Abnormal food cravings

Sonia32

Have read that people get abnormal food cravings during chemo. At the moment l have cravings for sweets which l know is bad and lam trying to put a stop to it but apprently its common.But just wondering if anyone else has unsual cravings during chemo? hugs sonia

PamPam2

cravings
Oh yes, I also craved sweets. I had lost about 60 lbs before my surgery, and when on chemo craved sweets a lot. Needless to say I gained that weight back, gave in to my cravings, but it was hard to find foods that tasted good and had bad nausea, the sweets stayed down, of course, I did also eat healty foods as much as possible. It's going on 5 years now, and I'm still here, so the donuts and rice crispy treats didn't do me in! I don't think having some sweets when you are craving is too terrible.
Best wishes
Pam

Holdtight

Cravings
Oh Yes, I crave sweets but I also crave cheese steaks and speghetti dinners first thing in the morning. Its crazy. LOL. The professionals say go for it whatever you feel like eating no matter the time go for it. But I must say the sweet cravings are even greater but during treatments go with your gut and eat what you want as long as you put the good stuff in - in between. Bon appetite.

butterfly23

SWEETS!
OMG! I was just going to ask this. I am also on steroids. I was never a real sweet eater, I love food. But I cannot stop eating sweets! It's all I think about. My family is a little nervous because we all know that sugar is not good for the cancer! I really don't care at this point, if it makes me happy for now, what the heck! :0) Tonight's Brownie Sundae Night!
Yummy,
Karyn

Shayenne

butterfly23 said:

SWEETS!
OMG! I was just going to ask this. I am also on steroids. I was never a real sweet eater, I love food. But I cannot stop eating sweets! It's all I think about. My family is a little nervous because we all know that sugar is not good for the cancer! I really don't care at this point, if it makes me happy for now, what the heck! :0) Tonight's Brownie Sundae Night!
Yummy,
Karyn

Me too!!
I also love sweets on chemo, and eat alot of it, I have to stop, though it did help me gain weight back, and still is, eventually I'm going to stop the sweets, I know a couple of my kids want to lose weight because all I do is buy junk LOL....I need a juicer!

Hugsss!
~Donna

kristasplace

Peanut butter ice cream
I craved massive amounts of peanut butter ice cream, chocolate cake, AND iced coffee. And hell yeah i gave into it! I justified it that i was being tortured, so anything that gave me comfort during that time was a welcomed reprieve! Like someone else mentioned above, i had lost sixty pounds during the time i became symptomatic until after my resection surgery, and during my adjuvant chemo, i gained sixty-four pounds!!! I was so horrified!

It's been just over a year since my last chemo, and i've lost about forty of those pounds. Of course i don't eat anything bad for me now at all.

I say enjoy yourself, and pay for it later. Chemo IS torture. Pamper yourself any way you can to get through the chemo.

Here's some food for thought: Since we know that sugar feeds cancer, do we crave sugar during chemo because the cancer is struggling to survive, and making us crave what it needs to do so?

Hugs,
Krista

Nana b

kristasplace said:

Peanut butter ice cream
I craved massive amounts of peanut butter ice cream, chocolate cake, AND iced coffee. And hell yeah i gave into it! I justified it that i was being tortured, so anything that gave me comfort during that time was a welcomed reprieve! Like someone else mentioned above, i had lost sixty pounds during the time i became symptomatic until after my resection surgery, and during my adjuvant chemo, i gained sixty-four pounds!!! I was so horrified!

It's been just over a year since my last chemo, and i've lost about forty of those pounds. Of course i don't eat anything bad for me now at all.

I say enjoy yourself, and pay for it later. Chemo IS torture. Pamper yourself any way you can to get through the chemo.

Here's some food for thought: Since we know that sugar feeds cancer, do we crave sugar during chemo because the cancer is struggling to survive, and making us crave what it needs to do so?

Hugs,
Krista

It's insane the sweets that
It's insane the sweets that I crave.............and I was NEVER a sweet eater. I try and stay away but everyone now and then I give in...

Patteee

I craved food, major, major
I craved food, major, major food cravings. I was obcessed with the food channel- was going to redesign my kitchen for cooking, even thought about becoming a chef (which is totally nuts) and went 100 percent into recipe clipping. I truly went overboard. My issue was I was for the most part taking in 100-500 calories a day- I craved the food, but could not eat due to mouth sores. The first time I could eat was Thanksgiving Day, I had been off of oxy for over 3 weeks- every single bite brought forth these tears of joy. I had never tasted anything so good!

lizzydavis

Definitely!
I have been buying Hershey's Choc Bars every week. I usually eat 1/3 - 1/2 per day.
-------I also Juice and take all the fiber extracted from the carrots, apples, pears, etc and add them to a muffin mix. Those muffins are delicious and somewhat healthy with all the fiber. I believe it is diluting the sugar too. Somehow I have maintained my weight. My nurse practitioner said, "This is not the time to be on a diet".

Sonia32

lizzydavis said:

Definitely!
I have been buying Hershey's Choc Bars every week. I usually eat 1/3 - 1/2 per day.
-------I also Juice and take all the fiber extracted from the carrots, apples, pears, etc and add them to a muffin mix. Those muffins are delicious and somewhat healthy with all the fiber. I believe it is diluting the sugar too. Somehow I have maintained my weight. My nurse practitioner said, "This is not the time to be on a diet".

Thanks ladies...
...for your replies. I wonder why the men have not replied to this post it would be interesting to find out what they have been craving, I bet it's sweets as well but they won't say :-p
Glad I am not the only one having cravings, it has to be the chemo tablets and steriods that does it to you. They have said in some studies that sugar is bad for you, but from what I've read on this board and many others, women who are fighting as we are, give in to the cravings, and are still here after many years...So I think it's what are body needs at the time that we have to listen to it. But within moderation, combine the good with the bad. So I don't feel bad for having that cheese cake last night now lol

Hugs to you all

Shayenne

Sonia32 said:

Thanks ladies...
...for your replies. I wonder why the men have not replied to this post it would be interesting to find out what they have been craving, I bet it's sweets as well but they won't say :-p
Glad I am not the only one having cravings, it has to be the chemo tablets and steriods that does it to you. They have said in some studies that sugar is bad for you, but from what I've read on this board and many others, women who are fighting as we are, give in to the cravings, and are still here after many years...So I think it's what are body needs at the time that we have to listen to it. But within moderation, combine the good with the bad. So I don't feel bad for having that cheese cake last night now lol

Hugs to you all

MmMmMm......
....Cheesecake, now THAT sounds awesome LOL

I betcha anything Craig, Clift and Phil and all them other men have sweet tooths! come on now guys, don't deny it! what's your specialty??


Hugsss!
~Donna

Buzzard

Shayenne said:

MmMmMm......
....Cheesecake, now THAT sounds awesome LOL

I betcha anything Craig, Clift and Phil and all them other men have sweet tooths! come on now guys, don't deny it! what's your specialty??


Hugsss!
~Donna

OK....pass the teeth and through the gums, lookout stomach here
...I eat anything that doesn't move or fight back....sweets...oh my goodness...ice cream, chocolate, but I would have to say that the rice crispy treats.....I could eat 1000 of em... I just weighed and after weighing in at 196 before dx...182 just prior to surgery, and 210 today, I can say that if it wasn't for my coffee and sugar and cream I would probably be a lot worse. I think most mens weight ends up on the belly so I have about 10 that I want to donate to someone else. Im getting it off. If I have to give up my sweets to do it, then im doomed to end up a fat man........LOL.......Clift

Sundanceh

Shayenne said:

MmMmMm......
....Cheesecake, now THAT sounds awesome LOL

I betcha anything Craig, Clift and Phil and all them other men have sweet tooths! come on now guys, don't deny it! what's your specialty??


Hugsss!
~Donna

OK - OK
I used to do many sweet items long before cancer. I really don't do much of them anymore and I'm still too big

But if I had a choice, I would still like

slice of cheesecake
slice of key lime pie
a krispy kreme doughnut
bowl of blue bell vanilla ice cream (sometimes with coke as a float)
Bask & Robbins 31 Flavors used to do an ice cream cake that was pretty good, but years ago since I did one.

like a Snickers, Butterfinger or a handful of M&M's too...craving would come and go.

...the simple life.

-Craig

lisa42

funny
Sonia,

This is funny- I really have been pretty good about not eating sweets as often as I used to & I really hadn't been craving them that much, when all of a sudden a couple of weeks ago I was in line at a CVS drugstore & the candy by the check out counter just started calling out my name, it seemed! I bought myself two giant candy bars and ate them both when I got back to the car. I couldn't believe I did that and didn't know what had come over me! (I made sure to throw the wrappers away before picking my kids up from school- I didn't want them to know what I a piggy I had been that day- lol!) I haven't had any since that day... we'll see if I get the "calling" again or not-!

Lisa

butterfly23

lisa42 said:

funny
Sonia,

This is funny- I really have been pretty good about not eating sweets as often as I used to & I really hadn't been craving them that much, when all of a sudden a couple of weeks ago I was in line at a CVS drugstore & the candy by the check out counter just started calling out my name, it seemed! I bought myself two giant candy bars and ate them both when I got back to the car. I couldn't believe I did that and didn't know what had come over me! (I made sure to throw the wrappers away before picking my kids up from school- I didn't want them to know what I a piggy I had been that day- lol!) I haven't had any since that day... we'll see if I get the "calling" again or not-!

Lisa

OMG!
I've been hiding the candy wrappers too! I am now addicted to NIPS. And of course as I mentioned my brownie sundae! Last night I had a slice of banana cheesecake! I just came back from my dr. appt. and he always asks "how's your appetite" and I just laugh. I mentioned about this topic we've been talking about, and he said there was a patient of his that craved VINEGAR! Yuck, He said he would just drink it from the bottle! I guess we all get different cravings. Thank God mine isn't garlic! Gaining weight is the least of my problems right now, if I'm happy, that's all that matters to me! I start my chemo up again on Thursday!
Hugs to ALL!
Karyn

GOOFYLADIE

Hi All
I can't remember craving anything or wanting to eat anything. I have posted that once the dr. and I met in the middle and the correct medication was given I could finally eat. I made a routine on the day of chemo to go eat and I made a huge mental game along with the meds. I loved food before I got sick and I loved to cook and love to entertain. I was not about to let food be the deciding factor of me getting well. So with Ativan, was the key and other nausea meds and the routine of a whopper jr on the way out town to chemo. Drive 85 miles to chemo take my chemo like a raving monkey, lunatic, sicko, or calm and cool as a cucumber how ever I was feeling that day and then straight to the spiciest mexican food I could find. I even had Srawberry Daqurri with it. Homemade tortillas and salsa that made fire out of every orifice in my body.LOL

I have been seeing people worrying about weight issues on their posts just commenting on them. I would like everyone that is fighting disease to know that unless you are in an obese state or have become unhealthy causing blood pressure and other health problems; please DO NOT worry about your weight. It took us our lifetime to get this weight, some of us got this weight because of chemo and this illness, this too shall pass. USE THIS WEIGHT LIKE A PREGNANT WOMAN DOES, the only time people can't and/or I should say shouldn't (which it's never any ones business) say anything about your weight. Eat what makes you feel good. What try to be healthy but weight will help keep you strong instead of feeble and weak. I don't mean Krispy Creme and soda's 24/7 but you know. You can work on weight later. I am 6 foot tall got down to 118 lbs when I was done with chem I weighed 164. My doctor was so proud. Still healthy weight for 6ft.I currently weigh 135. Take care Make it a Great Day!!!Goofyladie Cass

GOOFYLADIE

Hi All
I can't remember craving anything or wanting to eat anything. I have posted that once the dr. and I met in the middle and the correct medication was given I could finally eat. I made a routine on the day of chemo to go eat and I made a huge mental game along with the meds. I loved food before I got sick and I loved to cook and love to entertain. I was not about to let food be the deciding factor of me getting well. So with Ativan, was the key and other nausea meds and the routine of a whopper jr on the way out town to chemo. Drive 85 miles to chemo take my chemo like a raving monkey, lunatic, sicko, calm and cool as a cucumber how ever I was feeling and then straight to the spiciest mexican food I could find. I even had Srawberry Daqurri with it. Homemade tortillas and salsa that made fire out of every orifice in my body.LOL

I have been seeing people worrying about weight issues on their posts just commenting on them. I would like everyone that is fighting disease to know that unless you are in an obese state or have become unhealthy causeing blood pressure and other health problems; please DO NOT worry about your weight. It took us our lifetime to get this weight, some of us got this weight because of chemo and this illness, this too shall pass. USE THIS WEIGHT LIKE A PREGNANT WOMAN DOES, the only time people can't and/or I should say shouldn't (which it's never any ones business) say anything about your weight. Eat what makes you feel good. What try to be healthy but weight will help keep you strong instead of feeble and weak. I don't mean Krispy Creme and soda's 24/7 but you know. You can work on weight later. I am 6 foot tall got down to 118 lbs when I was done with chem I weighed 164. My doctor was so proud. Still healthy weight for 6ft. Take care Make it a Great Day!!!Goofyladie Cass

GOOFYLADIE

oops

oops

emrose

My husband
Craved sweets ALL the time!! Is there any research out there as to why people crave sweets when on chemo? This seems more that just a coincidence!