Table 1. How Cancer Treatments Can Affect EatingCancer Treatment | How it Can Affect Eating | What Sometimes Happens: Side Effects |
---|
Surgery | Increases the need for good nutrition. May slow
digestion. May lessen the ability of the mouth, throat, and stomach
to work properly. Adequate nutrition helps wound-healing and
recovery. |
Before surgery, a high-protein, high-calorie diet
may be prescribed if a patient is underweight or weak. After
surgery, some patients may not be able to eat normally at first.
They may receive nutrients through a needle in their vein (such as
in
total parenteral nutrition
), or through a tube in their
nose or stomach.
|
Radiation Therapy | As it damages cancer cells, it
also may affect healthy cells and healthy parts of the body. |
Treatment of head, neck, chest,
or breast may cause:
- Dry mouth
- Sore mouth
- Sore throat
-
Difficulty swallowing (
dysphagia
)
- Change in taste of food
- Dental problems
- Increased phlegm Treatment of stomach or pelvis may cause:
- Nausea and vomiting
- Diarrhea
- Cramps, bloating
|
Chemotherapy | As it destroys cancer cells, it also may affect
the digestive system and the desire or ability to eat. | - Nausea and vomiting
- Loss of appetite
- Diarrhea
- Constipation
- Sore mouth or throat
- Weight gain or loss
- Change in taste of food
|
Biological Therapy
(Immunotherapy) | As it stimulates your immune
system to fight cancer cells, it can affect the desire or ability
to eat. | - Nausea and vomiting
- Diarrhea
- Sore mouth
- Severe weight loss
- Dry mouth
- Change in taste of food
- Muscle aches, fatigue, fever
|
Hormonal Therapy | Some types can increase appetite and change how
the body handles fluids. | - Changes in appetite
- Fluid retention
|
Table 5. How To Increase CaloriesFood | Method |
---|
Butter and Margarine | - Add to soups, mashed and baked potatoes, hot cereals, grits,
rice, noodles, and cooked vegetables.
- Stir into cream soups, sauces, and gravies.
- Combine with herbs and seasonings, and spread on cooked meats,
hamburgers, and fish and egg dishes.
- Use melted butter or margarine as a dip for seafoods and raw
vegetables, such as shrimp, scallops, crab, and lobster.
|
Whipped Cream | - Use sweetened on hot chocolate, desserts, gelatin, puddings,
fruits, pancakes, and waffles.
- Fold unsweetened into mashed potatoes or vegetable purees.
|
Milk and Cream | - Use in cream soups, sauces, egg dishes, batters, puddings, and
custards.
- Put on hot or cold cereal.
- Mix with noodles, pasta, rice, and mashed potatoes.
- Pour on chicken and fish while baking.
- Use as a binder in hamburgers, meatloaf, and croquettes.
- Use whole milk instead of low-fat.
- Use cream instead of milk in recipes.
- Make hot chocolate with cream and add marshmallows.
|
Cheese | - Melt on top of casseroles, potatoes, and vegetables.
- Add to omelets.
- Add to sandwiches.
|
Cream Cheese | - Spread on breads, muffins, fruit slices, and crackers.
- Add to vegetables.
- Roll into balls and coat with chopped nuts, wheat germ, or
granola.
|
Sour Cream | - Add to cream soups, baked potatoes, macaroni and cheese,
vegetables, sauces, salad dressings, stews, baked meat, and
fish.
- Use as a topping for cakes, fruit, gelatin desserts, breads,
and muffins.
- Use as a dip for fresh fruits and vegetables.
- For a good dessert, scoop it on fresh fruit, add brown sugar,
and refrigerate until cold before eating.
|
Salad Dressings and
Mayonnaise | - Use with sandwiches.
- Combine with meat, fish, and egg or vegetable salads.
- Use as a binder in croquettes.
- Use in sauces and gelatin dishes.
|
Honey, Jam, and Sugar | - Add to bread, cereal, milk drinks, and fruit and yogurt
desserts.
- Use as a glaze for meats, such as chicken.
|
Granola | - Use in cookie, muffin, and bread batters.
- Sprinkle on vegetables, yogurt, ice cream, pudding, custard,
and fruit.
- Layer with fruits and bake.
- Mix with dry fruits and nuts for a snack.
- Substitute for bread or rice in pudding recipes.
|
Dried Fruits
(raisins, prunes, apricots, dates, figs)
| - Try cooking dried fruits; serve for breakfast or as a dessert
or snack.
- Add to muffins, cookies, breads, cakes, rice and grain dishes,
cereals, puddings, and stuffings.
- Bake in pies and turnovers.
- Combine with cooked vegetables, such as carrots, sweet
potatoes, yams, and acorn and butternut squash.
- Combine with nuts or granola for snacks.
|
Eggs | - Add chopped, hard-cooked eggs to salads and dressings,
vegetables, casseroles, and creamed meats.
- Make a rich custard with eggs, milk, and sugar.
- Add extra hard-cooked yolks to deviled-egg filling and sandwich
spread.
- Beat eggs into mashed potatoes, vegetable purees, and sauces.
(Be sure to keep cooking these dishes after adding the eggs because
raw eggs may contain harmful bacteria.)
- Add extra eggs or egg whites to custards, puddings, quiches,
scrambled eggs, omelets, and to pancake and French toast batter
before cooking.
|
Food Preparation | - Bread meat and vegetables.
- If tolerated, saute and fry foods when possible, because these
methods add more calories than do baking or broiling.
- Add sauces or gravies.
|
Table 6. How To Increase ProteinFood | Method |
---|
Hard or Semisoft Cheese | - Melt on sandwiches, bread, muffins, tortillas, hamburgers, hot
dogs, other meats or fish, vegetables, eggs, desserts, stewed
fruit, or pies.
- Grate and add to soups, sauces, casseroles, vegetable dishes,
mashed potatoes, rice, noodles, or meatloaf.
|
Cottage Cheese/
Ricotta Cheese
| - Mix with or use to stuff fruits and vegetables.
- Add to casseroles, spaghetti, noodles, and egg dishes, such as
omelets, scrambled eggs, and souffles.
- Use in gelatin, pudding-type desserts, cheesecake, and pancake
batter.
- Use to stuff crepes and pasta shells or manicotti.
|
Milk | - Use milk instead of water in beverages and in cooking when
possible.
- Use in preparing hot cereal, soups, cocoa, and pudding.
- Add cream sauces to vegetables and other dishes.
|
Nonfat Instant Dry Milk | - Add to regular milk and milk drinks, such as pasteurized eggnog
and milkshakes.
- Use in casseroles, meatloaf, breads, muffins, sauces, cream
soups, mashed potatoes, puddings and custards, and milk-based
desserts.
|
Commercial Products | - See the section on "Commercial Products to Improve Nutrition"
on page 10.
- Use "instant breakfast" powder in milk drinks and
desserts.
- Mix with ice cream, milk, and fruit or flavorings for a
high-protein milkshake.
|
Ice Cream, Yogurt, and Frozen
Yogurt | - Add to carbonated beverages, such as ginger ale or cola.
- Add to milk drinks, such as milkshakes.
- Add to cereal, fruit, gelatin desserts, and pies; blend or whip
with soft or cooked fruits.
- Sandwich ice cream or frozen yogurt between cake slices,
cookies, or graham crackers.
- Make breakfast drinks with fruit and bananas.
|
Eggs | - Add chopped, hard-cooked eggs to salads and dressings,
vegetables, casseroles, and creamed meats.
- Add extra eggs or egg whites to quiches and to pancake and
French toast batter.
- Add extra egg whites to scrambled eggs and omelets.
- Make a rich custard with eggs, high-protein milk, and
sugar.
- Add extra hard-cooked yolks to deviled-egg filling and sandwich
spreads.
- Avoid raw eggs, which may contain harmful bacteria, because
your treatment may make you susceptible to infection. Make sure all
eggs you eat are well cooked or baked; avoid eggs that are
undercooked.
|
Nuts, Seeds, and Wheat
Germ | - Add to casseroles, breads, muffins, pancakes, cookies, and
waffles.
- Sprinkle on fruit, cereal, ice cream, yogurt, vegetables,
salads, and toast as a crunchy topping; use in place of bread
crumbs.
- Blend with parsley or spinach, herbs, and cream for a noodle,
pasta, or vegetable sauce.
- Roll banana in chopped nuts.
|
Peanut Butter | - Spread on sandwiches, toast, muffins, crackers, waffles,
pancakes, and fruit slices.
- Use as a dip for raw vegetables, such as carrots, cauliflower,
and celery.
- Blend with milk drinks and beverages.
- Swirl through soft ice cream and yogurt.
|
Meat and Fish | - Add chopped, cooked meat or fish to vegetables, salads,
casseroles, soups, sauces, and biscuit dough.
- Use in omelets, souffles, quiches, sandwich fillings, and
chicken and turkey stuffings.
- Wrap in pie crust or biscuit dough as turnovers.
- Add to stuffed baked potatoes.
|
Beans/Legumes | - Cook and use peas, legumes, beans, and tofu in soups or add to
casseroles, pastas, and grain dishes that also contain cheese or
meat. Mash cooked beans with cheese and milk.
|