What should I eat during treatment?

Hello and welcome to the forum, although I am sorry you have had to find yourself here. I am hoping that you will find this as useful and helpful as I did.  Everyone on here has either been through or is going through what you are about to start so are really well placed to help.  Well done on being so proactive with your diet although, (and I hope I am wrong) you may find that hard to stick to during treatment.  The Capecitabine had a marked effect on my appetite and taste buds, and my husband made me cheese on toast with onion and mustard every single day for the final few weeks.  It was the only thing that hit the spot.  That alongside Ensure Plus, high calorie drinks typically given to the elderly and they contain all the RDAs of vitamins you need.  I could drink very weak lemon squash and sometimes tea but that was it.  So I would eat whatever you fancy as you might find it impossible to focus on the right foods during this period.  The important thing is to get nourishment from any source you can.

I don't know if you have read previous posts, but for most of us absolute essentials were a Sitz bath, a bidet that sits on your loo seat, it can be filled with warm water and used to ease pain as treatment progresses and even for bowel movements as it is much less painful under water.  A soft cushion (I used a Boots inflatable ring) to sit on during car journeys to and from hospital, Tena briefs in case you are caught short, the Capecitabine gave me chronic diarrhoea.  Your team will be keeping a close eye on you, but flag them if you need help with painkillers, dressings and the like, they know exactly what helps and we will all have suggestions if you need them.  

Wishing you all the very best in your treatment, count off the days, and look forward to getting your life back on track.  Please come back and let us know how you are.

Irene xx  

Hi mll ,

Firstly welcome to the Macmillan online community although I’m really sorry to hear of your diagnosis.

I suppose what you eat depends on many things. Personally I did a similar thing to you & started eating to try & combat what was happening to my body, I ate a low carb diet & actually lost almost 3 stone (I had it to lose!) The chemo side of the treatment barely affected my appetite at all & I ate well throughout, the radiotherapy fallout can affect your bowels & some people do suffer some diarrhoea although again this didn’t happen to me so I continued eating the same foods. If you do get some diarrhoea your treating team should provide you with meds to help with this but also a ‘white’ diet could help so white fish, chicken, white rice, white potatoes, white bread, low fibre foods etc. We all respond a little different so I suppose it’s probably best to play it by ear a bit, sorry if that doesn’t sound too helpful.

Wishing you lots of good luck for Monday.

Nicola 

Hi mll,

i ate normally for the first couple of weeks. At that point I found myself actively seeking out bland foods that wouldn't create any more drama. Chicken, rice and broccoli were my staples. Once I was into the recovery period I had a couple of weeks where Ensure was my main food supply. 

Healthy and mild is a good place to start.

Suz

Thank you! Everything you said was very helpful! 

Thank you for your reply, it was very helpful!

Hi mll,

Eat whatever tastes good! One of my doctors told me "don't worry about salads, eat anything you want!" That was really helpful to hear. Mainly, all your doctors want you to keep your weight on. I did try the BRAT diet to help with diarrhea, but I didn't stick to it. It really didn't help. I did lose my appetite, so I stuck with comfort foods that I enjoyed. My nutritionist helped me to find foods that I felt like eating and she suggested I add protein drinks to my diet, which I did. She was really good with helping me find ways to add protein. She even suggested ice cream as a way to do that, so I enjoyed ice cream and ginger ale floats!!  I also worked hard to stay hydrated. I drank a lot of pedialyte to help with that. 

Keeping you in my thoughts!

Hopie xx

As others have said…I ate normally the first 4-5 weeks.  Then moved more toward the brat diet as side effects started to kick in.  Chicken broth..baked potato, sliced turkey, canned peaches.   Pretty much anything that appealed.   For several weeks when it was most painful to have a bowel movement I tried to stick to broth and toast.   I found it hard to eat much at a time.  Small snacks vs meals per se.  By 2 weeks post treatment I was pretty much back to normal eating.  Albeit smaller portions. 

Hi I haven't had my treatment yet but I'm similar to you in wanting to eat as healthy as possible. I tend to do this anyway so it's not something that I would need to adjust to and may find it an added challenge during treatment.  As others have said the main thing will be to keep weight on / having any food that can be digested ok, not add to possible side effects.  Sometimes when we're bad there's just certain foods we crave & not necessarily the best health wise but I think listening to our bodies is important.

Some things that are easily added to food which are nutritious and have added protein etc.. are grounded flax and chia seeds, hemp powder, fortified yeast (with B vitamins) etc.. you can just sprinkle these on top of food / in soups etc..  I use these on my sons food to sneak in added goodness!

I'm also drinking organic green tea, dandelion root and graviloa - I find them an easy way to get antioxidants into the system if you don't mind a fresh tea..

I've just started growing calabrese broccoli sprouts which is very easy to do (grown in approx. 5-6 days) - you can easily look this up on internet.  The little sprouts contain a much higher dosage of a chemical called sulphoraphane (that's found in normal broccoli & cabbage etc..). This is said to help neutralise cancer-causing substances found in the gut and can help against colon cancer. So having only a handful of these sprouts would be like having a very large amount of the leafy greens often recommended. 

Garlic is another that is often recommended to fight off cancer - you can do this many ways, naturally, powders and in capsule form.  Although it can cause diarrhoea to some / taken in copious amounts. I do add to food occasionally and I'm taking a fermented black garlic capsule as it is gentle on the stomach.

If you suffer any side effects such as an upset tummy, another natural product I've found helpful with constipation / diarrhoea is psyllium husk, a soluble fiber.  This can be bought as a powder and again sprinkled on food or just added to water. Alternatively I find the peppermint capsules very helpful!  Probiotics are also known to help with gut imbalance & side effects such as diarrhoea. Ginger can help with nausea, even a ginger biscuit! 

B vitamins tend to be impacted and add to overall tiredness / fatigue. I suffered with chronic fatigue earlier last year and it was only when I started taking a clean organic B complex vitamin I saw a shift. Many people lack in B12 and don't realise it, plus it's one of those vitamins that just passes through body so there's no limit on amount can take. So may want to consider this if have that as an issue.

Please keep us updated on how you get on, I see treatment has started already - I hope it's going well so far, take one day at a time! Take care X

Hi Em44 

I appreciate your desire to eat healthily, but just wanted to make a couple of points. One of the side effects of treatment can be a complete change in appetite and your ability to eat. Another is that the effects of radiotherapy can make it difficult to follow a “healthy” diet. I was told that although it seems counter intuitive, I should reduce the amount of fresh fruit and vegetables as it can increase the chances of bad diarrhoea. They don’t want you to be losing weight after your plan for radiotherapy is set up as it can affect where the radiotherapy “hits”, so I was recommended to eat what I could face, and go for things not high in fibre.

In terms of chemotherapy I would recommend someone on chemo consulting with their team on absolutely everything they take in terms of supplements. It is not recommended for example to take things high in antioxidants as this can work against chemo, which could be very unhelpful. There are many things we might take in life generally which are not suitable to take during treatment, so it’s really important that people check out everything taken in addition to their normal diet. 

Sarah xx

Hi Em44 ,

I agree with SarahH21  that you may need to adjust your diet at different stages of your treatment, I was lucky & didn't suffer diarrhoea at all (I was part of the PLATO clinical trial & my radiotherapy was below the usual strength as my tumour was removed surgically prior to treatment) so I was able to continue eating vegetables & the like throughout but many can’t & are advised to eat a bland, white diet to try & ease this particular symptom.

I was also taking a few supplements prior to the treatment but took them all along to my oncologist & he looked through them & advised which ones I could continue & which were advisable to stop, the ones I had to stop included ascorbic acid & live goats milk kefir so my advice would be to run everything your taking past your oncologist. Once your immune system has recovered somewhat when your treatment is over you should be able to resume your normal supplement routine. I think it’s also worth mentioning my digestive system has altered to a degree since my treatment & there are some things I just cannot tolerate any more, coffee being one of them it causes me awful bloating & gas now & I’ve always loved a good cup of coffee. 

Nicola