Pretreatment Nutrition Planning

As you get ready for your cancer treatment, it can be helpful to focus on eating a well-balanced diet so that your body is as healthy as it can be. The better nourished your body is going into treatment, the quicker you will be able to get on the road to wellness after treatment is completed. See our information about pretreatment eating to learn more about this important topic.

Along with eating healthfully before your treatment begins, you can do some pretreatment planning to get yourself ready for eating well during treatment, too. By starting your planning now and enlisting the help of family and friends, you can minimize the amount of work you will have to do to meet your nutrition needs as you go through your treatment.

Plan Now

Before treatment even begins, you can plan for how you will eat during treatment. Try the following tips:

• Identify helpful family members and friends you can call on for a quick run to the grocery store to pick up food when you are too tired to do so yourself.
• Do some “pre-education” with family and friends. Let them know that your appetite may not be great during treatment, but that you will call on them for help with food, meals, and grocery shopping when you need them.
• Try thinking about the types of foods you want to eat when you have a cold, the flu, or just feel “under the weather.” This might include easily digestible, bland foods, such as oatmeal, applesauce, yogurt, soup, crackers, cream of wheat, and toast.
• Stock up on your “under the weather” foods just before you begin treatment. This way, you have them handy when you need them.
• Think outside of the box. Foods that you don't normally enjoy may be just what you are craving during treatment. Keep a wide assortment of snacks around so that you can enjoy whatever foods are working best for you during treatment. For example, some people find that during treatment most things taste very sweet. It can be helpful to keep "savory" and salty snacks on hand for when things might taste overly sweet to you during treatment.

Eat healthfully when you can, both before treatment begins and in-between your treatment sessions. During treatment, make sure you eat whatever works well for you, even if you aren't feeling the best. This might include those "under-the-weather" foods mentioned above. Finally, be sure you enlist the help of family and friends when you need it. This way, you'll be nutritionally prepared to get through your treatment and on the road to recovery as soon as possible.