This book is designed for anyone with cancer who has difficulties or specific problems with eating and drinking. Although healthy eating is really important in itself, this book is not written for people trying to prevent or manage cancer who want help with healthy eating principles; quite the opposite in fact! You’ll find that most of the practical tips and recipes involve full-fat ingredients, sugar and other high-energy foods.

This is a way of ensuring you get enough energy while you are experiencing symptoms which naturally reduce your overall intake, so it’s a way of compensating. Increasing the proportion of high-energy foods in your diet could be a short-term measure used only during treatment, or it may be useful if your treatment is finished but your diet and eating patterns remain disrupted.

Having cancer and cancer treatment can affect your appetite and eating habits. This can happen in all sorts of ways.

• You may simply not feel like eating as much as usual.

• Food that you previously enjoyed may not taste as good.

• You may find that your mouth is dry or sore and you can’t chew and swallow as before, or feel that eating just takes too much effort.

These symptoms and others can diminish your body’s stores of energy and nutrients, resulting in weight loss and deficiencies.
Many scientists are looking for links between diet and cancer. However, there has been little research into whether specific nutrients, foods or types of diet can help people who have a diagnosis of cancer and are receiving treatment. There is, however, evidence that shows being as well-nourished as possible and avoiding unplanned weight loss can help you get through treatment. Eating well may help you to avoid or reduce some of the side effects brought on by treatment or simply improve your sense of well-being and quality of life.

The book is divided into sections which focus on the symptoms commonly experienced by people with cancer. With each symptom a simple explanation of what could be happening is given, together with some simple recipes and practical ideas which have helped other patients. As you use the book some recipes will become favourites, so the sections are colour coded to help you find them quickly, but please check out the recipes in all the sections to see if there is something you fancy! The recipes are designed to be simple, needing little preparation and time, so they can be ready when you want to eat them and won’t take too much effort. The ingredients are foods you may already have in your kitchen or that you can get easily from a local shop or market.