1. Factory Raised Beef & Hormones Used
I used to only eat chicken & fish, thinking that the culprit of disease was the higher fat content in beef and pork. I considered the darker meats "dirty" and causes of cancer and heart disease. After much consideration & research, I think it goes deeper than that. Most of the meat and dairy products we eat are factory raised, which means that these animals are injected with antibiotics, growth hormones, etc. Even if a package states that it is antibiotic free, you still need to consider the use of hormones or steroids in these animals. Only free range fish, grass fed cattle, and organic chicken are guaranteed to be without these by products.
I have recently incorporated many animal products back in my diet, all organic, all free range, all without hormones. I will tell you why. (I still stand by my belief that pork is disgusting & dirty, which is really just my personal preference and the fact that I think pigs are adorable). MOST farms use Recombinant bovine growth hormone (rBGH) to cause cows to produce more milk & get large enough for slaughter. The faster an animal gets to slaughter weight or the more milk an animal produces, the more profitable the operation. Approximately two-thirds of all beef cattle in the US are given growth hormones, and approximately 22 percent of dairy cows are given hormones to increase milk production.
Beef, chicken, and other animals receive their hormones either through direct injection or from an implant placed under the skin. (THIS IS GROSS) Absence labeling is the form of marketing used to identify products that do not contain growth hormones. Rather than mentioning what the food product contains, absence labeling tells consumers what the food does not contain. Remember research where your meat & dairy come from, an animal can be fed rBGH but it cannot be added. With food marketing, its how they word things to trick you to buy their poison.
That being said - I ONLY eat organic chicken, eggs, cheese, milk, yogurt, ice cream (sometimes) and beef. I will not eat these foods out in restaurants unless I know the chef has organic animal byproducts. Otherwise, I stick to fish, grains and veggies.
2. Processed Soy/Phytoestrogens and Breast Cancer
I used to eat tons of soy before my diagnosis. I was practically a vegetarian. Soy increases estrogen in our bodies and has an effect on the growth of our milk ducts. My cancer was found in my milk duct. It just made me reconsider soy and the safety of a soy-burger. I am talking about processed soy - Soy milk, cheese, tofu, labels that mention soy being in a processed food, and fake vegetarian stuff that is NOT bean based. Edamame, Flax Seed & Gluten Free Soy Sauce are phytoestrogens actually help balance our hormones.
Phytoestrogens are a group of chemicals found in plants that can act like the hormone estrogen. Estrogen is a hormone necessary for childbearing and is involved with bone and heart health in women. However, higher exposure to estrogen over a lifetime is linked with increased breast cancer risk. Animal and human studies suggest that soy phytoestrogen can behave like estrogen and potentially increase breast cancer risk. Some scientists have suggested that women should be cautious about eating large amounts of the soy products or soy supplements, because of the possible harmful effects of soy phytoestrogen.
Phytoestrogens are a group of chemicals found in plants that can act like the hormone estrogen. Estrogen is a hormone necessary for childbearing and is involved with bone and heart health in women. However, higher exposure to estrogen over a lifetime is linked with increased breast cancer risk. Animal and human studies suggest that soy phytoestrogen can behave like estrogen and potentially increase breast cancer risk. Some scientists have suggested that women should be cautious about eating large amounts of the soy products or soy supplements, because of the possible harmful effects of soy phytoestrogen.
There are many different ways that phytoestrogens may work in the body. The chemical structure of phytoestrogens is similar to estrogen, and they may act as mimics (copies) of estrogen. One of the ways higher estrogen exposure may be linked to breast cancer risk is through its ability to increase growth of milk ducts in the breast. Most breast cancer arises from these ducts.
If you are a vegetarian & are concerned about soy's effect on breast cancer, Coconut milk, Almond Milk & Rice Milk are all used as base products in Vegan Dairy. Just read the labels. I highly recommend S.O. Delicious Coconut Milk Ice Cream..YUM!
3. Alcohol and Breast Cancer
Alcohol is a cancer-causing agent! The U.S. National Toxicology Program recognizes alcoholic beverages as human carcinogens; it has been known that overall, drinking alcohol increases risk of breast cancer.
Women who drink as little as one alcoholic beverage a day -- be it beer, wine, or hard liquor -- have an increased cancerrisk, a study shows. Even if there are modest beneficial cardiovascular effects, heart disease kills mostly women, and because more middle-aged women die from cancer, the findings seem to suggest that the risks of drinking outweigh the benefits.
Some breast tumors are fueled by hormones, while others are not. The National Cancer Institute (NCI) researchers wanted to determine if the hormone status of a tumor influences the relationship between alcohol use and breast cancer risk. They found that moderate drinking raised the risk of developing breast cancer, regardless of whether a woman's preference was for beer, wine, or hard liquor. And the more she drank, the greater the risk. Most of the increased risk was seen in women whose tumors were fueled by both estrogen and progesterone. These tumors, referred to by doctors as being estrogen-receptor and progesterone-receptor positive, or ER+/PR+, account for many breast cancers. They found that women who drank one to two drinks a day were 32 percent more likely to develop ER+/PR+ breast cancer & having three or more drinks daily raised the risk of ER+/PR+ tumors by 51 percent. Alcohol interferes with estrogen metabolism , which in turn increases the risk of hormone-sensitive breast cancer.
