Overview: Eating Well for Optimal Health and Wellness

Some people have few or no side effects during cancer treatment. If you are following your normal diet and maintaining your weight, you can get started on healthy eating right now. These healthy eating habits can carry you all the way through treatment and can be a part of your long-term healing nutrition plan for after treatment.

Managing Symptoms

Remember that if you are having Symptoms and Side Effects due to cancer or its treatment, this type of diet may not be right for you. Instead, you will need to eat whatever works at the time to get the nutrition you need. Once you get through treatment and are feeling better, you can shift your focus to healthful eating for the long term. If you are having trouble eating, please see our Symptom Support information and our  Recipes for Eating Well During Treatment. These areas of Caring4Cancer will give you important information on how best to meet your nutrition needs when you are in cancer treatment.

Healthy Eating 101

Our motto to guide healthy eating is, "Let food be your medicine and medicine be your food." When it comes to which food offers the best “medicine,” nothing beats plant food. By plant food, we mean vegetables, fruits, whole grains, and legumes (beans).

The health benefits of eating more plant food are well known. But we are not talking about the same old “5-A-Day” advice you may have heard. Instead, the real health benefits come from creating your whole eating plan around vegetables, fruit, whole grains, and legumes. This type of plant-based diet is ideal for reducing cancer risk. Even better is that a well-balanced, plant-based diet can reduce the risk of many other diseases as well, including heart disease, stroke, obesity, diabetes, hypertension, and even Alzheimer's disease. It's important to keep in mind that many cancer survivors don't die of cancer. Reducing the risk of these other major diseases through healthy eating is important as well.

A Healthy Plant-Based Diet Should Have the Following Characteristics: 

• At least 7 to 9 servings of fruits and vegetables per day. If  you are trying to cut calories to promote weight loss, eat more vegetables and less fruit. For example, consume 6 vegetable servings and 3 fruits.
• Eat dark green leafy and cruciferous vegetables daily. Try to include a wide variety--broccoli, spinach, kale, chard, mustard greens, collard greens, bok choy, and others.
• Eat dark and brightly colored berries every day or at least several times per week. Try to include a wide variety--blueberries, blackberries, strawberries, dark red cherries, raspberries, and others.
• Eat at least 2 to 3 servings per day of whole grains. Read the label. If you see the word "enriched," it's not a whole grain.
• Focus on replacing unhealthy fats with healthy fats. For example, cut back on the unhealthy fats found in processed foods, such as chips, crackers, cookies, cakes, microwave and instant meals, and fast food. Instead eat foods that contain healthy fats such as nuts, seeds, fish, olive oil, and canola oil.
• Use meat, chicken, pork, and other animal foods for flavoring, rather than as the main focus of your meal.
• Eat beans (legumes) every day or at least several times per week. You can enjoy beans in soups, salads, chilis, burritos, pasta, and many other dishes.
• Eat a little yogurt or other "fermented" foods at least a few times per week. These contain healthy bacteria, called probiotics, that aid digestion and improve immune function.
• Drop the salt habit. Instead, enjoy the flavors of a wide variety of herbs, such as garlic, onions, rosemary, sage, thyme, oregano, celery seed, ginger, cumin, turmeric, caraway, mint, dill, lemongrass, cardamom, fennel, and fenugreek. Just like other plant foods, many herbs and spices have cancer-fighting properties.
• Focus on variety in all aspects of your diet. Eat green, red, yellow, orange, purple, and white foods. Think leafy greens; red peppers and strawberries; squash and lemons; carrots, oranges, and sweet potatoes; blueberries, purple cabbage, and eggplant; and cauliflower, garlic, and onions. The more color and variety, the better.

At first, it might seem overwhelming to try to eat all of these plant foods. This diet may be quite different from how you normally eat. But the old adage, "Rome wasn't built in a day." applies here too. By making small changes over time and building on your successes with healthful eating, you can move your diet in the right direction without feeling deprived. This is not a quick-fix or a temporary diet. It is a healing lifestyle. Learn to think about food in a whole new way and you can use it to nourish your whole self--body and soul.

Healthy Body Weight

In addition to eating a plant-based diet, one of the most important steps you can take to keep yourself healthy is to maintain a healthy body weight. Being overweight or obese has been linked to a variety of health problems, including many types of cancer, heart disease, diabetes, hypertension, stroke, arthritis, kidney disease, gall bladder disease, and others. For all of these reasons, reaching and staying at a healthy body weight should be high on your list of priorities.

What is a healthy body weight? 

One of the best ways to determine a healthy body weight is to look at your body mass index. Body mass index, which is referred to as BMI, is a way of looking at body weight while taking into account a person's height. In other words, BMI is like body weight, except it is adjusted for height. This makes BMI better than simple body weight for determining a healthy weight range for a given person. This makes sense because you would expect a taller person to weigh more.

Use our body mass index calculator to learn more about whether you are at a healthy body weight. If you find that you are above your healthy weight range, talk to your health care provider about this. Your health care provider can take into account your unique medical history and your nutrition needs to guide you on an appropriate weight management plan. Also, see our information on Healthy Weight Management for more ideas on how to eat right to acheive and maintain a healthy body weight.

Feeling Good About Healthy Choices 

Finally, remember that healthy eating and maintaining a healthy body weight is a gift to you, your family, your friends, and all those who love and care about you. Eating healthfully should never feel like a punishment. Focus on the right nutrition choices for you and you can't go wrong.