According to the Cancer Council, at least one in three cancer cases are preventable. A healthy diet can not only help treat cancer, it could also act as a preventative.
Treatments for cancer can be immensely physically challenging, but while your immune system is being knocked around, getting the best possible nutrition can help you fight back. It's not easy to have the healthiest diet when you are nauseous or find your appetite has gone west. However, there are strategies that can help.
When undergoing cancer treatment you have two key nutrition goals: to maintain a healthy weight and to help fight infection. And once you've got through the treatment, your next goal is to maintain your good health. For people used to eating well that might sound pretty straightforward, but there are quite a few possible side effects from cancer treatments that can make healthy eating much more difficult to achieve.
One of the more common side effects is a loss of appetite, causing weight loss. Changes in smell and taste can make foods less appealing or even downright disgusting. A dry or sore mouth, thick saliva, or difficulties swallowing can make eating certain foods difficult. Both diarrhoea and constipation are also common. See our suggestions following for ideas on how you can overcome these problems. You should also make sure you consult your doctor as they may be able to help. For example, a loss of appetite could be related to a simple yeast infection that can be easily treated.
If you are able to eat a healthy diet, you'll be in a better position to cope with the treatment and fight the cancer. Maintaining a healthy body weight during treatment can help reduce your risk of infection, enhance your speed of recovery and help maintain your strength and energy. Even losing as little as 5% of your body weight is undesirable, so if you just can't eat, try using liquid foods like Resource Plus or Ensure Plus.
It can be very frustrating when the side effects of your cancer treatment interfere with your ability to eat a healthy diet, but there are still things you can do to take control and help yourself.
Almost every week there is some news story about something that causes cancer. It's hard to keep up-to-date with all the foods that are implicated in cancer. In December 2007 scientists working for the World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF) from nine universities in four countries reviewed the available research and published their findings in a report called Food, Nutrition, Physical Activity, and the Prevention of Cancer. Their key findings? That a healthy weight can protect against some cancers, exercise seems to have a preventative effect even apart from helping to lose weight, and finally that we should be careful how much alcohol we drink and eat more fruit and vegetables.
There's a lot of scare-mongering around both soy and cows' milk. Some claim soy is bad because it contains phytoestrogens (despite its long safe history of use in Asian countries where it's been associated with reducing the risk of hormone-sensitive cancers). Others claim cow's milk is bad and that it has a high level of hormones and growth factors, like IGF-1. However, in a recent study Professor Lynn Ferguson, head of the Discipline of Nutrition at Auckland University found no evidence to support this.
Cancer Council Australia
National Cancer Institute, US National Institutes of Health
American Cancer Society