By Pam McGaffin

Eating a diet loaded with fruits and vegetables is part of Jean Colman's strategy for fighting the slow-growing cancer in her body, but she doesn't count servings or fat grams or calories.

"It's too much work," says the Capitol Hill resident.

When it comes to food, she does what works for her. That means lots of green salads because she doesn't particularly enjoy cooking, brown rice because she's allergic to wheat, vegetables because she likes them, and fresh fish because she lives in the Pacific Northwest. She won't change anything in light of a new government study that suggests that a diet extra heavy in vegetables and fruits, like the one she maintains, doesn't protect women against a recurrence of breast cancer.

Colman says she'd just as soon err on the plus side, figuring her body needs all the help it can get fighting cancer and standing up to harsh chemotherapy treatments. "My diet keeps my body nourished," she says. "It's my body that fights the cancer, not just the drugs. They have to work together." The Women's Healthy Eating & Living study, published in the July 18 issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association, looked at more than 3,000 women over seven years. Approximately half of the women were encouraged to eat a special diet consisting of five vegetable servings, one serving of vegetable juice, three fruit servings, at least 30 grams of fiber and no more than 15 percent to 20 percent of daily calories from fat.

The rest were given printed materials that recommended the national guideline of five total servings of fruits and vegetables a day, which is more than most Americans eat. The percentage of women whose cancer returned was about the same in both groups: 16.7 versus 16.9 percent in the control group. Colman, a patient at Seattle Cancer Treatment and Wellness Center in Capitol Hill, read about the study with interest, but it didn't shake her belief that fruits and vegetables are important weapons in her fight against cancer. Along with oncology (chemotherapy), she receives nutritional guidance and supplements from a naturopathic physician and acupuncture from a Chinese medicine provider - all under the same roof.

Colman's naturopath, Mark Gignac, says he's concerned that women will get the message from the study and resulting media coverage that a high-nutrient, low-animal fat diet makes no difference in terms of breast cancer survival. In fact, the benefit of such a diet is well documented, he says, citing an earlier study involving Dr. John Pierce, one of the lead authors in this most recent report.

That earlier study, published June 10 in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, found that breast cancer patients who ate five daily servings or more of fruits and vegetables and exercised moderately cut their risk of death in half. Moderate exercise was defined as the equivalent of a brisk, 30-minute walk six days a week. Women saw benefits regardless of their weight, the study found.

Women don't necessary have to count servings, Gignac says. "We keep it real simple. If you're eating three times a day, make sure you have food that's fresh and wholesome with each meal. Eat food that grows in the earth: fresh fruits and vegetables, preferably locally grown and in season. If it has good flavor and is rich in color, it has lots of nutrients." For cancer patients, Gignac also recommends cutting back on meat and animal proteins and favoring vegetable proteins: beans, whole grains, nuts and lentils. "For most people that's a change from the typical meat and potatoes diet."

Colman didn't have to make radical changes to her diet after she began treatments for her cancer, which started in her breast and then spread to the bones in her pelvic area. She undergoes 36 weeks of chemotherapy each year, managing her slow-growing cancer as a chronic disease.

She also watches her diet, a task made somewhat easier by her allergy wheat, eggs, dairy and gluten. Instead of wheat products, she eats rice, quinoa and potatoes, and gets protein from fish, shellfish, tofu and nuts.

An avid gardener, she also grows vegetables year-round at her Capitol Hill home. Artichokes are a favorite, along with spinach, Chinese greens, asparagus, squash, tomatoes, and carrots and other root crops. She also grows raspberries and buys fresh fruit in season.

She will treat herself occasionally with a piece of chocolate or a cookie, but eats "less junk" now that she's in treatment. "When I'm doing chemo, I'm lucky to eat what I eat," Colman says. "Sometimes that's just brown rice and green tea."

She also takes supplements prescribed by Gignac, including melatonin to boost immunity, regulate hormones and reduce the side effects of the chemo, and vitamin D, which has a role in regulating cell growth. The supplements vary depending on the type of chemotherapy a patient is receiving, Gignac explains.

Diet and supplements aren't cancer treatments in and of themselves, he notes. "They support the body, supplying the nutrients that feed our immune systems and help keep things in check."

"Chemo exhausts the body's nutritional reserves," he adds. "So if your diet is substandard, your body has a much harder time trying to heal." For Colman, living with cancer has meant striking a balance, in more ways than one. She retired from a satisfying but stressful career as a welfare rights advocate because "dealing with cancer is a full-time job." She's also learned to ask for help when she needs it, calling on a friend when she doesn't feel like cooking or wants to get dinner out. She took the summer off from her chemotherapy and planned to cap it off with a trip to Turkey (Note to editor: she's there now.). "I schedule chemo around my life, not my life around chemo," she says.

Her advice to other women is to forget numbers and servings and just try to eat healthy and exercise. She does yoga and swims.

"Whether it's five servings a day or eight depends on your diet and lifestyle," she says. It's all a balance. It's figuring out how to eat healthy for each of us and what works."

Seattle Cancer Treatment and Wellness Center is an affiliate of Cancer Treatment Centers of America, a network of hospitals that integrate oncology with complementary and natural therapies. For more information and cancer-fighting tips, call (206) FOR HOPE (367-4673) or visit www.seattlecancerwellness.com.

Pam McGaffin of Moore Ink. PR, writes articles about important health, family and community issues for non-profit organizations.