We want you to be in the best possible physical condition for your treatment.
What you eat is so important to ensuring you have the best nutrition. Here, we offer advice and guidance on nutrition to help you meet your dietary needs at home.
Nutrition has a real impact on your bodies ability to manage health. Malnutrition can be a risk because both the disease and its treatments can alter nutritional uptake. People who are underweight and are unintentionally losing weight have an increased risk of poorer outcomes from cancer treatment.
Cancer Nutrition Advice
The following videos are here to help you. These have been put together by specialist NHS Macmillan dietitians and an expert dietetic assistant practitioner. It covers the links between diet and cancer, eating well for good health and looks at the truth behind some dietary myths.
Since your diagnosis you may have had several thoughts about food.
“What should I be eating?”
“What foods could help my treatment?”
“Are there any foods I should be avoiding?”
Alternatively, you may not have had the time to consider what and how you are eating. The most important message is to continue to “eat well”. Choosing a wide variety of foods and well-balanced meals can help you feel better and optimise your energy levels. Trying to lose weight is generally not encouraged.
Managing Malnutrition
The Eatwell Guide
The Eatwell Guide shows the different types of foods and drinks we should consume – and in what proportions – to have a healthy, balanced diet. The Eatwell Guide shows the main food groups that form a healthy, balanced diet:
- Eat at least 5 portions of a variety of fruit and vegetables every day
- Base meals on potatoes, bread, rice, pasta or other starchy carbohydrates; choosing wholegrain versions where possible
- Have some dairy or dairy alternatives (such as soya drinks); choosing lower fat and lower sugar options
- Eat some beans, pulses, fish, eggs, meat and other proteins (including 2 portions of fish every week, one of which should be oily)
- Choose unsaturated oils and spreads and eat in small amounts
- Drink 6-8 cups/glasses of fluid a day If consuming foods and drinks high in fat, salt or sugar have these less often and in small amounts.
Calorie Boosting Nutritional Guidance and Support
Adding energy and protein to your everyday food helps you to get the most calories and energy out of the food that you eat. This can help you to prevent weight loss, and may help you to put weight on if you need to. Macmillan Cancer Support provide helpful hints and tips via their webpage https://www.macmillan.org.uk/cancer-information-and-support/impacts-of-cancer/building-up-diet/meal-ideas-shopping-list
