Eating well when eating becomes difficult
Support your health during cancer treatment
This section aims to address some of the common difficulties that people may experience with eating during cancer treatment. Inside you’ll find information on the common effects of chemotherapy, radiotherapy/brachytherapy, immunotherapy and hormonal therapy.
The information provided may be useful as first-line advice, but should not replace specialist advice from your healthcare team. Many people have other medical conditions alongside a cancer diagnosis which may affect what they eat. Specialist advice from your healthcare team may be needed if you have more complex nutritional needs. Where possible, try to eat as healthily as you can (see Eating well during cancer treatment), however there may be times when supporting your health and coping with cancer or treatment related side-effects means that you need to adjust the way that you eat.
It may become difficult to manage high fibre or wholegrain foods, or if you have a poor appetite or are losing weight, you may need to eat fewer vegetables/fruits/wholegrains, and focus more on foods which contain protein and calories from fats and carbohydrates to meet your body’s needs.
You may be able to get these from healthier choices like nuts, fish, lean meat, avocados, plant/nut oils and full fat dairy products, but there may be times when you need to choose foods which contain higher quantities of saturated (less healthy) fat, refined (white) carbohydrates, and/or added sugar.
To guide you with this, foods which often contain higher quantities of saturated fat and/or added sugar are shown in italics. Have a look at food labels too for more information, as branded and non-branded products will vary.
We also recommend attending one of our welcome sessions to learn more about the different services we offer at Penny Brohn UK, including our Food & Move Wellbeing days, and how we can support you to eat well with cancer.
