Episode 012: Your Nutrition Needs During Cancer
Apr 25, 2018•34 min•Transcript available on Metacast Episode description
Listen, I think it’s fair to say that nutrition isn’t the first thing in mind when it comes to cancer but eating well can make a huge difference in dealing with cancer, during treatment and in recovery. Today, I’m talking to Julie Lanford. Julie is a cancer dietitian who is going to describe your nutrition needs during cancer. Whether you find it difficult to eat at the moment, or you maybe you’re relying too much on comfort foods, or maybe you don’t really know much about eating well during cancer. You’re going to get tons of fantastic in-depth practical advice from Julie that you can apply right now, including:
Do we now have to give up bacon?
What is evidence based advice and why it's important
Key myths and misconceptions about nutrition and cancer
Dealing with taste changes during treatment
Why plant based eating is important to you right now
Simple rules of thumb for choosing good food sources
The importance of exercise during cancer
What is moderation when it comes to alcohol
Great, healthy ideas for snacks
What to do when you are not getting the results you want
Links
Cancer Dietician: Lifestyle tips for prevention and survivorship
Episode 002: How Exercise Helps Crush Cancer
Full Transcript
Joe: Julie, thank you so much for doing this. I really appreciate your time.
Julie: Sure, yes.
Joe: Julie, I just heard that bacon and sausages are now considered to be on the grade on carcinogen by the world health organization. That really ruined my week. What’s with that? Is that even true?
Julie: It is true, they were upgraded. It’s been a couple of years, upgraded, whatever you want to call it. It is a class one carcinogen, but I think it’s important to understand really what that means. Just because something’s a class one carcinogen, you also have to have a lot of exposure before it will cause a problem. Tobacco or cigarettes, they are also a class one carcinogen, but by smoking regularly, it increases your risk by double-digit percentages for cancer. Eating things like bacon and processed foods, which is the sausages, they have the preservatives and additives. It does increase your risk specifically for colon cancer, the increase in risk is small but it is something. I always tell people, you know, I wouldn’t make a habit out of eating bacon right now. It seems bacon is pretty popular. I went to a restaurant the other day and it was like every other menu item had bacon on it. I say somethings a habit if you do it three times a week or more, bacon is not something that I would make a habit out of, but if it’s something you eat once a month, I’m not too worried about it. It comes down to how often or how much are you having at a time.
Joe: That’s fantastic, Julie. I think that makes me feel a whole world better.
Julie: Good.
Joe: Julie, I know you’re big on providing information that is evidence-based, can you talk about what that is and why is that important?
Julie: Yes, so I think many people are confused about what evidence-based really means. Just because a scientific study happened doesn’t make something evidence-based. Evidence-based recommendations mean that there have been multiple well-designed studies showing the same results. Enough to the point where we have consensus among scientists or medical professionals that there should be a recommendation around that particular issue. I think where a lot of people get confused is just because a study was done, if that study was done in mice or rats or an animal model, or it’s only one study and there aren’t multiple studies going on about that topic.
It doesn’t make it evidence-based. It might make it interesting, but it doesn’t mean it’s something that we absolutely have to change our lifestyle around. Evidence-based means that a body of experts have gotten to...
