Food Suggestions through treatment

Hi Sue

Sorry to find you here and to hear about your dad.

The difficult thing is to maintain body weight during chemo. I lost a couple of stone at this stage. Obviously soft food like cottage pie will be easier to swallow than say chicken breast meat. My recommendation is to throw out the thought of healthy eating and go for high fat savouries, snacks and puddings. Sticky toffee pud and cream. Sausage rolls. Cream on anything, especially in soups. He will know which foods cause him the most problem; stuff like bread and some fruit. I could manage peanut butter on toast, surprisingly easily, with tea! Shortbread biscuits with raspberry purée (and cream). Bananas and custard...

One hopes that eating will be easier during and after chemo, but of course he may feel nauseous and have less of an appetite. My tastes changed during chemo, I started drinking tea again after 50 years avoiding it!

So there’s no one answer to your question, everyone is an individual. But my recommendation would be indulgent food (which tends to be high calorie) , in fact anything he fancies!

So good luck finding treats for him, and I hope chemo is a smoother ride than either you or he are fearing.

Hi Sue71,

Apart from echoing what BrentS says, I would give your dad what he likes with the maximum calories in. For example when I was on chemo (FLOT) last year (2 cycles of 4 treatments each; on pre one post surgery) I drank a lot of coke and only drank the full fat (original) version. The fizzy drink helped me when food got stuck. I found that when I stopped eating meat and fish (I went vegetarian) I stopped being sick, but still felt sick. I lost my sense of taste and even water tasted unpleasant, so I added flavouring to water. I used strong flavours (e.g. curry, marmite, etc.) and bought cans of tinned fruit in sugar. I lost a couple of stone through my treatment, but am now in remission and having to watch my weight! but this is due to me being on steroids.

Wishing your dad a full and speedy recovery that we have had.