How Does Cancer Treatment Impact Nutrition?
What are the impacts of cancer treatment on nutrition? Experts Dr. Amy Comander from Massachusetts General Hospital discusses the impact of chemotherapy and nutrition advice for overcoming the impacts of cancer treatment.
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Transcript:
Lisa Hatfield:
As a patient living with cancer, I’m always thinking about how my treatments might impact my nutrition or vice versa in some cases. Do I need to increase or decrease anything? Should I change my dietary patterns? I’m getting to the bottom of it with a respected oncologist in this Patient Empowerment Network RESTORE Program.
Dr. Comander, can you give us a general overview of cancer treatment and its impact on nutrition?
Dr. Amy Comander:
Cancer treatment certainly has an impact on nutrition. And as I think about that, it kind of really depends where the patient is along his or her treatment journey. When we think about nutrition, certainly we know if an individual is going through active chemotherapy, often the taste buds change and things that used to be delicious don’t taste as good, and things that maybe a person didn’t like to eat all the time is the only thing he or she can tolerate, like a bagel. Nothing wrong with a bagel, but some of my patients tell me, “That’s all I can eat.”
But in general, when we think about a healthy approach to nutrition, I really counsel my patients on the benefits of a whole foods plant-predominant diet. Note I use the term plant-predominant. That just means it is so beneficial to consume a wide variety of fruits and vegetables and whole grains. Of course, it’s okay to incorporate a protein and maybe that’s a plant-based protein or maybe that’s fish or chicken, okay? But just thinking about the concept of half of the plate being full of fruits and vegetables is so important. And you might say, why is that so important?
Fruits and vegetables, the beautiful colors of various fruits and vegetables really reflect all those beneficial nutrients in the food that are also good for our gut microbiome, which is a term a lot of us hear now in the news, this term gut microbiome. And what does that really mean? Really refers to those microorganisms in our GI tract, gastrointestinal tract. And what’s really interesting is emerging research in some cancers is demonstrating that a healthy gut microbiome is really associated with how well certain treatments for cancer work.
So again, eating fruits and vegetables makes our gut microbiome healthy. And so this is so important for our health. Whole grains as well. Limiting red meat, limiting processed foods, limiting sugar-sweetened beverages. These are all the tips and tricks that I talk about with my patients. And if you want to really look this up and read about it and have a good understanding, again, the American Institute of Cancer Research and World Cancer Research Fund, on their website, they kind of have bullet points illustrating each of these points in terms of how we can approach a healthy diet after a cancer diagnosis.
Lisa Hatfield:
Okay, thank you so much for that information. A little shout out to a multiple myeloma doctor that I watch a lot, because that’s the type of cancer I have, her name is Dr. Urvi Shah, and she has done some research on that and recommends getting 30 different plant-based foods per week, not servings, but just the variety helps your gut microbiome. She’s done some research on that that I won’t go into here but, and it’s not that hard because we get to count all different kinds of lettuce in my salad, if I have romaine, spinach, and iceberg, there’s three right there. So thank you for those comments.
Dr. Amy Comander:
Yes, it’s a great tip to think about how can I get 30 different types of fruits and vegetables into my diet in a given week? And actually it’s kind of a fun challenge. So I love incorporating different types of lettuces into my salad. By the way, herbs count. So parsley, cilantro, things like that, those are plants. So it’s a fun game and it’s really a great way to make your gut microbiome happy and healthy.
Lisa Hatfield:
Okay, thank you. Dr. Comander, what are some key nutritional guidelines for cancer patients during and after treatment?
Dr. Amy Comander:
It’s so important to think about guidelines for nutrition because we know out there on the internet, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, there’s all kinds of people giving nutrition information. And for a cancer patient, it is very confusing and very overwhelming. That’s why I like to stick to the basics. What do research organizations such as the American Cancer Society, American Society of Clinical Oncology, AICR, American Institute of Cancer Research, what are we recommending?
And again, it’s thinking about a healthy diet pattern which includes an emphasis on whole foods, with fruits and vegetables and whole grains, limiting red meats, avoiding processed meats, limiting sugar-sweetened beverages, avoiding processed foods. If you go to the grocery store and you pick up something and it has 35 ingredients and you don’t understand what most of them are, you probably shouldn’t be eating it, okay?
So these are all some of the general themes that we think about when it comes to nutrition. I know it can be very scary and overwhelming, but just if you, again, think of your plate and if half of it is comprised of fruits and vegetables, a quarter is some type of whole grain, when I say whole grain, think about brown rice, whole wheat pasta, and some grains out there like quinoa and farro that maybe you’ve never tried but are really delicious and good for us.
And then a quarter of that plate, some type of protein source, whether that’s a plant-based protein or perhaps fish or chicken or something like that. But that’s really a great approach to thinking about nutrition. Another point I really need to emphasize is limiting alcohol. So, many people don’t really think much of having a glass of wine or two with their dinner each night, but unfortunately we know that for an individual with a diagnosis of cancer, especially if you’re on new medications or going through chemotherapy, in the best case scenario, alcohol really should be avoided or limited really to special occasions.
Lisa Hatfield:
You heard it here from Dr. Amy Comander. Thanks for joining this RESTORE Program. I’m your host, Lisa Hatfield.
