Things to Know About Healthy Eating During Chemotherapy

Healthy eating during chemotherapy is an important part of successfully coping with the cancer treatment challenges. What you eat before starting chemotherapy, during and after it ends, helps you to go through this experience easier and stay stronger.

What to eat

The point is to avoid diets that deprive your body from essential nutrients.

1. Eat fruits and vegetables with mixed colors as well as plant-based foods. Vegetables and fruits with different colors have different health promoting compounds that your body needs to receive.

Go for citrus fruits, avocados, nuts, pumpkin, leafy vegetables, beans, seeds, lentils, potatoes, carrots, corn, oats, quinoa, whole grain bread, and cooked cereals. Stir fried vegetables and lasagna (at least once a week) provide you both carbohydrates and vitamins that strengthen your body.

People, who experience diarrhea, need to include in their diet oatmeal, squash, bananas, sweet potatoes, fruits without skin, white rice, and cornflakes.

2. Get the necessary amount of proteins from lean meat (turkey and chicken breast) and omega 3 fatty acids from fish (salmon, mackerel, tuna) and eggs.

3. Limit as much as possible pickles, smoked foods, high fat red meat, bacon, sausages, pepperoni, and ham.
From the point of view of a healthy eating during chemotherapy, dieticians recommend to choose the broiling and baking cooking methods to prepare meat meals because they lower the amount of fats.

4. If you notice signs of dehydration such as dry mouth, dark yellow urine in low quantity, or sunken eyes you have to increase the daily intake of fluids (water, natural fresh juices, milk, and tea).
Once you keep your body hydrated, you can also prevent constipation that often happens during chemotherapy. If you do not like drinking plain water, add a bit of flavor with 1-2 slices of lemon.

5. Reduce sugary foods (candies, cakes, and cookies) that in general, provide a lot of calories and fewer nutrients and coat bread or crackers with honey and homemade jelly instead.

6. Eat quick and easy to make snacks.

Most nutritionists consider that when you undergo chemotherapy, small meals taken throughout the day at certain hours are a better option than 3 large meals. Enhance your diet with tasty snacks rich in proteins including eggs, yogurts (low fat content), crackers, soups, grilled cheese, nuts, pasta, milk shakes and puddings.

Lack of appetite commonly occurs during the treatment so that even if you do not feel hungry, follow your feeding schedule. Several leaves of parsley, olives, grated cheese, cherry tomatoes, and thin slices of lemons can help making your meals more appealing.

7. Nausea is better kept under control by avoiding hot foods, fried and greasy dishes. Peppermint and ginger tea can give a hand in this matter too.

8. Keep an eye on the safety of the food you are going to eat.

Healthy eating during chemotherapy also encompasses increased attention to the way you prepare the food (clean surfaces and kitchen tools), store it, or wash the fruits and vegetables (wash them thoroughly). The germs acquired from contaminated food will make you feel even worse and weaken your immune system.