Nutrition Needs For Cancer Patients

Nutrition Needs For Cancer Patients
by Jillian McKee

Nutrition Needs for Cancer Patients

Cancer is always a difficult disease to deal with – whether one has just been diagnosed with it or even if one has been undergoing treatment for the same. Even when cancer is in remission, it requires extensive and intensive care and healthy habits to help maintain as comfortable a life as possible.

Many experts advocate lifestyle, diet and exercise to help in sustaining the body’s health and eating right has always showed huge benefits as far as the strength of the body and mind are concerned.

Eating Well

Even for the rarer forms of cancer, like mesothelioma, a person can help in reinforcing the strength of the body as it goes through the rigors of treatment, like radiation and chemotherapy. According to The American Cancer Society, eating healthy helps in increasing the chances of staving off cancer. Eating well or eating a balanced and nutritious diet will also help keep up the spirits or morale, which is a crucial component in the battle against cancer.

The Difference Between Normal Diet and Diet During Cancer Treatment

For most people, a healthy diet is easily structured around fruit, vegetables, meat, dairy products and whole grain products. For cancer patients though, the dietary needs may be slightly different. There may be a requirement for more proteins and calories and a qualified nutritionist may be able to draw up a diet plan and also incorporate the changes needed on a periodic basis. Some of the common problems during cancer treatment can be loss of appetite, diarrhea, nausea and even weight gain or loss. Thus, a cancer diet will need to cater for these differences.

Making It Easier to Eat Healthy

Some of the steps elucidated to help a cancer patient eat healthier (see http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/coping/eatinghints/page2#b9) involve stocking up on frozen dinners, getting friends and family to help in preparation of healthy meals and cooking food and freezing the same.  For some helpful hints please visit, The National Cancer Institute.

It may also be a good idea to opt for foods that are easier to digest, such as eggs, soy and soy products, dairy products including cottage cheese, yogurt and even nuts like almond and walnuts. All these can fortify one’s strength levels.

The Contents of the Diet

Medical and nutrition experts state that it is important to get enough calories in with every meal since this is the best possible source of the body’s strength. There should also be a daily intake of a healthy amount of vitamins and minerals of a wide variety. It is also better to get these vitamins and minerals through food rather than through capsules. In fact, it is better to get even protein contents through food rather than supplements.

Dealing with Weight Issues

Cancer treatment or cancer itself cause weight gain or weight loss in a big way and both are detrimental to dealing with cancer. Keeping up body weight is one of the critical ways in which the body deals with this disease, and eating to avoid weight and especially muscle loss is recommended by leading medical experts. Getting more calories in smaller quantities of food and including fat content in the diet is a good way of keeping up body weight.

This is a great article written by Jillian McKee.  She contacted me in helping share her cancer and nutrition research on my blog.  Please follow her blog, she has a lot of great stuff to share!

http://www.mesothelioma.com/blog/authors/jillian/
 

Always,
Kristen