The cancer diet
Experts recommend that patients and carers pay special attention to nutritional intake when fighting the disease
IT’S NATURAL for people who are fighting cancer to explore every avenue to boost their chances of recovery, prolong their life or improve its quality. Some turn to special diets.
“There’s no single ‘cancer diet,’” however, asserts Nicole Erickson, nutrition coordinator at Munich University Hospital’s Comprehensive Cancer Centre. Nor is there a sure-fire anti-cancer food.
The best diet for cancer patients varies from person to person, she says, and with the nature and stage of their disease.
Some pin their hopes on a lowcarb diet, the idea being that reduced intake of sugar and carbohydrates starves cancer cells of energy and thereby inhibits their growth.
“There have been no studies on humans to date that back up this hypothesis, only laboratory evidence and animal studies,” says Dr Daniel Buchholz, head of the School of Dietetics at Mainz University Medical Centre in Germany.
What’s clear, though, is that eating properly facilitates cancer therapy and prevents undernourishment.
“Undernourishment means unwanted, rapid weight loss in a short time – that is, about 5% to 10% [of body weight] in three to six months,” explains Eva Kerschbaum, a nutrition scientist with the Nutrition and Cancer Consultation Service of the Munich Tumour Centre.
Many types of cancer cause patients to lose weight during therapy, which makes recovery even more difficult.
Weight loss leads to a lack of energy, and the patient’s already weakened immune system becomes increasingly weaker.
In addition to undernourishment and weight loss, cancer patients also struggle with a lack of appetite, nausea and vomiting, or a loss of their sense of taste, Kerschbaum says.
“Sometimes they’re revolted by eating and by certain foods, or even by their smell,” remarks Erickson.
The experts advise cancer patients to weigh themselves often, avoid strong-smelling foods such as some kinds of cheese, and eat whatever they like and makes them feel good.
“It may vary from day to day – and it doesn’t necessarily have to be fruit and vegetables,” Erickson says.
On chemotherapy days, when patients are nauseous, they shouldn’t eat their favourite food.
“Otherwise they can develop an aversion to it,” points out Buchholz.
Family members play a key role. In their desire to be helpful, they sometimes unwittingly put pressure on the patient by going out of their way to prepare appetising meals. Then they’re sorely disappointed when the patient doesn’t want to eat.
Buchholz suggests precooking meals and freezing them. “You can spontaneously offer them when the patient is hungry,” he says.
As Erickson sees it, family members have no reason to be annoyed. “They should realise that cancer patients try to eat as best as they can,” she says, suggesting that joint meals might make it easier for them to eat.
“A relaxed atmosphere and casual conversation distract from nausea and help food go down more easily when the patient has no appetite,” Kerschbaum says.
Sometimes cooking together helps too. Aside from the social interaction, cooking allows the patient to feel like they have more control over their meal.
The role of diet in cancer therapy is so complex that the experts recommend personal nutrition counselling.
“This isn’t so easy, though,” concedes Erickson, “since it’s not a required part of therapy.” – dpa