

Nothing you eat will cure your cancer, and eating well during cancer is mostly about keeping as much strength as possible, and not adding to your body’s burden by adding malnutrition to the equation, within your ability to do so.

The above is general advice. Individual needs and challenges will vary. Some cancer patients lose a lot of weight, but others take drugs that cause weight gain - the first chemo drug I had in spring was more likely to cause weight gain than loss, though I don’t know what the one I start next week will do. Cancer can also play havoc with some existing conditions - for example, my diabetes, always hard to control, went totally wild when I got cancer, and my sugar levels are constantly up and down. Diabetes also means that some food supplements, like Ensure, aren’t suitable (there is a diabetic-friendly Ensure but it’s hella expensive and not always easily available) so in a way, I’m glad I got the weight-gaining chemo drug instead of the emaciating kind. I have gone down a couple clothing sizes this year, but not actually lost any weight on the scale. Pretty sure all my weight is in my abdomen now.