Most of us try to lead a healthy lifestyle, doing our best to lead active lives and care for what we eat. Nutrition has become a part of our daily routines. We know what adds nutritional value to our lives and what we should avoid. What we read and hear about nutrition already highlights the importance of portion sizes, the types of food we should eat (like fruits, vegetables, drinking plenty of water etc.), reducing the amount of fat, sugar, alcohol, and salt we consume and monitoring our body weight. However, this becomes a little more difficult when we are diagnosed with cancer and go through various types of treatment due to side effects and overall physical- and mental health.

Pointing out the obvious, following a healthy- well-balanced diet is crucial if you are a Cancer patient because both the illness and the treatments can change how you eat and think about food. They can also affect how your body tolerates certain foods and uses nutrients.

When you start your Cancer treatment, your medical team would usually recommend that you adjust your diet to build up your strength and help you navigate the sometimes-harsh effects that various treatments might have. This might include a higher-than-normal protein intake and/ or more calories than usual to help you gain weight.