Breast Cancer Care’s experts answer your questions about breast cancer and its treatment

Q: I’ve been reading about specific diets – particularly ones that avoid dairy foods – for people who’ve been diagnosed with breast cancer. Should I be following one?

A. It’s common and understandable to want to do as much as possible to be healthy when you’ve been diagnosed with breast cancer. Many people find changing their lifestyle helps them regain a sense of control, whether it’s changing how physically active they are or what they eat.

A lot of information on diet and breast cancer is conflicting, and it can be confusing and frustrating to read so many different ideas about what’s best. Eating healthily can make a difference to energy levels and general wellbeing.

Some people choose to adopt particular or ‘alternative’ diets to try to reduce the risk of cancer coming back (recurrence). While there’s no conclusive evidence that any specific diet can reduce the risk of recurrence, evidence shows that being a healthy weight (neither overweight nor underweight), doing some physical activity and eating a healthy balanced diet may help reduce the risk of cancer coming back.

Some people choose to tell a small number of people closest to them and ask for their help to tell others. This can avoid having to repeat the same information many times.
Talking openly and honestly can be very difficult at first but often gets easier as the shock begins to subside. You and the people closest to you might find it helpful to know how breast cancer in the bone is affecting you so they can know what support to offer.

We often instinctively want to protect people closest to us. However, whoever you choose to tell, people will benefit from your honesty. Knowing the facts about your circumstances, as well as how you’re feeling, can help others be honest with you and give you the support you need.