Contents:
- Medical Video: Food for the Fight - Nutrition Advice for Cancer Patients
- Abstain from food during chemotherapy
- Then what foods are recommended to be consumed during chemotherapy?
Medical Video: Food for the Fight - Nutrition Advice for Cancer Patients
When undergoing chemotherapy, patients are asked to maintain their diet and must choose healthy foods. Yes, food does affect the success of chemotherapy that is being carried out. By eating healthy foods, patients are able to survive the side effects of their treatment and accelerate healing. Then what are the food restrictions during chemotherapy? What is good food during chemotherapy?
Abstain from food during chemotherapy
Some types of food can inhibit cancer treatment that is being done. Either the food interacts directly with treatment, or food makes the patient's immune system weaker, so the patient is unable to continue treatment. Therefore there are dietary restrictions during chemotherapy, namely:
- Raw vegetables, such as fresh vegetables and salads should be avoided when doing chemotherapy. Raw vegetables have lots of bacteria and germs, this can cause patients to experience food poisoning or infectious diseases. Not only that, cancer patients must also avoid various types of foods that are not perfectly cooked to prevent infectious diseases.
- Spicy food, can increase the risk of indigestion in patients. This indigestion will weaken the immune system of the patient and ultimately inhibit chemotherapy. In addition, spicy foods can also aggravate the symptoms of nausea, causing pain in the mouth and throat.
- Oranges and various acidic foods is food taboos during other chemotherapy. The effect of acidic food on patients who are on chemotherapy is that it increases the risk of constipation and causes pain in the stomach.
- Fried foods, can cause nausea and reduce appetite. In addition, fried foods include dietary restrictions during chemotherapy because they contain very high fat which can make the patient's fat stack multiply. While too much body fat can slow down chemotherapy.
Then what foods are recommended to be consumed during chemotherapy?
Actually, all healthy foods, such as foods that contain fiber and various high nutritional substances, are good for consumption during chemotherapy. What must be ascertained is that all food given to patients is perfectly cooked. Usually patients who are undergoing chemotherapy, their energy will be drained to fight cancer and face the side effects of treatment. Therefore food is needed with calories high enough to replace it.
However, avoid foods that have high fat content because it will only make the patient's nausea worse. Choose foods with a variety of colors, this indicates that all types of food contain diverse nutrients and of course needed for patients who are undergoing chemotherapy. Here are other recommendations that can be done to reduce the side effects of treatment and speed up the chemotherapy process:
- Eat small portions but often, for example in a day the patient is given 6 meals. This prevents the patient from feeling nauseous and wants to vomit.
- Relying on various types of fiber contained in vegetables and fruit to treat constipation that often occurs when chemotherapy, for example papaya. While bananas are believed to treat diarrhea which is also often experienced by cancer patients during treatment.
- Eliminate nausea by eating cold foods and eating foods that are minty or ginger.
- Avoid foods that are served hot, because they can cause sores in the mouth and throat.
