If you have been diagnosed with breast cancer and are undergoing treatment or about to undergo treatment, it’s important for you to start investigating nutrition. Meet with your doctor to chat about the kinds of food you should be eating and avoiding, it could be different for each individual, so it’s essential that you start to look into it now.
The diet is an important part of cancer treatment and eating the right kinds of food before, during and after your treatment will help you to feel better and stay stronger. In the first instance, it’s vital that you prepare yourself for treatment. Get yourself in the best possible shape nutritionally before your treatment starts. This could help your recovery and may even reduce the amount of time you spend in hospital. Eating a healthy balanced diet is about feeling good and having more energy, it’s not about being stick thin.
Healthy diet advice for breast cancer patients
Advice on a normal healthy diet would usually recommend drinking plenty of water, eating moderate portion sizes, being mindful of calorie intake, eating plenty of fruit and vegetables, whole grain breads and cereal, limiting sugary foods, fat, salt, alcohol and refined grain products
However recommendations for cancer patients undergoing treatment will be different. You may be surprised that those recommendations for eating and drinking are different from what you would normally perceive as healthy. Tumours may produce chemicals that change the way your body absorbs nutrients, therefore the way your body uses protein, carbohydrates and fats may be affected. Patients often appear to be eating enough but the body might not be able to absorb the nutrients.
Whilst undergoing or recovering from treatment, your diet will need to help you build up strength, fight infection and endure the effects of your illness. Recommendations may include eating lots of protein and foods high in calories, which may not always be easy when you’re feeling so unwell and dealing with side effects. However, you will need to concentrate on restoring nutrient shortages to increase your energy levels, which will helps towards your healing.
Pay attention to your diet during treatment and recovery
Nutritional advice for cancer patients during and after treatments will be designed to help your body aid your recovery. They may advise on eating little and often, increasing your protein intake and eating higher calorie foods. The protein in our food contributes to essential amino acids, which cells use to build new proteins, repair muscles, bones, skin, organs and blood. Protein foods include meat, fish and diary products such as cheese and eggs. It can also be found in some seeds and nuts such as pumpkin seeds and pistachio nuts. You may also be recommended to eat higher calorie foods and change your cooking methods to include more butter, margarine and oil.
Some experts will advice cancer patients to eat less of certain foods that contain a lot of fibre. These kinds of foods may cause problems such as diarrhoea. However it’s important that you talk to your doctor as there may be specific foods that are causing problems and you may not have to avoid all high fibre foods.
Eating too little protein and calories is a common nutrition problem facing many cancer patients. Nutrition plans can be devised to restore vital nutrients and prevent complications in the future. They will help you cope with the effects of cancer and your treatments. Some treatments can even be more effective if you are well nourished and getting enough calories and protein, so it’s vital that you get your diet right to help your recovery. We would recommend that you contact your doctor now for specific advice on how nutrition can aid your recovery.