By Diane Avino
Dietitian
Gray Cancer Center
Hartford HealthCare Cancer Institute at Hartford Hospital

Eating well is important during all stages of life, but it’s particularly important for cancer survivorship.

Adequate nutrition is a crucial part of staying well through cancer treatments as well as promoting your long-term health. Eating a healthy diet, achieving a healthy weight and maintaining an appropriate level of physical activity are all proven to help promote your  health and prevent a cancer recurrence.

Cancer survivors have even more reason to strive for maintaining a healthy diet. A balanced diet can help to expedite recovery from treatments, replenish nutrient losses from treatment and aid in rebuilding loss in lean body mass.  Eating well can also help to increase your feeling of wellness, which can help all aspects of cancer survivorship. The American Cancer Society is a wonderful resource for cancer survivors. At  the American Cancer Society’s web site (click here), you can find numerous helpful recommendations for life after cancer, including nutrition after treatment ends, getting active and taking control of your weight.

There is a lot of research around the most beneficial diet and lifestyle approaches for cancer survivors. The recommendations for healthy eating after treatment:

  • Eat 5 to 7 servings of colorful fruits and vegetables daily.
  • Choose whole grains to replace refined grains.
  • Decrease or eliminate processed meats (including bacon, sausage and deli meats) and red meat (beef, pork, lamb).
  • Increasing intake of fish (both flakey fish and firmer fish).
  • Decrease saturated fats and replace with monounsaturated fats such as olive oil.
  • Choose foods lower in total fat and added sugars.
  • Limit alcoholic beverages if you choose to drink.

This can sometimes be an overwhelming list of changes to your diet, especially if you are still recovering from side effects from treatment. Some side effects may end quickly, while others may take longer to resolve, requiring you to gradually transition into a healthy eating plan. It’s best to ease into healthy eating and cooking.

Make changes one at a time and be patient. At each visit to the grocery store, try something new or a healthier version of a food that you usually buy. Start by cooking simple recipes or foods that you have prepared before.  Make mealtime special as food is providing both wellness and pleasure.  It may have been some time since food was enjoyable so savor those healthy bites while knowing that the food is increasing strength and recovery.

Along with healthy eating is the importance of physical activity and a healthy body weight.  This needs to be an individualized approach as some patients need to gain weight after treatments are finished, while other patients may need to lose weight to achieve optimal long-term health.  Either way, exercise is an important part of cancer survivorship.  Being physically active can help you regain strength and flexibility, decrease stress levels, achieve a healthy weight, optimize bowel function, relieve symptoms of depression and anxiety, and even improve your immune system.  Our data even suggests that physical activity may help to lower recurrence risk.  Our general guidelines are to strive for a minimum of 150 minutes per week of aerobic exercise, exercising a minimum of 5 days per week.

Improving your nutritional health in survivorship is a crucial aspect of cancer treatment and care.  Sometimes a survivor can achieve their goals by asking for help and support from family and friends.  This can help to keep a survivor on track to recovery and health.  Together, everyone can improve their nutrition and physical well-being.  Hartford HealthCare dietitians stand ready to help you whenever needed.

Diane Avino is a dietitian at the Hartford HealthCare Cancer Institute at Hartford Hospital. For information about cancer and nutrition, click here.