Helpful Hints Regarding – Weight Loss & Muscle Wasting

Maintaining adequate nutrition is a crucial part of your cancer treatment. Eating a variety of foods daily from all the foods groups will help you obtain the nutrients you need to maintain your strength, feel better during your treatment, and/or heal any post-operative wounds. However, you may have difficulty consuming some foods either due to the cancer itself or to the side effects of treatment. Therefore, you may need to make some changes to improve your food intake based on your symptoms, as described below. To assure nutrient adequacy, you may be requested to keep a food intake log for a Registered and/or Licensed Dietitian to assess.

• Make every mouthful count. Eat mostly high protein, high calorie foods.
• Eat several small, calorie-dense meals and snacks throughout the day. Try eating every 2 to 3 hours. Do not skip meals.
• Add calories and protein easily by mixing powdered milk into beverages and foods such as meatloaf, casseroles, soups, stews, mashed potatoes, and hot cereals.
• Always think about what you can add to foods to boost calories and/or protein such as: peanut butter, milk powder, instant breakfast powder, chopped nuts/seeds, dried fruit, margarine, sour cream sauce, gravy, mayonnaise, yogurt, cheese and eggs.
• Drink commercial supplements, such as Ensure® Plus or Ensure® High Protein between meals.
• Use higher calorie versions of foods such as whole milk, yogurt, or ice cream with higher fat content.
• Snack between meals (choose foods like nuts, peanut butter, and crackers, cheese, ice cream, yogurt).