When undergoing chemotherapy, or if you are already doing it, the best thing you can do is try to eat the best foods in order to strengthen your immune system during the treatment process.
Eating certain foods will help improve your immunity, but you cannot ignore the importance of consuming enough calories and protein to keep your body well nourished. The question is what to eat to boost your immune system during chemotherapy? Learn about the best food options to stay healthy during this tough process.
What to eat to improve your immune system
During the chemotherapy process, it is important to eat immunostimulating foods . This is simply because good nutrition helps set the stage to better tolerate chemotherapy, making you very healthy during treatment.
Consuming a diet deficient in specific nutrients can cause immune dysfunction, according to a published study (Bourke, Berkley & Prendergast, 2016). Therefore, to eat well, you have to do so by consuming a wide variety of foods throughout the day. In this sense, a healthy eating pattern is recommended, which includes foods rich in protein, grains, fruits, vegetables and foods rich in calcium such as milk, yogurt or fortified soy drinks.
If you have been eating poorly or are underweight, it is important that you eat enough calories and protein, as well as incorporate healthy foods that are related to strengthening the immune system. To do this, it is recommended that you follow these guidelines:
1. Consume more protein
Protein-rich foods are important, as they help build and maintain muscle and tissue; and proteins are an important component of many cells in the body, including immune cells.
The National Cancer Institute recommends modest amounts of meat and dairy products, as well as eating plant-based protein as often as possible.
Some examples of proteins during chemotherapy would be the following :
- Beans, peas, or lentils.
- Nuts or peanut butter.
- Chicken.
- Fish.
- Tofu
- Eggs
- Cheese.
2. Eat quality carbohydrates
Foods such as bread, grains, cereals, and starchy vegetables are sources of carbohydrates that provide energy. When these foods are whole grains or minimally processed, they are considered solid, high-quality sources of fiber and other nutrients.
Some examples of healthy carbohydrates during chemotherapy are :
- Integral rice.
- Whole wheat pasta.
- Barley.
- Quinoa.
- Buckwheat.
- Bulgur.
- Son.
- Oatmeal.
- Sprouted whole wheat bread.
- Whole grain cereal.
- Whole cornmeal.
Foods such as refined grains, white rice, cream of wheat cereal, crackers, or white pasta are not prohibited, but it is important that whole grains are of greater importance.
Chemotherapy can cause side effects, such as nausea or poor appetite; therefore, you can add more of these foods during treatment in order to eat more calories:
- Corn
- Sweet potatoes and white sweet potatoes.
- Winter squash.
It is recommended to finish the meal with a fruit or a vegetable (or even both), as long as you have an appetite. They should be whole fruits and vegetables (rather than juices) and eat a variety of colorful options each day. The reason is that the pigments in fruits and vegetables are plant chemicals linked to health benefits, which may include benefits for fighting cancer and building immunity , according to the American Institute for Cancer Research.
3. Eat healthy fats
If during the chemotherapy process you have lost weight or muscle mass, then you should prioritize the process of gaining weight and trying to eat a little more.
Being malnourished during chemotherapy puts you at risk of a poor tolerance to treatment, causing more side effects than normal (Arends et al., 2017). Therefore, you must make sure that your meals are balanced; you should also take steps to include additional calories and protein in your diet.
One of the best ways to consume calories is by adding healthy fats to your diet, especially unsaturated fats, which have a favorable effect on cholesterol levels and inflammation.
Some examples of healthy fats are:
- Add chopped almonds or pine nuts to your cooked vegetables.
- Mix sunflower seeds or walnuts in your salad.
- Chop your oatmeal with walnuts or ground flax seeds.
- Dip your apple in peanut butter or almond butter.
- Use olive oil based dressing on your salad.
- Add avocado or hummus to your sandwich, salad, or toast.
- Drizzle olive oil on your pasta, rice, or vegetables.
4. Consume probiotics
Probiotics are live microorganisms found in yogurt, kimchi, miso, and other fermented foods, which are linked to supporting the body's immune response. Also, probiotics are linked to alleviating side effects associated with cancer treatment.
However, the safety of probiotics when undergoing chemotherapy is not well established, so it is recommended to discuss the risks of consuming these foods with your medical team.
Is it safe to take supplements during chemotherapy?
The answer to this question is not as simple as it seems. There is concern that some supplements will decrease the effectiveness of chemotherapy; while other supplements can improve tolerance to treatment (Gröber et al., 2016). For this reason, it is very important to talk to your oncologist about what supplements to take during chemotherapy treatment.
Most important seems to be the “symphony” of eating a diet that emphasizes whole, unprocessed plant-based foods, such as colorful fruits and vegetables. Interactions between different plant foods, nutrients, and chemicals are something that supplements cannot provide. In fact, one of the many reasons a plant-based diet can be so healthy is because of its beneficial effect on the gut, an important part of the immune system.
A healthy gut helps protect the body from toxins and the trillions of bacteria that line the gut and also helps regulate inflammation, which is linked to immunity and produces substances that help fight disease-causing microorganisms.
If you want to keep your gut healthy , then you have to eat a diet focused on whole, minimally processed plant foods. In this sense, the Mediterranean diet is related to having healthier intestinal bacteria, according to research published by Gut (Filippis et al., 2015).
conclusion
It is very important to keep the immune system in optimal condition, before, during and after chemotherapy. This treatment to fight cancer is usually very strong for many patients, but the reality is that it is due to the fact that patients do not have a strong immune system, since they are weakened by a poor diet or by side effects of the same treatment, without counting the effects of the disease.
Therefore, it is very important to know exactly what type of food to consume during chemotherapy and thus fight the disease without much inconvenience.
References
- Arends, J., Bachmann, P., Baracos, V., Barthelemy, N., Bertz, H., Bozzetti, F. and Fearon, F. (2017). ESPEN guidelines on nutrition in cancer patients. doi: 10.1016 / j.clnu.2016.07.015
- Bourke, C., Berkley, J. and Prendergast, A. (2016). Immune Dysfunction as a Cause and Consequence of Malnutrition. Trends in Immunology. doi: 10.1016 / j.it.2016.04.003
- Filippis, F., Pellegrini, N., Vannini, L., Jeffery, I., Storia, A., Laghi, L., Serrazanetti, D. and Cagno, R. (2015). High-level adherence to a Mediterranean diet beneficially impacts the gut microbiota and associated metabolome. doi: 10.1136 / gutjnl-2015-309957
- Gröber, U., Holzhauer, P., Kisters, K., Holick, M. and Adamietz, I. (2016). Micronutrients in Oncological Intervention. Nutrients. doi: 10.3390 / nu8030163
