Cancer Support Community - Eating Right: Guidelines for Good Health

Eating Right: Guidelines for Good Health

The foods you choose can make a difference in your health and survivorship. Eating right may help you regain your strength, rebuild tissue, and feel well.

There are no guarantees that anything you do will keep cancer away, but being Patient Active means doing everything you reasonably can to maintain your health. Eating right is one of those things, and this session is devoted to helping you understand how to do that after treatment.

Eating right starts with selecting a variety of foods every day because no one food contains all the nutrients you need. Here are the fundamentals of eating a healthy and varied diet:

• Focus on plant-based foods

• Go for color with fruits and vegetables—nature’s food rainbow of deep yellow, orange, and red. Raw or cooked vegetables, fruits, and fruit juices provide the vitamins, minerals, and fiber you need

• Emphasize whole grains and legumes like whole wheat bread or tortillas, oats, brown rice, and beans and lentils. These foods are good sources of complex carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals, and fiber.

• Go easy on fat, salt, sugar, alcohol, and smoked and pickled foods. Try lower fat cooking methods such as broiling, steaming, and poaching rather than frying or charbroiling

• Select low-fat milk products and small portions—no more than 6 to 7 ounces per day—of lean meat, fish and/or skinless poultry. The key here is healthy protein, which is also available from vegetable sources such as soy products

Following these guidelines can help you heal well and feel stronger. Maintaining a healthy weight is a desirable goal and a benefit of following the guidelines to eating right. Since obesity has been linked to poor prognoses for cancer survivors, eating reasonable portions of a well-balanced diet can help you maintain a weight that’s healthy for your height.

Connect with us:

Find a Cancer Support Community affiliate or program near you:

Our Initiatives

Help Us Help You!In order for the Cancer Support Community to provide the best possible information, educational programming and support, we would like to ask for some basic information. We want to be certain that we are meeting your needs and expectations.

Open to Options

Open to Options is a pilot project which seeks to demonstrate how community-centered education, outreach and support services can address both informational needs and enhance access to care among those living with blood cancers.

Research & Training Institute

The Cancer Support Community is creating a community of healthcare professionals and researchers focused on cancer survivorship. We are dedicated to establishing quality standards for the seamless delivery of psychosocial care through evidence-based programs for cancer patients, families, and caregivers through research and training programs

Coping with Cancer CostsFinancial worries can be a significant source of stress when you, or someone you care about, is being treated for cancer. The Cancer Support Community recently published “Frankly Speaking About Cancer: Coping With the Cost of Care”, a practical guide for navigating the complex challenges of managing to cost of cancer care.

Our Communities

Multimedia

From:
Email:
To:
Email:
Subject:
Message: