Dr. Sara Sarafizadeh
Nutritionist and diet therapy specialist
In this video, Dr. Sarafizadeh explains about diet and nutrition after cancer treatment.
The text of Dr. Sarafizadeh’s speech
Hello, good day, I am Dr. Sara Sarafizadeh, nutritionist and diet therapy specialist. Today we want to talk about what we can do after we have been treated for cancer to prevent it from happening again and to reduce the chance of getting this disease.
What can be done in terms of nutrition and lifestyle?
See, in general, cancer may be partly genetic, but its main source is due to our wrong lifestyle. It means that what is at least in your hands includes stress control, daily physical activity, proper nutrition and sleep. These 4 issues are issues that you and I can control.
Today I will focus on physical activity and nutrition to some extent. Well, since we have to prepare the body for a healthy life anyway, in the field of nutrition, having a balanced weight can prevent many diseasese especially cancer. It means that you have a suitable body composition and you’re in a healthy weight range. You are neither overweight nor underweight. Because both of these prepare the body and its environment to accept diseases. So, in the first place, your awareness of the right weight and getting the right food with the right amount of calories you can eliminate the chances of getting cancer to some extent.
Now we want to talk about that case. First of all, you need to know whether your weight is ideal or not. Do you need to gain weight, do you need to lose weight, this is one point. Your awareness of your daily calorie intake. What my colleagues and I do is a balanced diet with the presence of all the food groups of dairy, meat, vegetables, protein in the form of meat, eggs, and cheese, and the appropriate amount of carbohydrates, i.e. bread, grains, and legumes, according to your weight and work conditions.
Today I want to talk to you about the ability of foods to prevent cancer. You need to know what I am talking about and all these materials are from academic textbooks and none of them have a non-scientific basis. I will tell you what is written in our academic book, so you can listen safely and there are no side notes. Let’s talk about foods that are anti-cancer. What are they? The American Cancer Society has classified nineteen items as cancer cell fighters, some of which are actually available in Iran. In fruits, this property of fighting cancer cells in apples is reported to be effective after chemotherapy because of its effective ingredient, quercetin. which is a substance that is effective on the surface of damaged cells, so apple is one of those items. Avocado is the second fruit mentioned. Among the fruits, berries, especially blackberries, are very effective because of their rich antioxidant content. Cherries and sour cherries are two other items that are discussed in detail as cancer cell fighters. This property in the cabbage family, especially broccoli, is very effective in reducing your cancer recurrence.
There are these items in vegetables. In nuts, this feature is found in two cases: sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds, and they fight cancer cells. We include these items in the food plan of cancer patients who got better, it does not allow cancer cells to grow. In spices, we have this property in turmeric. Turmeric is very good because it kills cancer cells. This has been documented and proven several times and it seems to be helping.
What cancer patients face – that is, we all face it, and now it is more common in people with cancer –
We have a condition called insulin resistance, which cinnamon consumption reduces this insulin resistance in the cell surface. So we include cinnamon which is very effective. In milk and yogurt, we also have this property in ginger. You wonder “we were told that soybeans and flax seeds are harmful to cancer cells, especially those who have breast cancer”. There is nothing wrong with the amount we use, it does not have the opposite effect. Therefore, it should be included in the food plan. Soy is anti-inflammatory. Flaxseed contains omega-3. It should be included in the food plan. The most famous anti-inflammatory foods are olive oil. The one that has a smell means that it is virgin and contains olive oil. Among the meats, the worst type of meat is red meat, but it should not be removed because it causes anemia in the long run as soon as it is removed.
Something that most people with cancer struggle with. Because anemia occurs. Therefore, it is necessary to include at least two servings of red meat per weak but it is unhealthy to eat any more than that. You can use all types of chicken, such as chicken, ostrich, turkey, the best type of meat for you is fish, such as salmon. It is interesting to tell you that people who have cancer, research has shown that supplementation may not be very effective, they should use the food itself, it can be very effective. So include salmon in your meal plan and eat it because it has the right fat and is high in omega 3. Include eggs with yolk in your diet 5 days a week. The next thing that I need to tell you here is to use the right multivitamins, according to the cancer you had, so what are they? you should always use children’s multivitamins after treatment. Because it stimulates your appetite and is absorbed more easily.
I said, include multivitamins in your diet but proportionally. For example, it is important for people who were diagnosed with cortical cancer to take calcium tablets regularly. It is very important to know your level of vitamin D. Vitamin D plays a very important role. Therefore, it is important that these food deficiencies are checked by your nutritionist or doctor and included in your diet plan. What are effective vitamins? Your awareness of your body’s level of vitamin D, which can be treated if necessary, is effective both in maintaining your immune system and overall efficiency of your body. Vitamin E that you receive per week is effective. Omega 3 is important for you in the form of the same pill. The use of vitamins according to the conditions: whether you lost weight or gained weight, regardless of its deficiencies, the journey you went through is very important. Daily use of green tea is recommended for you, not for weight loss as everyone says but because of its high antioxidant content. And the set of these are the right calories that you actually benefit from. The last thing is about your physical activities, because during the cancer period, a lot of your muscles are weakened, your physical strength is weakened, so you should exercise. Not necessarily in the gym. You all have a pedometer on your phone.
This World Health Organization is placed on our phones, for those who have iPhone, it is in the form of a heart on the phone, and for those who have a Samsung phone, it is called SAMSUNG health. And on other phones you can use the health app or even Persian pedometer app. Your daily minimum steps should be 6000 steps during the day.
To prevent muscle wasting in your legs and restore your immune system to your body, and if you are on weight control, you should do between 8 and 10,000 steps. This step does not have to be consecutive for people who have bone pain and body pain and are disabled. We should spread this during the day, along with healthy foods, it also restores your appetite and preserves the used foods in the form of muscles and bones. Now someone says I want to swim, someone says I want to play tennis, there is no problem. The pedometer is part of the system of maintaining a suitable lifestyle.
You have to control your sleep. Stress management is in everyone’s own hands. Someone reads a book, someone prays, someone may remove a series of people from around her, I don’t know, let’s find out how to get rid of stress. Someone watches movies and TV series to prepare his mind, someone watches a nice show and has a conversation with someone. Anyway, everyone knows how to reduce their stress. The combination of all these helps to prevent the cancer from returning.
