October is Breast Cancer Awareness month
No matter at what stage of breast cancer you are, the only thing you need to keep in mind is to eat a healthy diet. Yes, a balanced diet that is rich in vitamins and minerals plays a key role in dealing with the adverse effects of radiation or chemotherapy on your body. And what’s more, it is one of the most simple and effective ways to boost your overall immunity to fight against breast cancer and recover quickly. Here are few things you need to keep in mind when it comes to eating.
#1: Most people experience a change in taste and smell after cancer treatment and this in turn influences their ability to eat. Also, chemotherapy might alter your digestion if you don’t eat anything and even lead to constipation as a side-effect of medications.
#2: Patients undergoing treatment for breast cancer usually prefer cooked vegetables as compared to raw ones. You can include freshly prepared vegetable stew or soups rather than including salads in your diet.
#3: If you eat three times a day, you might feel nauseous and less on energy. To deal with it, make sure you eat small but frequent meals to keep you full on stomach and energy, instead of eating three big meals in a day.
#4: A study published in the Journal Clinical Cancer Research has proved that including methionine, an essential amino acid, in your diet increases the effectiveness of targeted cancer therapy. So load up your intake of foods rich in methionine such as meat, fish, legumes and nuts for better recovery from breast cancer.
#5: And lastly, check your calorie intake without fail. For this, stay away from salty and oily foods and also avoid indulging in packaged foods as these might your caloric intake. And in turn make you fat and increase your risk o other health complications.
With inputs from Julie Gralow of Breast Medical Oncology at the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance and co-author of ‘Breast Fitness’ (St. Martin’s Press)
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For more articles on cancer, visit our diseases and conditions section. For daily free health tips, sign up for our newsletter. For disease-related queries, visit our forum.