Food while having chemo

Hi , chemo can indeed pay around with the taste - I had over 800hrs of chemo so totally understand.

If she is not feeling like eating - sift food can be simple to take, not a big plate but very small and very often.

Good home made soups that are liquidised with a little cream mixed through - just a cup at a time. I lived on scrambled eggs for breakfast and mash and gravy with some mice when I could - again with some cream and cheese just to push up the protein intake.

Snacking on fresh melon and pineapple (not tinned) is great and tends to make up the taste buds, but drive my wife crazy cutting them up.

((hugs))

Hi,

I found beans on liberally buttered toast was great,sometimes with cheese on top.

 Try to keep your protein intake up,in some countries they calculate amount ratio to your body weight.

  Mayonnaise mixed with food helped,also Geetas Mango chutney made things taste more " normal"

  A little of what you fancy does you good.One of my friends lived on tinned Heinz syrup sponge with cream and custard when having her treatment!

   A favourite of mine was roasted chicken carcas and veg boiled for ages with lots of black pepper.

Hi Thehighlander, 

Thanks so much for your reply and for the suggestions I’m going to give those a go it’s difficult as I feel a bit helpless with all of this so knowing a few of the little things that might help is really great. 

Thanks again! 

Hi OscarTheCatgotmehere, 

It’s challenging trying to get my mum to actually eat enough so the suggestions are fab. We haven’t tried those so I’m going to get a few and see what works. It’s so nice to hear from others who have been/are in a similar situation and I really appreciate it. 

Thanks. 

Hi 

I replied to a similar question earlier and was wondering if this may be of any help ?

My wife found everything tasted metallic and a bit like tasteless soggy cardboard during chemo and for a while afterwards. We ended up living off spicy or highly flavoured foods for around 6 months.

If she is eating very little serve smaller but high protein portions, that can be bulked up with butter, cheese, cream, fish, meat and eggs etc. If you can find foods she actually enjoys, you can make extra to freeze ? If you overload a plate a large portion can be off putting so try and serve little but often.

Taking on enough fluid can also be an issue, especially as they recommend 2 litres a day, for most this is trial and error finding what still tastes nice and is enjoyable. There are plenty of flavoured still and fizzy bottled waters on multi buy offers in supermarkets. Failing that an alternative could be flavoured build up drinks like Ensure or Fortisip some of which are available for prescription, but it could take a lot of trial and error to find one she prefers.

Macmillan produce a Building-Up Diet booklet - I'll place it below; to download / read just click the cover image.

Hope this is of some help, take care, G n' J