Chemotherapy and Food

I was supposed to write this post ages ago when my good friend Barbara had to go through the treatment for uterine cancer last year but didn’t get round to it.

Last week, Cherie, one of my gym instructors told me that her mum has been diagnosed with breast cancer. She had mastectomy early on and is now undergoing chemotherapy. Her mum has been losing her appetite as everything tastes like cardboard to her.

I read quite a bit about the side effects of Chemotherapy when Barbara underwent her 6 courses. It is common that food and drinks do not taste good for patients undergoing Chemotherapy –they can even taste a bit metallic. To help make the food a bit more tasty try using plastic utensils instead of the metal ones. I had several sets of good plastic cutlery so I gave some to Cherie and she reported back a few days ago that they make food taste better for her mum.

Using plastic cutlery is just one simple solution. There are a lot of resources about food and diet for cancer patients on the Internet that friends and relatives can read and research to make your love ones more comfortable. Also talk to doctors and nurses and if possible attend the pre-treatment sessions with them.