Cancer Nutrition and Recipes For Dummies
Overview
Fight cancer from the inside out
Cancer treatments such as surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation can be as hard on the body as the disease itself, and detailed nutritional advice is usually not part of the program. Yet eating the right foods can actually help lessen the strength of some of the most powerful symptoms of cancer and the side effects of treatment, allowing the patient to better fight the disease. Now, Cancer Nutrition & Recipes For Dummies is your trusted, informative guide to fighting cancer from the inside out.
Designed for cancer patients and their families, Cancer Nutrition & Recipes For Dummies focuses on foods best tolerated during—and that can ease side effects of—cancer treatment. It
also offers advice for menu planning, nutritional analysis, diabetic exchanges, and much more.
- Serves as a guide for cancer nutrition before, during, and after treatment
- Gives you a wealth of easy, immediate steps to speed up the healing process through diet
- Offers advice on treatment as well as solutions to common side effects like dehydration, fatigue, and nausea
- Enables cancer patients to put their strongest foot forward when starting treatment
Cancer Nutrition & Recipes For Dummies targets those dealing with cancer and the loved ones who take care of them, aiding both parties in alleviating some of the side effects of the cancer treatment through change in diet.
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About The Author
Maurie Markman, MD, a nationally renowned oncologist, is National Director of Medical Oncology at Cancer Treatment Centers of America. Carolyn Lammersfeld, RD, board certified in oncology nutrition and nutrition support, is Vice President of Integrative Medicine at Cancer Treatment Centers of America. Christina Torster Loguidice is Editorial Director of Clinical Geriatrics and Annals of Long-Term Care: Clinical Care and Aging.
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cancer nutrition and recipes for dummies
CHEAT SHEET
Nutrition plays a key role when you’re fighting cancer — and knowing what to eat is important. When you’re being treated for cancer, you may face a variety of unwelcome side effects — everything from nausea to a sore mouth to diarrhea. But you’re not powerless over these side effects, some foods can combat them!
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When you receive a cancer diagnosis, you may feel like you’re all alone in the world. But many people have, are, and will walk the course. Unfortunately, the cancer road is one that is well traveled. The silver lining here is that there are numerous resources available to you. So, whether you want to find fellow travelers or learn all about your specific diagnosis, plenty of highly esteemed organizations are committed to helping you along.
Cancer Recipes
Because some types of cancer and its treatments can weaken or suppress your immune system, you may be more susceptible to infections and have a harder time recovering from them when they occur. That’s why taking measures to bolster your immune system and prevent exposure to potentially harmful germs is so important.
Cancer Recipes
Cancer and its treatments can contribute to loss of appetite. Because the calories you get from food are energy, if a poor appetite results in not enough food intake, you may experience fatigue. Poor food intake may also result in weight or muscle loss, which can impair your immune function and make it more difficult to recover in between treatments.
Cancer Recipes
Spices and herbs have long been used for medicinal purposes, such as fighting indigestion and other digestive problems. Although science is uncertain about the direct benefits of consuming certain spices and herbs with regard to protecting against and fighting cancer and its side effects, their indirect beneficial effects may be more easily recognized.
Cancer Recipes
Smoothies can be a great weapon in your cancer-fighting arsenal, whether you’re fighting fatigue, you have a sore mouth or throat, you’re struggling with an upset stomach, or you’re experiencing cancer-related weight loss.
Whatever your need, you can customize your smoothie to suit it. For example, if you’re dealing with unintentional weight loss, you can make your smoothies higher in calories and protein by adding nut butters (such as peanut butter or almond butter), and if you have a sore mouth, creamy, milk-based smoothies can be soothing going down.
Cancer Recipes
Anemia is a common complication of advanced progressive cancer, and, in this circumstance, a specific correctable cause of the anemia may not be identified. To manage the anemia in these cases, recurrent blood transfusions may be necessary.
The term anemia stems from a similarly spelled ancient Greek term that means “lack of blood.
If you find that your oncologist or anyone else on your treatment team is using words that you don’t understand, ask for clarification and be sure to write it down. When you get home, you can look up that word online and familiarize yourself with what it means.
It would be impossible to outline all the cancer terms you’ll be encountering.
Cancer Recipes
Nutrition plays a key role when you’re fighting cancer — and knowing what to eat is important. When you’re being treated for cancer, you may face a variety of unwelcome side effects — everything from nausea to a sore mouth to diarrhea. But you’re not powerless over these side effects, some foods can combat them!
Cancer can place a considerable strain on your budget. You’re spending time and money to get to your appointments, and you’re undergoing expensive diagnostic tests and treatments. You’ll want to save money where you can, but you shouldn’t have to survive on ramen noodles. This is the time your body needs nourishment the most, so food quality is essential.
The treatments you receive for your cancer will fall under a particular classification based on the intent of the intervention. To help you better understand the purpose of your treatments, here are the various classifications.
Conventional cancer care
Conventional cancer care generally refers to the traditional cancer management strategies of surgery, radiation treatment, and anti-cancer drug therapy (chemotherapy, biotherapy, and targeted agents), which are intended to cure or manage cancer.
Numerous types of treatment are used to target cancer, whether in an attempt to cure it, keep it from metastasizing (spreading), or alleviate the distressing symptoms that it causes. You may not receive all these treatments, or you may receive different combinations of these treatments at different times on your cancer journey.
Cancer Recipes
Breakfast is a great time to get in one or more servings of fruits and vegetables. Fruits are the stars of smoothies and can be paired with dairy like yogurt or cottage cheese to create a wholesome and delicious breakfast. Vegetables, particularly greens such as spinach and kale, can also work great in smoothies.
Cancer Recipes
Cancer and its treatments can suck all the energy right out of you, leaving you wondering how to get your energy back. it’s important to “break” the “fast” (get it?) and fuel up with breakfast to help bolster the energy that sleep has granted you. Breakfast foods often feature grains. When these foods contain all components of a grain, including the germ, endosperm, and bran, they’re considered whole grains.
An ideal entrée would include whole grains, vegetables or fruits, and protein. The New American Plate from the American Institute for Cancer Research (AICR) recommends meals that are two-thirds grains, vegetables, and beans, and only one-third meat or another animal protein.
Some entrées or main dishes contain just about everything you need to make a healthy, balanced meal.
Cancer Recipes
On the New American Plate, fruits and vegetables are given preferential treatment over grains and protein. Ideally, you should eat as many different types of fruits and vegetables as you can in any given day to get the greatest variety of cancer-fighting nutrients.
Gingered Honey-Glazed Carrots
Preparation time: 5 minutes
Cook time: 12–20 minutes
Yield: 4 servings
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1-1/2 tablespoons honey
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1 pound baby carrots
1/4 cup chopped flat-leaf parsley
In a small bowl, mix the oil, honey, lemon juice, and ginger until well combined.
Cancer Recipes
Grains are a tremendous source of energy. And when you’re battling cancer, you need to harness whatever energy you can to get through your treatment and move toward recovery.
Whole grains are generally preferable to refined grains (like white pasta, white bread, and white rice) because whole grains contain more nutrients and fiber, but if you’re having bowel problems (like diarrhea or a bowel obstruction), eating refined grains that are lower in fiber is best until your gastrointestinal issues resolve.
Sometimes you just want something warm and sweet to sink your teeth into. Almost nothing feels more homey than having a yummy dessert baking in the oven. The smell just permeates your home, filling your nostrils with soothing scents that also start to whet your appetite.
Blueberry Crumb Bars
Preparation time: 25 minutes
Cook time: 30–40 minutes
Yield: 12 servings
3 cups blueberries
1 tablespoon sugar
2 tablespoons water
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup quick oats
2/3 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 cup butter or soft margarine, melted
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
You don’t need to avoid desserts at any time in your life, least of all while you’re being treated for cancer. In fact, desserts can serve as the highlight of your meal, make a welcome snack, or provide a bit of comfort when you’re on a rocky road.
Cold desserts are awesome, particularly for novice chefs, because they’re incredibly easy to make.
Cancer Recipes
Snacks are essential for entertaining, but you don’t need to resort to potato chips and fat-laden dips. There are many delicious and nutritious snacks that are just as enjoyable and that pack a powerful, nutritional punch.
You don’t need to reserve these recipes just for entertaining. They can also make great mini meals.
Cancer Recipes
The entrée recipes here require more side dishes of whole grains, and colorful vegetables and fruits to make complete meals. These entrées are more traditional protein-based entrées, where a meal is planned around a protein food, such as chicken, lean beef, fish, or even tofu.
Vegetarian Chili
Preparation time: 5 minutes
Cook time: 1 hour
Yield: 10 servings
1 onion, peeled and chopped
4 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
1 tablespoon olive oil
One 15-ounce can red beans, drained and rinsed
One 15-ounce can garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
One 15-ounce can pinto beans, drained and rinsed
1 cup frozen corn kernels, thawed
4 cups canned chopped tomatoes
1/3 cup chili powder
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper (optional)
2 teaspoons cumin
1 tablespoon ground black pepper
2 tablespoons dried oregano
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 bay leaf
Salt and pepper, to taste
Sauté the onion and garlic in the olive oil until tender.
Cancer Recipes
When you’re receiving chemotherapy, eating a little something to prevent a sour stomach is particularly important. Many treatment facilities make snacks available, but they may not be as nutritious or as pleasing to your palate as your own. So, it’s generally best to bring your own snacks when you can.
Fortunately, there are a vast variety of transportable snacks, and here, you find numerous options to try, from wholesome baked goodies to nutritious bites that can be easily bagged.
Chicken soup is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the health benefits of incorporating soups into your diet when you’re undergoing treatment for cancer. Soups are a great way to get whole grains, vegetables, fruits, and beans into one dish, particularly if you’re short on time or energy. You can’t get more wholesome than that!
Cancer Recipes
If you’re new to cooking or even to healthy cooking, and you're faced with a cancer diagnoses and a desire to eat clean, suddenly immersing yourself in new techniques can be intimidating. And, you don't need the added stress. Here is a break down some of the most common healthy cooking techniques and how they work so you’ll be cooking like a clean eating guru before you know it!
When stocking your fridge, you need to think about where you are with your cancer treatment and what you can handle. Are you struggling to eat, experiencing decreased appetite, or losing weight? If so, your shopping list should include high-calorie items that can help you get through these effects.
Because the items stored in the refrigerator and freezer are perishables, you need to be mindful about their use-by dates.
The pantry is where you may keep some cancer alleviators, like crackers, hard pretzels, and popcorn. When arranging your pantry and introducing items, you’ll want to keep the items you use most toward the front.
Because the items stored in your pantry are non-perishables, they’ll generally have a longer shelf life than refrigerator items.
Cancer Recipes
Like most people facing cancer, you may worry about having side effects from treatment. Fortunately, treatments for many cancers have become more targeted, lessening the risk and severity of side effects. In addition, many medications are given before or during treatment to prevent side effects. Despite these advances, you may still experience some side effects that can affect your quality of life or make it difficult to maintain your weight and nutritional status.
When you received your cancer diagnosis, it may have felt like the end of the world, or maybe you found yourself living in a haze for a while. Coming to terms with a cancer diagnosis takes time. Your mind has a lot to process, so you’ll feel many things: fear, anxiety, hopelessness, sadness.
If your prognosis is good and there’s a good chance for a cure, then these emotions may not be as severe, but if your prognosis is uncertain or appears poor, these feelings may be magnified.
Cancer Recipes
Here are some of the most commonly experienced oral effects of cancer treatment and what can be done to manage them or make you more comfortable if any of them happens to you.
Dry mouth as a side effect of cancer treatments
Dry mouth, which your oncologist may refer to as xerostomia, occurs when the salivary glands stop producing enough saliva to keep your mouth moist.
Cancer Recipes
When people think of cancer, the side effects that cause physical changes to the body typically provoke the most fear. But not everyone experiences these effects, and even if you experience one or more of them, they’re often short-lived.
Fluid retention
Cancer and its treatments may cause an abnormal buildup of fluid in the body, a condition your oncologist may refer to as edema when the fluid collects in the extremities (legs, arms, feet, hands) or face; ascites when it collects in the abdomen; and pleural effusion when it collects around the lungs.
Cancer Recipes
Several common side effects of cancer treatment are related to your ability to maintain a healthy weight. You might experience anorexia, weight gain, or weight loss.
Anorexia
Anorexia is a sensation of not wanting to eat or even feeling repulsed by the thought of eating. This event may have many possible causes, including the administration of chemotherapy and other cancer drugs, nausea and vomiting, infection, persistent pain, emotional distress, excessive fatigue, and the effects of progressive cancer.
Cancer Recipes
Constipation is usually defined as having difficult or less frequent bowel movements than what’s normal for you. Cancer treatment, including pain and some anti-nausea medications, can lead to constipation. Other factors that can reduce bowel activity include a decrease in fiber and fluid intake and a decline in activity, such as may occur from fatigue.
Cancer Recipes
Diarrhea is typically defined as having three or more bowel movements per day than what is normal for you. Because cancer treatment affects all rapidly dividing cells, it can also cause changes to the rapidly dividing cells of the digestive tract. This can lead to diarrhea and affect the amount of nutrients and fluid that your body absorbs from food.
You may have heard that “sugar feeds cancer.” This is a very oversimplified and potentially dangerous explanation for very complex changes that can happen to carbohydrate metabolism in people with cancer. Glucose is the main energy source for tumors, just as it’s the main source of energy for healthy cells.
The tumor will get the glucose it needs even at the expense of healthy cells.
Cancer Recipes
When you eat clean, you’re already naturally boosting your immune system, because you’re giving your body the vitamins, minerals, phytochemicals, and other nutrients it needs to keep your cells healthy and to protect your body from cancer-causing agents like environmental toxins and pathogens like cold viruses.
Lack of physical activity raises the risk of cancer and other chronic illnesses like heart disease, stroke, and diabetes. It also raises the risk of being overweight or obese, further increasing the risk of developing one or more chronic illnesses.
Regular exercise can protect against cancer and alleviate many of the side effects of cancer and its treatments, including fatigue, loss of muscle mass and strength, pain, depression, anxiety, and sleep disturbances.
Video games are often blamed for sedentary behaviors, which increase cancer risk. And although many video games do promote couch surfing, recent years have seen advances in video-game technology that have enabled people to get up off the couch and physically immerse themselves in various gaming experiences.
This immersion has been made possible through the advent of peripherals like the Wii Balance Board and Kinect for the Xbox 360.
Cancer Recipes
Fatigue (a feeling of tiredness) is a common complication of many cancer treatments. It’s also one of the most difficult side effects to effectively manage. This is likely because fatigue has multiple causes, even in the same individual.
If you’re experiencing fatigue, be sure to talk with your oncologist and healthcare team, because they can work to identify its possible causes and develop strategies to improve your symptoms.
Many people can make up the cancer care team. If you’re treated at a small practice in a community setting, there may be fewer players, and you may be sent to other outside practices for services that can’t be handled at your facility.
Oncologists
Oncologists are physicians who have received special training in the area of cancer management.
Caregivers can have bad days, too! As you’re caring for your loved one, you may experience a whole range of emotions — from sadness to helplessness to feelings of guilt that your loved one has cancer and you don’t! If you’re the primary source of support for your loved one, you may also become overwhelmed by the demands, and you may need to accept help from others or ask for assistance.
Cancer Recipes
Clean eating promotes healthy eating using common-sense principles that can be easily put into practice. A clean eating plan may help you maintain a good nutritional status during cancer treatment and help you reduce the risk of a cancer recurrence or of a secondary cancer as you enter survivorship.
Here are some points to keep in mind as you move toward a clean diet:
Focus on eating nutrient-dense foods as close to their natural state as possible.
Cancer Recipes
In addition to its numerous physical effects, cancer and its treatments can invoke many emotions. Being upset by your diagnosis and afraid of what’s going to happen to you and your future is normal, but if any emotion debilitates you and you’re unable to function, you need to seek help.
There are numerous sources of emotional support at your disposal, so you should never feel alone.
Cancer Recipes
Chemotherapy and radiation kill rapidly dividing cells like cancer cells, but they also affect the rapidly dividing cells lining your digestive tract, including those lining your mouth and throat. For this reason, you may experience a sore mouth or throat during cancer treatment, which can make eating exceedingly uncomfortable.
Cancer Recipes
The New American Plate by the American Institute for Cancer Research (AICR) is a good example of how to design your meals to help you achieve and maintain a healthy body weight and transition to a more plant-based diet. Quite simply, it encourages you to visualize your plate when you plan and prepare meals.
As you can see from the following illustration, your plate should be two-thirds full with vegetables, fruits, whole grains, or beans.
Cancer Recipes
Radiation exposure is a known risk factor for cancer. One potential source of radiation that has been receiving quite a bit of press are cellphones. But studies thus far have not shown a consistent link between cellphone use and cancers of the brain, nerves, or other tissues of the head or neck.
Still, if you want to take every measure to protect yourself, the Environmental Working Group makes the following recommendations:
Use wired or wireless headsets.
Cancer Recipes
When your loved one is going through treatment, a variety of unknown, unscheduled, and unexpected demands may arise. These situations will be taxing on both you and your loved one, and depending on the circumstances you find yourselves in, you may have to take on whole new roles.
Being an advocate
If your loved one receives bad news from the doctor, he may tune everything out.
Cancer Recipes
Studies have shown that eating whole grains instead of refined grains lowers the risk of many chronic diseases, including cancer. So, it’s no surprise that the New American Plate, designed by the American Institute for Cancer Research (AICR), emphasizes grains along with fruits, vegetables, and beans.
The AICR recommends that you aim for meals made up of at least two-thirds of these foods, with only one-third of your plate containing protein-based foods like meat or poultry.
Cancer Recipes
Nausea and vomiting can result from a variety of cancer treatments, including chemotherapy and radiation therapy to the abdomen, stomach, spine, or brain. You may even become nauseated from anxiety before you begin treatment. When chemotherapy is the cause of nausea and vomiting, it’s referred to as chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting (CINV).
When linking the term side effects with cancer, horrific visions pop into most people’s heads. If you haven’t started the treatment leg of your journey yet, you may be imagining yourself bald, frail, and tired, with your face glued to the toilet bowl.
But while some treatment-related side effects may be serious or debilitating, many of them are minor and only minimally impact a person’s quality of life.
Staying active provides many benefits during cancer treatment. It can help you maintain a healthy body weight, as well as reduce your risk of a cancer recurrence, a secondary cancer, or other medical problems (like hypertension or diabetes). Physical activity has also been shown to help combat fatigue, stress, anxiety, and depression.
Cancer Recipes
Chemicals are all around you. Not all are bad or harmful, but many can be, particularly at high doses or if accumulated over time. If you want to reduce your exposure to chemicals, there are many ways to achieve this. Avoiding exposure to every possible toxin is impossible, but you can limit or take steps to greatly reduce your and your family’s exposure, which will help the environment to boot.
Cancer Recipes
When cancer is present, both it and its many treatments can have a considerable impact on your ability to take in nutrients and on your body’s ability to metabolize them, which can lead to malnutrition. When you become malnourished, your body’s ability to function properly declines and your immune function decreases, which may make it difficult to fight off an infection during cancer treatment.
These 10 superfoods have been studied the most for their potential to protect against and fight cancer, and they’ve shown good results. This isn’t surprising given that these foods score high in nutrient density, and they’re particularly high in antioxidants and phytochemicals, both of which keep your cells healthy and trigger the bad ones to die off (a process your oncologist may refer to as apoptosis).
Staging is a way to describe the severity of your cancer based on the extent of your original (primary) tumor and whether your cancer has spread to other areas of your body. Staging is important because it can enable your oncologist to work with you to develop an appropriate treatment plan. It can also help give some indication of your prognosis.
In a nutshell, “eating clean” is simply another way to say “eating healthy.” When you’re given a cancer diagnosis, figuring out what you can do to help beat it and go on to live a healthy life is first and foremost on your mind.
You generally can’t choose your cancer treatments, but you can take control of what you put into your mouth.
Cancer Recipes
When you first heard your loved one had cancer, you may have completely tuned everything out after the word cancer. But to fully be there for your loved one, you’ll need to really tune into everything he or she is saying and follow the cues.
Let your loved one lead, and provide opportunities for connectedness, such as by making eye contact, holding her hand, or patting him on the back (provided this is something you’re both comfortable with and accustomed to).
Cancer Recipes
Nausea and vomiting aren’t the only stomach issues caused by cancer treatments. You may also develop indigestion, heartburn, and even gas. If you’re experiencing such effects, in addition to taking any medication as prescribed, the following changes to your diet and lifestyle can help manage these symptoms and prevent pain or discomfort:
Avoid irritants to prevent heartburn.
After you’ve been diagnosed with cancer, you may be wondering what foods you should eat. You may have to modify your diet during treatment, but there are some key nutrients you should always strive to get. Here’s what you need every day:
Healthy fats (particularly foods containing omega-3 fatty acids): Omega-3 fatty acids are anti-inflammatory and help support immune health.
When it comes to cancer, a risk factor is a feature present within an individual that is associated with a statistically greater risk for the development of the disease, but is itself not necessarily the cause of the disease.
For example, it has been shown that women who are obese have an increased risk of breast cancer.
When you’re going through cancer treatment, eating the healthiest foods may not always be possible. You may be dealing with gastrointestinal issues, experiencing uncomfortable mouth sores, or feeling so fatigued that you simply don’t have the energy to prepare any meal, let alone a healthy one.
That’s why when you’re going through cancer treatment, you’ll have two somewhat competing high-level nutrition goals:
Quantity: First and foremost, you need to consume the right quantity of macronutrients to provide the right amount of calories, or energy, to achieve and maintain a healthy body weight and composition, while also fueling your normal daily activities.
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