Smart Food Choices for Cancer Recovery

iBreast presents

June 20, 2000

Nutritionist Ronda Gates and breast cancer specialist Dr. Marisa Weiss discuss and give advice on making the best nutritional food choices to aid in cancer recovery.

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Ibreast: Welcome, everyone, to our second ibreast.com(TM) Midnight Chat, held in collaboration with Living Beyond Breast Cancer®, a nonprofit education organization. Our moderator this evening is Dr. Marisa Weiss, a breast cancer specialist with an active practice in the Philadelphia area. In addition, Dr. Weiss is president and founder of ibreast.com(TM), president and founder of Living Beyond Breast Cancer®, and author of the book "Living Beyond Breast Cancer," published by Random House. Before Dr. Weiss introduces tonight's special guest, I'd like to remind you that, for specific personal medical advice, you need to speak with your own healthcare team. Also, we will only be taking questions tonight that relate to our topic--Smart Food Choices for Cancer Recovery. So please hold other questions for future Third Thursday chats at ibreast.com. If you sign up for free email at the site www.ibreast.com/res news signup.html you will receive advance notice of all live events. Now, Dr. Weiss.

Dr. Weiss: Thank you, and welcome everyone. I'm so pleased that tonight we have with us Ronda Gates, a member of the ibreast.com Professional Advisory Board and a person with tremendous knowledge about food, nutrition and body image. Ronda was a hospital pharmacist for 17 years, and also has nutrition and counseling expertise. She's a powerhouse of information about how to shop, cook, and eat right for cancer recovery--during treatment and beyond. So we have a full hour and a half to answer your questions and help you with your concerns. Welcome, Ronda!

Ronda: Glad to be here. I'm looking forward to the questions and sharing information about good nutrition and healthy lifestyle.

Nancy B: Are there foods that can help boost your immune system?

Ronda: The research on immune system and foods has been done on seniors, and seniors who eat well and supplement responsibly can stimulate their immune activities. In all the studies, there were people who took placebos, or had a more placebo-like diet, so they know that good nutrition helped. We are talking about foods like broccoli, spinach and oranges, and the ones with beta carotene, carrots and apricots.

Dr. Weiss: The main idea here is that good nutrition contributes to your general good health. And when your whole system is feeling strong, it can do its best job of fighting off illness.

Ronda: I have a couple of snacks I suggest for people who want to boost their immune system. Fresh strawberries, blueberries, and blackberries are really good and available now. Stir any fresh fruits into non-fat yogurt. Put unsweetened fruit juice in ice cube trays, and suck on those. Honeydew melons filled with yogurt, smoothies with non-fat milk and fresh fruit. Carrots are really good, so carrots even dunked in peanut butter.

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