Eating Right During Cancer Treatment
By Gina Shaw
WebMD Feature
Reviewed By Cynthia Haines, MD
Cancer treatment can sap your
appetite, but that's when getting adequate nutrition is more
important than ever. Here's how to meet your needs.
When you're being treated for cancer, it's more important than
ever to eat right and get adequate nutrition -- but it can also be
more difficult than ever. Your body is working overtime to fight the
cancer, while it's also doing extra duty to repair healthy cells
that may have been damaged as a side effect of treatments like
chemotherapy and radiation. At the same time, many cancer treatments
-- especially chemotherapy -- come with side effects that drain
your strength and sap your appetite. So how can you make sure you're getting all
the essential nutrients, vitamins, and minerals you
need?
You might assume the answer lies in power doses of vitamin
supplements. After all, if you're having trouble keeping food down,
wouldn't it be easier to get nutrients from a simple capsule? Not
necessarily. "If you want to supplement the nutrition you get from
your regular diet, we recommend taking just one multivitamin per day
from a reputable manufacturer," says Gary Deng, MD, assistant
attending and assistant member in the Integrative Medicine Service
at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York.
"We suggest that patients avoid high-dose multivitamins, because
there is some concern that some of these, especially those with
high-dose antioxidants, may interfere with treatment. As long as
there remains controversy about this, we think it's prudent not to
take high-dose multivitamins."
Plus, it's almost impossible to get "too much" of any
given vitamin through food alone, while loading up on some vitamins in pill form
can cause problems, like dangerous buildup in the liver.
If a certain amount of a nutrient is good for you, twice or three
times as much is not necessarily better.
Certain kinds of herbal supplements, like St. John's wort, can
also interact badly with some types of cancer treatment. "Some
complex herbal extracts may contain substances that can change drug
metabolism, interfering with the way in which your body metabolizes
chemotherapy," warns Deng. Talk to your doctor before taking any
type of herbal product or supplement during cancer treatment.
Get Vitamins In Food, Not Capsules
Instead, say experts, focus on what you need most now: calories.
When you're being treated for cancer, taking in enough calories to
maintain your strength and keep your body going trumps pretty much
everything else. "For many people undergoing chemotherapy, we're
happy to tell them to eat whatever they like to eat. If it appeals
to you and you can keep it down, then eat it," says Deng. "If you
ask someone to eat too strict a diet, often they end up not eating
enough."
If you have trouble eating enough at mealtimes, many
experts recommend adding medical nutrition
supplements -- like Ensure,
Boost, and Instant Breakfast -- to the menu. These drinks can often
help make up for some of the nutrition missed when you can't work up
an appetite for dinner or the energy to prepare it.
"Go ahead and try to eat a meal, and when you've done
your best, you can supplement it with one of these drinks to give you the
calories, protein, and other nutrients you can't get in at mealtimes," advises
Sally Scroggs, MS, RD, LD, senior health education coordinator at Houston's M.D.
Anderson Cancer Center. Just
don't rely on the drinks so much that you don't eat regular meals.
"They're called supplements for a reason," she adds.
Next to getting enough calories in the first place, the most
important nutritional rule for people with cancer is to focus on
getting a well-balanced, healthy diet from natural sources,
including fruits and vegetables, with a heavy emphasis on protein.
"Because the body is under stress from different
treatments -- whether you're undergoing surgery, chemotherapy, radiation, or a
combination of these -- we really need to emphasize proteins for
healing and repair and strengthening of the immune system," says Scroggs. Red meat, fish, and poultry are excellent sources of
protein (and iron as well, which is also important), but if you've lost your
appetite for these, try other protein options like cheese, beans, peanut butter,
eggs, nuts, milkshakes, and yogurt.
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