How to Eat with Cancer Treatment Side Effects
Cancer treatments include chemotherapy, radiotherapy (radiation), immunotherapy, surgery, or a combination of any of these, depending on your cancer. Many chemotherapies and radiation treatments cause side effects like nausea, vomiting, dry mouth, diarrhea, fatigue, poor appetite, mucositis, and other symptoms.
Side effects vary depending on your treatment and cancer, affecting how you tolerate drinks and foods to nourish and maintain weight.
A high-calorie, high-protein diet often is the best during cancer treatment to prevent weight loss; however, you may need to adjust your diet when having side effects and choose the right foods to help through side effect management. Once side effects resolve, you should return to your high-calorie, high-protein diet, especially if you have lost weight.
When you have cancer treatment side effects, nutrition therapy can help maintain and improve nutritional status by maximizing the nutrients you eat at challenging times, preventing nutrient deficiencies.
Many helpful medications and changing your eating can help meet your nutritional goals during treatment. Once treatment ends, many eating problems go away, and others might stay longer.
Remember that side effects vary from person to person, even among people receiving the same type of cancer treatment.
Inform your provider or dietitian immediately if you start having eating problems. Your provider and dietitian can tell you more about the types of eating issues you might expect and ways to manage them.
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