What To Eat | During Chemotherapy | After Surgery

A diet rich in soy and whey protein, found in products such as soy milk and low-fat yogurt, has been shown to reduce breast cancer incidence in rats. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

During chemotherapy cancer treatment and after surgery, during recovery your body is working hard. These are energy demanding challenges.

In order to heal well from surgery and reduce risk of infections, protein is a very important nutrient. During chemotherapy your body is also working very hard and demands a lot of energy to keep your physiology functioning. The liver is metabolizing the drugs, your kidneys are filtering the waste.  Your digestive tract and bone marrow are dealing with the challenge of toxic exposures. In addition, most people often lose their appetite and don’t feel like eating at a time when nutrition is supremely important.  Protein is a vital nutrient to maintain strength, resistance to infections and the ability to detoxify and process chemotherapy drugs. A very simple way to get high quality protein without sitting down to a big meal is to use high quality whey protein.

High quality whey protein will be labelled “undenatured” or “low heat processed”. While body builders may use lower quality protein for building muscle (which of course high quality whey also does), to get the super anti-oxidant promoting constituents and the immune globulins present in whey, you must use the top quality. Whey is great in smoothies and shakes mixed into cereals and sauces or into yogurt.