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Cannot eat raw fruits or vegetables?

Posts: 31
Joined: Sep 2010

Hi everyone. Gary's oncologist told us he can not eat raw vegetables or raw fruit? I've looked this up on google and can't find anywhere that cancer patients shouldn't eat those things.

Does anyone have any insight on this? Thank you so much. Donna

medi_2's picture
Posts: 509
Joined: Aug 2009

what kind of cancer does he have? could be that raw fruits and veggies are harder to digest.

Posts: 17
Joined: Nov 2010

Unless he meant right after chemo because your ability to digest is compromised. I would recommend you get a few books like the following:

1. How to fight cancer with nutrition
2. How To Prevent and Treat Cancer With Natural Medicine
3. The cancer fighting kitchen.

If possible cut out ALL sugars including very sweet fruit. And all processed (white) carbohydrates. If digestion is hard then yes indeed, skip the raw veggies, instead have a lot of soups and stews. You can also get a juicer and juice the greens so he doesnt need to digest the rough parts but gets all the nutrients.

chlorophil is important. if you get the book/dvd of crazy sexy cancer and get through the annoying narcissistic parts you'll find a lot of good stuff about juicing. its not very hard and its very rewarding!

Posts: 220
Joined: Dec 2009

I was told the same thing to avoid raw vegs and raw fruit because of low white blood cell counts during chemo and rads, to much risk for infections and this was the beggining of summer of 2008 and couldn't eat cherries or peaches (wah) Don't take any chances an infection would be the last thing you would want. Best of health to all ..... Dan620

Posts: 1048
Joined: Aug 2006

If you go to some third world countries, they also suggest no raw fruits or veggies for all visitors because of the danger of diseases they might carry. Some cultures also practice cooking ALL veggies their people eat. I have heard that veggies are stir fried in China because of the common use of organic (human) manure. Organic veggies in the US may be somewhat less risky, but getting a dose of e coli from some organic raw spinach or lettuce when you've just had chemo would be life threatening and not just an inconvenience. And such problems do happen often enough in the US to be of concern.

One of my friends who had chemo for cancer gave me another tip. She would not put any groceries on the child seat area of grocery carts. She was concerned about putting anything that might go in her kitchen where someone's diapered child may have sat. Things I had never thought of before, but it makes sense. . .

Posts: 31
Joined: Sep 2010

Wow, your answers put a lot of things in perspective so I do understand now. Yes, he does have primary lung cancer and also primary kidney cancer. Isn't that weird? The oncologist said that they did not spread from one place to another but that it was just a coincidence that he has two different kinds of primary cancers at the same time.

And also, he is undergoing chemotherapy and his blood counts are low so I know that it does make sense to be extra careful.

Your answers were all very interesting too. Thank you so much. Donna

mamacita5's picture
Posts: 254
Joined: May 2010

During and right after chemo, I was told to stay away from salad bars and any raw fruits or vegetables that I did not scrub thoroughly or peel myself. I think it is because of the pesticides and contamination that might be on them which could make you very sick while your counts are down.

z's picture
Posts: 1414
Joined: May 2009

When I was being tx for anal cancer, with chemo/radiation, I was told not to touch any animal feces, and as a matter of fact it was in the instructions while going through tx. It struck me so funny, because I have never gone out of my way to touch animal feces. I do have cats where I clean their litter boxes, and never have I intentionally touched it. They just want us to keep away from contamination as the white blood counts are down. When I had my lobectomy, I did'nt require further tx, so my white counts were not affected. Lori

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