Recipes and advice for Cancer patients

[richard51]

I'm afraid that I did read your comments on this thread - hence the post.

[mint]

Never heard of this Wolfe man and wasn't going to buy any books as such.  But I did find your link informative, Richard[:)]

My thinking on food has always been eat what you like in moderation and that, as long as you eat a good range of foodstuffs, you are going to ingest all the nutrients you need.

I don't like being precious about food because I think that being too picky and faddy is very much a first world non-problem.  I see images of people from different parts of the world existing on next to nothing and I would feel guilty to be overly selective about food.

I am happy to eat most foods but, at the back of my mind, I do roughly think of different food groups and I would always incorporate all the main food groups in every meal.

The drinks have been a sort of discipline for me.  Having very little appetite and being too tired to cook for days on end, I think that the drinks give me some instant nutrition.  Besides fruit and veg, I add some honey from a friend's hives and ground almonds for protein. Also a good dollop of yoghurt from a local farm. I use oatmeal milk because my asthma always seems worse with too much dairy milk.  Now I am making a habit of having one of these drinks everyday. I think it's a good daily routine and an enjoyable one.  I give it to OH so that he too will have some good nutrition because he is no sort of a cook.

It IS Teapot's enthusiasm that started me off and I am grateful to him for that.  And I do feel better than I have done for several weeks.  Don't really care if it's the drinks or just the psychology of being able to do something for myself but phew! I know a good thing when I happen on it[:D]

 

[Théière]

You know I have watched topgear but it doesn't mean I follow that idiots ideals either. I am my own free thinking person.

[mint]

Teapot, have been bursting to tell you this!

Despite 2 infections in the last fortnight, my white blood cells were all up!  Some were double the values of the time before.  And, of course, I have had the smoothies for, what, more than a week now.

L'oncologue was pleased with that but he's now reduced the dose of my infusion by a third.  Said the mouth and tongue ulcers as well as the other side effects I had showed my intolerance of the drug and that it was essential to reduce the toxicity.

Given me a prescription for, wait for it, bicarb mixture plus one other item (to be mixed up) and used 6 times a day.  I was going to use the bicarb prophylactically in any case.  TBH, I'd have been willing to do it 20 times a day if the ulcers wouldn't be so prolific.

Now that I am a born-again converter to your smoothies, I am definitely going to get some kale from the market this Friday.  I have lost all fear of green sludge[:D]  Will you now please give me your recipe for the chocolate smoothie as my red blood count is now steadily on a downward trajectory and I have read that chocolate is good for anaemia.

Must also tell you that my liquidiser arrived yesterday.  It's a monster beast with a heavy base and heavy crystal jar which does up to a litre and a half at a time.  Only trouble is, once I assemble the base tightly, I can't undo it and need to use a gadget or my OH to use brute strength!

Happy days are here again or at least they will be if I don't get the ulcers this time.  OK, I'll settle for half the number of ulcers...................[:D]

[Loiseau]

Glad the smoothies are - well - smoothing your path, mint. XX

[mint]

Ah, path could well be the operative word, loiseau.

Path as in all the food you eat going through its natural passage to its natural terminal!

[Grecian]

That's good new indeed mint, so glad to hear the the whites are on the up, can only be good news if it helps keep the infections at bay. My white count has been below the range level since my first operation, nobody seems to pay any attention to it anymore, so I have stopped mentioning it to my GP.

So, what does the green sludge taste like? Is there any hint of the spinach and banana, as I must say I really do not like either, or once it is all whizzed up is the overall taste bordering on pleasant?

If you are looking towards the chocolate smoothie for the reds, that sounds a lot more appetizing than the green sludge, then unsweetened organic cocoa powder presumably must be one of the ingredients. In one package that my wife had delivered from America where she buys most of our supplements, there was a packet of cocoa beans in the box by mistake, which obviously is pure cocoa. Dark chocolate is high in antioxidants, so eating cocoa beans is giving you a highly concentrated dose, I eat them all the time now, and are not too bad really. Of course the other alternative to antioxidants is red wine.[;-)]

[mint]

Grecian, nice to see you here and you sound very lively![:)]

Green sludge is fine, maybe a bit of an acquired taste[I]  Today, I did a couple of broccoli florets, a banana, a ripe kaki fruit, an apple, then ground almonds, a spoonful of honey and oatmeal milk.  Very frothy and great for a sore throat because the drink is quite thick and sort of glides nicely down.

No, can't really taste the green sludge and I do believe the green stuff is essential.  If you don't like banana, why not try a green coloured fruit like a kiwi and pears are also very nice.  I suppose you could add tinned fruit if you are having, say, spinach and then you'd mostly taste the fruit.  You need to experiment but some green in the diet is really good.

Have you not heard of the snooker player who went to the doctor complaining of feeling very unwell and the doctor was trying to work out what his diet consisted of.  The patient said oh my appetite is not bad at all but I do only eat snooker balls.  So I will have a couple of yellows, a white and a black for breakfast, lunch will probably be a couple more yellows, a brown, a white and maybe two or three pinks and dinner is always at least four blues and very occasionally a green.

The doctor said well there's your trouble, young man, you aren't having enough greens!

Have stopped drinking alcohol completely because I feel that the chemicals are toxic enough without having yet another poison added to the mix.  Don't get me wrong, when I got back from the hospital last night, a glass of whatever colour would have been nice[:D]

[Grecian]

The doctor said well there's your trouble, young man, you aren't having enough greens! Boom Boom

I really  think that I am a lost cause mint, don't like kiwi fruit or pears either. My favourite fruit is grapefruit and pineapple, can eat all red fruits, anything with a skin is pretty much a non-starter like plums, peaches etc, apples are OK but I find them boring. Same with vegetables anything with a leaf again a non-starter the rest is pretty much hit and miss. My aim if I go down the smoothie route would hopefully help alleviate the constant tiredness that I have experienced since my first operation, although having just clocked up number five, I  think that I will need a supercharged smoothie to keep me awake! As you stated I guess it is all trial and error, I will just have to wait and see if Père Noël brings me a smoothie making machine, and throw in various bits and see what happens.

Don't blame you in keeping off the alcohol, whilst I was having radiotherapy and taking chemo tablets, I had a glass of wine on a Saturday night when I stopped taking the chemo tablets for two days. Must say this kept me going and something to look forward to at the weekend. But in your case your chemo is a lot more drastic than what I experienced, so I think you are doing the sensible thing.

[mint]

But that's the beauty of the liquidiser, Grecian....doesn't matter if the fruit has skin, it all gets zapped.  Mind you, I sort of half peel the apples and pears because I don't much like peel either though they all say it's good for you.

I try different kinds of apples, red, green, bi-colour and now there are some with thick brownish skins and might try those.  How about a handful of grapes?  I use mostly red grapes because they are generally sweeter.

I have another lot of alfalfa sprouting and will put some of those in when they are ready later in the week.

I must say that both OH and I have felt less tired though he has now caught the chest infection I had.  I used to fall asleep all the time in front of the telly and now I can keep awake most days, maybe only falling asleep when there is any sort of programme about the royal engagement or royal anything else.

Got my mixer at half price from Amazon UK and they sent it free of posting charges. 

[Loiseau]

Grecian, is it ok to eat grapefruit if you are on medication? Or maybe you are no longer on any?

I mention it because the labels on both my blood-pressure pills and statins specifically state that no grapefruit products are to be taken along with them. Pity, cos I loved grapefruit juice with breakfast...

Of course that may only be relevant to my meds and not yours, but it might be worth checking.

[Grecian]

You are quite right Loiseau grapefruit can cause problems with certain medications, fortunately at the moment I am not on any medication. When I took blood pressure tablets some 20 years ago now I had to steer clear of grapefruit which was a bit annoying.

Looks like you bagged yourself a bargain there mint, half price with no postage. How did you get on with sprouting the fenugreek you mentioned a while ago, did it have a curry flavour with it? We have an ordinary blender so I guess I could start zapping and see how I get on. I will try and drive into Bressuire next week and do our normal shop at Leclerc, so if they have any spinach I will give it a go. I have had spinach in curries before so I think that could be my best shot at something green. Also they sell bags of frozen red berries so I will stock up with some of those as well. I guess just trying various combinations to see what I like and do not like, but as you have mentioned there must be something green in there somewhere.[+o(]

[richard51]

This site appears to also be useful for a "liquid diet" , including green ones. Experimentation to your taste seems to be indeed both useful and satisfying.

https://www.nutribullet.com/recipes

[mint]

Grecian, just a tip, especially for you.....if you are going to have spinach use just a couple of small (jeunes pousses) leaves or if they are fully grown, adult spinach, just use one single leaf to start with and see how it goes.

Then, after you have lost your dread of green sludge, you can add more.

No, haven't done the fenugreek yet but have some more alfalfa on the go as I really like their taste.

Richard, thank you, going to have a look[:)]

[mint]

First of all, credit where credit is due, and that is to Norman who started this thread which might just have dramatically changed my life!  Well, with only a little exaggeration.....

I might have given the impression elsewhere that it was Teapot who started this but it was certainly he who got me on to the smoothies (if you haven't heard a French person pronounce this pivotal word, please get one to do it specially for you........I laughed my socks off!)

OK, Grecian, if you haven't started these, I urge you to do so as your top new year resolution!  For me, no more infections even though the blood results haven't been ideal and I am hoping also no more mouth or tongue ulcers.

As for the fenugreek which I promised to tell you about:  I have some sprouts which are 4 days old and I must check on Google if they are pret à manger.  The seeds do not seem to have "enveloppes" as my French friend calls the "shells", they smell of curry before germination but do not taste or smell of curry once germinated.  A pleasant slightly bitter or nutty taste might describe it better.

If you do use them, drain the sprouts in the sink and not on any tea towels because they leave a sort of turmeric yellow dye.

My closest French friend (I mean close as in living in the next street) has shown a huge interest in making them and my aide domicile has insisted on being told all about them.  When she next comes and the house is shining even more than at present, I will know that it's given her more energy as it has done me![:)]

Happy drinking, Grecian!  BTW, I am holding my own, thanks for asking.  Last chemo done and dusted and 33 radiotherapy sessions to look forward to in the new year.  What more could a girl ask Santa for? 

[Grecian]

Glad to hear you have finished chemo mint, at least now your body will be able to start to recover from the onslaught that it has been suffering. Bloods should come back up to normal, it did take me a long time to revert to near normal, as mentioned before the whites are still a bit low. Sorry to hear that you now have to embark on 33 radiotherapy sessions, whilst it certainly is not what you want to go through, at least unlike the chemo any problems will be localized to the area that they are zapping. In my case come the end I did have a bit of a burnt bum, but was manageable with cream that they gave me. The actual machine makes a horrible screeching noise when it is zapping you, so be prepared for that the first time, nobody mentioned it to me before I had my first session. I hope that the hospital you have to go to is not too far from home, but presumably you will know that you are eligible for a taxi for each session.

I have to now admit that I bottled it when I looked at spinach in the supermarket, I thought no way, I did buy my frozen red fruit berries, but to date I have not made a smoothie yet. Still not sure if Father Christmas is going to be dropping a bullet down the chimney or not, I am pretty confident that he will be leaving a sprouting machine though. All joking apart I will start the smoothies in the new year, whether I am the proud owner of a bullet or not, I certainly need a boost of some sort at the moment. Unfortunately after my last operation my plumbing has gone haywire, it wasn't too clever before, but now it is pretty unmanageable. Ironically when I saw the surgeon 3 weeks after the operation everything was fine, but the very next day wallop. So maybe smoothies will help to sort out the latest problem that I am encountering.

So how do the French pronounce smoothie? I am guessing it must be something like smootee as they cannot get their head or more like their tongue around the th combination. I will try and ask my neighbours to pronounce smoothie at the annual gathering in January.[:D]

I will have a drink for you on Monday mint, and hope that next year you have all this horrible situation behind you.

[NormanH]

"Unfortunately after my last operation my plumbing has gone haywire, it

wasn't too clever before, but now it is pretty unmanageable."

Mine is ok at the moment but after 2 blockages and a hernia op I don't like to take any chances.

I use Imodium if things are too loose (but with GREAT care..only one so I don't get blocked again) and Forlax if things need moving... with plenty of water and fibre. Between those two I seem to be able to  get a balance.

[Gardengirl]

I’m hoping that my stocking has a bullet in it - it looked very knobbly. We’ve left home and all our presents behind until a few days after Christmas, so I’ve a little bit longer to wait to find out.

We’re on our way north to the Lake District to celebrate our wedding anniversary tomorrow as well as Chrstmas, almost back where we spent our honeymoon.

Smoothie is pronounced something like smoo-zee. The first time I heard it was in Nîmes, at a café where salads and smoo-zees were served - took a few seconds to realise what the waitress had actually said.

Mint, one whole raft of treatments down, one new lot to go - continued bon courage. ?

[mint]

nah, sounds more like SMUTTY than anything else[:D]

[Loiseau]

So glad to hear the chemo is behind you now, mint. Bon courage for the rest. How long a period are the 33 radiotherapy sessions spread over?

[mint]

Every weekday, no jours fériés in second half of Jan and Feb, so 6 and a bit weeks.

I am planning on a walking and cycling weekend in the Arcachon during the weekend of 17 March (alas, no Guiness despite its being St Patrick's day!) and hope I am not being overly optimistic!  There will be some efféts secondaires I am sure but just so long as they don't involve the loss of use of the lower limbs![:D]

[minnie]

Bon courage, mint. Positive thoughts winging their way. Hopefully you will make your target and be sufficiently recouperated to make your weekend of activity 17 March. As I get older the list of people of whom I am thinking gets longer....but that is a sign of getting older! Meanwhile I hope Christmas is good to/for you.

[mint]

Thank you, minnie.......yes, I feel your warmth from here[:)]

[Gardengirl]

Théière, I used my Nutribullet today; it was a Christmas present from our 2 sons, as I had put one on my list. We were away for Christmas and only opened our presents on Sunday, when some of our family were here with us. It’s a huge thing, silver and was a bit daunting at first.

I based my first meal, lunch today, on your post: 1 handful of kale, 1 of spinach, 1 of cashew nuts, 1 banana and some fresh pineapple and filled up with oat milk, which is what we normally drink. My husband and I shared the first brew - it was delicious. So we made a second brew, just as good. We both felt pretty full, which I wasn’t expecting.

Thank you for your posts on here about healthy smoothies, they were the spur to me having an NB and I hope we’ll both use it regularly, every day I should think.

I couldn't find the name of the book you recommended, so please will you post the name/author. Thank you, and best wishes for a happy and healthy new year to you and everyone else on the forum.

[mint]

GG, I agree, the drinks are surprisingly filling.

I vary the "recipe" with what fruit I am able to buy.  Yesterday, it was kiwi fruit, banana, handful of black grapes and an orange.  Today it was banana, pear, grapes and an orange.  I no longer use green leaves everyday, simply because there are some days when I just can't get out because of the weather.

I always put in ground almonds and some bifidus yoghurt and use oat milk or almond milk

An unexpected bonus is that my stomach always feel comforted, never bloated and never feelings of indigestion or anything remotely untoward.

Plus definitely less tired.

I have also bought a bag of frozen red fruits but haven't had a chance to use them yet.