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Eating well

How can eating well help?

In addition to the many physical health benefits, taking steps towards eating well during cancer treatment can give you a sense of control, by focusing on something positive that you can do for yourself.

It may help to:

  • boost your immunity
  • improve your overall health and sense of wellbeing
  • improve energy levels and reduce fatigue
  • speed up your recovery after treatment
  • improve your sleep
  • manage some of the side-effects of treatment
  • reduce the risk of your cancer coming back

It is important not to lose weight during treatment, even if you are overweight and would like to, we would recommend keeping your weight stable where possible

The effects of unintentional weight loss may mean:

  • You are more likely to lose muscle than fat. This can affect your strength, mobility and energy levels.
  • You are more at risk of infections and treatment side effects.
  • Your body shape could change. This could affect the accuracy of your radiotherapy treatment because the X-rays are targeted at tumour cells.  If your body shape changes the radiographers may need to re-plan your radiotherapy to ensure they can treat accurately.
  • Your chemotherapy doses may need to be adjusted as chemotherapy treatments are often prescribed based on your weight.

 If you are losing weight without trying, you can find dietary information to help prevent further weight loss in our 'Coping with a small appetite' leaflet.

What does eating well mean?

If you have a good appetite and are not losing weight then we recommend trying to follow a balanced diet. Ideally your diet should include a selection of foods from each of the following food groups:

  • fruit and vegetables.
  • starchy foods (carbohydrates), such as wholemeal bread and wholegrain cereals
  • protein-rich foods such as beans, pulses, meat, fish and eggs
  • dairy or calcium containing foods
  • 'good' fats from vegetable sources e.g. olive and rapeseed oil, nuts and seeds

Foods which are high in sugar or high in saturated (animal) fats should be limited if you have a good appetite. These foods provide a large amount of energy to our diets which can result in weight gain.

Food

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For further information the Eatwell Guide can help to guide portion sizes of the different food groups: The Eatwell Guide - NHS

Dietary recommendations for cancer prevention and after cancer treatment

The  World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF) recommends the following for cancer prevention and for health and wellbeing after cancer treatment.

  1. Be a healthy weight - After choosing not to smoke, being a healthy weight is one of the most important ways you can reduce your risk of cancer and other health conditions such as diabetes and heart disease. View the WCRF Be a Healthy Weight Guide.
  2. Move more.
  3. Enjoy more wholegrains, vegetables, fruits and beans.
  4. Limit processed foods high in added sugar, or low in fibre or high in fat.
  5. Limit red meat (such as beef, pork and lamb) to 350-500g (cooked weight) per week and avoid processed meat (e.g. bacon, salami, chorizo, ham, corned beef).
  6. Limit sugar sweetened drinks.
  7. For cancer prevention, don't drink alcohol (if you do, limit to 14 units per week with at least 2 alcohol free days).
  8. Don't rely on supplements to protect against cancer.