My Cancer Survival Program
Final extract from Surviving Cancer & Chemo by Brian Cox

(i) My daily diet routine

To complete my breakfast program I have a bowl of processed bran (because of its fibre) and calcium-fortified soy milk (because of its high potassium content), followed by one small slice of homemade bread consisting of 50% organic rye flour and 50% organic wholemeal flour.

How does all this information on what we should be eating and what we should avoid translate into practice? Here’s my daily routine -

Breakfast
• 65ml of liquid probiotic
• Three dessert spoons (30ml) of flaxseed oil mixed with 100g of pineapple flavoured low-fat cottage cheese. I then add this to a
• Bowl of fresh fruit of all types varied throughout the week (pineapple, mango, banana, strawberryies, Kiwi fruit, cantaloupe, paw paw - I am allergic to all fresh stone fruit and break out in hives within an hour of eating any)
• Bowl of processed bran (about 50g ) with Soy milk
• One slice of toast with a non-hydrogenated blend of canola, olive and flaxseed oils ( no margarine) * Cup of black tea - one teaspoon of honey ( no sugar )

Morning Tea
• One apple
• As much filtered water as I can drink - minimum 500ml
• Definitely no coffee or tea

Lunch
• Soup (home-made using a variety of fresh vegetables - also beans - definitely not canned because of the preservatives used)
• Instead of soup - small serving of salmon, sardines or baked beans. Salad of any type
• Two crisp-bread biscuits (no bread in order to reduce my carbohydrate intake)
• Cup of black tea - one teaspoon of honey

Afternoon Tea
• 400-500ml juice using either vegetable (carrot/celery/apple) or fruit (orange/apple/pear/passion fruit) and varied in accordance with recipes in Julie Stafford’s book Juicing for Health

Dinner
• Varied during the week between meat, chicken, pasta and fish
• Always cooked vegetables, particularly broccoli, brussels sprouts, cabbage, potato, spinach, green peas
• No dessert

After dinner snack
• Dried figs or almonds

Things I avoid
• Margarine
• Processed meats of any type because of their high salt and preservative content
• Charred food
• Saturated fat in animal foods
• Sugar - contains only calories and has no nutritional value
• White bread
• Sausages and processed meats

Things I try and avoid (with difficulty)
My wife’s Xmas cake - available only once a year BUT!
Pizzas - maybe once a month when eating out

Alcohol
Whatever diet you read the advice is always the same - either you have none or limit the consumption to a couple of drinks a day. No doubt they are correct in this and I always try to follow the advice. Regardless of how much I enjoy it I try and steer clear of beer because the high level of carbohydrates and sugars are not good for my weight control program. For those of us who enjoy red wine the research I did showed that France had one of the lowest levels of cancer in the Western World which not surprisingly was attributed to their high level of red wine consumption. Like every other part of a good diet it gets back to degree; too much food is not good and neither is too much alcohol.