High calorie, low sugar food suggestions

I found a book in our cancer center library called "What to Eat During Cancer Treatment" put out by the American Cancer Society.  It organizes the recipes according to symptoms.  They have recipes and suggestions for nausea, diarrhea, constipation, sore mouth and difficulty swalling, taste alterations, and unintentional weight loss.  During my husbands treatment he had three of the symptoms and I thought the book was helpful.  Amazon has new and used copies and even Kindle editions.  I'm not sure about low sugar recipes though.  I think you can adapt them to meet your needs.  Also, we used a lot of Ensure High Protein during my husband's treatment and our cancer center used to have Ensure coupons that they offered to the patients.  You may want to ask at your treatment center if they have coupons you can have.  Good luck.  I hope you find some great recipes.

Sounds keto but that is not my intent.

being a southerner born and bred I love food, love to cook and love southern ingredients. This can be varied extensively. I use whatever is available that day. I worked for a French company and spent a lot of time there. I was surprised how many southern dishes have French, especially Norman, origins. Fresh trout from my creek is one of my favorite breakfasts.

• Chopped kale, chard, collards or spinach ( a mix is good)
• small salad tomatoes (we call them “Tommy Toes”)
• shallot or scallions and a clove of garlic
• generous amount of butter (the french love butter)
• 4-8 ounces of pork side meat or thick bacon (smoked or not smoked - wegmans has both and Costco has great pork side meats). Cut into 1/4 inch thick by 1 inch squares. Use a lot its good for you. The French love pork belly as do the Mexicans.
• A generous portion of Craisins or preferably fresh chopped cranberries. Remember these have sugar So don’t overdo it. A good alternative is capers.
• Small handful of pecans or walnuts. I like a mixture of raw local black walnuts( too strong for many people) and raw local pecans.  Macadamia if you can find it is great as are brazil nuts (Raw)
• 4 eggs (yellows cooked done if you are on chemo).
• salt and pepper. Maybe fresh corriander ( often called Cilantro but I prefer the Indian name Corriander) or basil. Rosemary is also great in fritatas. Just season to your taste.

i just cook it all up, meats first with grease drained, butter added, then whip the eggs which are poured over it to make a fritata. Kinda looks like a pancake. Enough to share. Really good. For the more adventurous top it off with southern redeye coffee gravy which also originated in France. We southerners know how to eat!

ShadyGuy said:

What I ate this morning

Sounds keto but that is not my intent.

being a southerner born and bred I love food, love to cook and love southern ingredients. This can be varied extensively. I use whatever is available that day. I worked for a French company and spent a lot of time there. I was surprised how many southern dishes have French, especially Norman, origins. Fresh trout from my creek is one of my favorite breakfasts.

• Chopped kale, chard, collards or spinach ( a mix is good)
• small salad tomatoes (we call them “Tommy Toes”)
• shallot or scallions and a clove of garlic
• generous amount of butter (the french love butter)
• 4-8 ounces of pork side meat or thick bacon (smoked or not smoked - wegmans has both and Costco has great pork side meats). Cut into 1/4 inch thick by 1 inch squares. Use a lot its good for you. The French love pork belly as do the Mexicans.
• A generous portion of Craisins or preferably fresh chopped cranberries. Remember these have sugar So don’t overdo it. A good alternative is capers.
• Small handful of pecans or walnuts. I like a mixture of raw local black walnuts( too strong for many people) and raw local pecans.  Macadamia if you can find it is great as are brazil nuts (Raw)
• 4 eggs (yellows cooked done if you are on chemo).
• salt and pepper. Maybe fresh corriander ( often called Cilantro but I prefer the Indian name Corriander) or basil. Rosemary is also great in fritatas. Just season to your taste.

 

i just cook it all up, meats first with grease drained, butter added, then whip the eggs which are poured over it to make a fritata. Kinda looks like a pancake. Enough to share. Really good. For the more adventurous top it off with southern redeye coffee gravy which also originated in France. We southerners know how to eat!

I"m coming to breakfast at your house tomorrow. What time do we eat?

 Rocquie

Hi Dawn, our cancer center has never said anything to restrict sugar intake in chemo patients.  The feeling usually is it's more important to just eat and not worry about sugar intake, fat or calories.  When I was on RCHOP I had absolutly no food restrictions with the acception of grapefruit.  As I had chemo during the winter I didn't eat fresh raw fruits but did eat fresh veggies and had no problems.  My cancer doctors even said I could eat sushi, as I specificly asked about it.  As long as my counts were good I had no restrictions.  We went on several trips for get away weekends, ate out at least 3 times a week.  When I started with mouth sores I went on a soft/liquid diet.  Because of neulasta I was never neutropinic.  Maybe I was just lucky not to get ill but I have had heavy chemo twice, NHL and Breast Cancer and neither times was given any food restrictions.  Just besure food is cooked properly, well washed and freshly prepared.  Most important, stay away from small children and sick people.

but having just finished chemo yesterday I am still a bit under the weather. Unsteady on my feet (wobbly in fact), extremely constipated (despite laxatives), fatigued and can’t sleep more than 2-3 hours at a time. And of course I am bald and my head sweats. “Gramp why is your head wet?” The trout are probably glad for that! But their time is coming.

My wife occasionally makes shrimp and grits. I love redeye gravy as my Father used to make it. He would fry squares of old ham (country ham) make the gravy and put the mess over my Mom’s biscuits. Really really good. Dad made his gravy without milk. Some people like the milk in it. Try it both ways. If you are in the outerbanks, the Outer Banks Brewhouse in KDH has shrimp and grits made with redeye gravy. I warn you that sometimes they are good, sometimes mediocre. The servings are huge. Their shrimp and grits appetizer is more that a meal. The full dish can only be eaten by a very hungry person. There are sooooooooo many recipes for the dish and results vary from cook to cook and by how old it is when served that you never know what you are going to get in a restaurant. Some totally different things are often both called shrimp and grits. In my experience the low country of South Carolina is your best bet for shrimp and grits.

in the summers I am in the mountains not too far from Rocqui and Max. Asheville NC which is in between us is famous for biscuits and redeye gravy. Andrew Zimmern on Travel Channel ( either “Bizarre Foods” or “Delicious Destinations” I can’t remember which) dedicated an entire show to food in Asheville with a focus on biscuits and gravy. He raved about it.

Remember, there are 2 types of grits (or if you prefer, polenta). One is essentially just coursely ground whole dried corn. Thats what I like. The other is hominy grits which is what you will find in restaurants, instant grits etc. Hominy grits are more nutitious and more easily digested. The key to  good grits is going straight from the stove to the plate. Freshness is everything in grits. Grits that sit around all day are, in my humble opinion, disgusting unless cut into cakes and fried in butter. Whole hominy and pork stew (pozole) is a great stew and the state dish of New Mexico after stuffed sopapilas (sp?). The process of making hominy is very interesting if you care to look it up. It originally involved ashes from the fireplace and rainwater but now people just buy lye. The process is similar to making lutefisk which I also used to enjoy at Christmas when I lived in Minnesota. Eating corn made into hominy prevents beri beri which is why hominy was invented. Native Americans taught the colonists who were dying of beri beri how to prevent it by turning corn into hominy. Thats my story and I’m sticking to it!

ShadyGuy said:

Breakfast would be great !!

but having just finished chemo yesterday I am still a bit under the weather. Unsteady on my feet (wobbly in fact), extremely constipated (despite laxatives), fatigued and can’t sleep more than 2-3 hours at a time. And of course I am bald and my head sweats. “Gramp why is your head wet?” The trout are probably glad for that! But their time is coming.

My wife occasionally makes shrimp and grits. I love redeye gravy as my Father used to make it. He would fry squares of old ham (country ham) make the gravy and put the mess over my Mom’s biscuits. Really really good. Dad made his gravy without milk. Some people like the milk in it. Try it both ways. If you are in the outerbanks, the Outer Banks Brewhouse in KDH has shrimp and grits made with redeye gravy. I warn you that sometimes they are good, sometimes mediocre. The servings are huge. Their shrimp and grits appetizer is more that a meal. The full dish can only be eaten by a very hungry person. There are sooooooooo many recipes for the dish and results vary from cook to cook and by how old it is when served that you never know what you are going to get in a restaurant. Some totally different things are often both called shrimp and grits. In my experience the low country of South Carolina is your best bet for shrimp and grits.

in the summers I am in the mountains not too far from Rocqui and Max. Asheville NC which is in between us is famous for biscuits and redeye gravy. Andrew Zimmern on Travel Channel ( either “Bizarre Foods” or “Delicious Destinations” I can’t remember which) dedicated an entire show to food in Asheville with a focus on biscuits and gravy. He raved about it.

Remember, there are 2 types of grits (or if you prefer, polenta). One is essentially just coursely ground whole dried corn. Thats what I like. The other is hominy grits which is what you will find in restaurants, instant grits etc. Hominy grits are more nutitious and more easily digested. The key to  good grits is going straight from the stove to the plate. Freshness is everything in grits. Grits that sit around all day are, in my humble opinion, disgusting unless cut into cakes and fried in butter. Whole hominy and pork stew (pozole) is a great stew and the state dish of New Mexico after stuffed sopapilas (sp?). The process of making hominy is very interesting if you care to look it up. It originally involved ashes from the fireplace and rainwater but now people just buy lye. The process is similar to making lutefisk which I also used to enjoy at Christmas when I lived in Minnesota. Eating corn made into hominy prevents beri beri which is why hominy was invented. Native Americans taught the colonists who were dying of beri beri how to prevent it by turning corn into hominy. Thats my story and I’m sticking to it!

Many years ago, our university med center Geriatrics Clinic gave us this recipe for our elderly parents suffering with constipation.  It worked wonders and we have shared it with many over the years (and they still thank us, although we do not take credit).  I started using it religiously after serious issues with my first round of chemo. Forgive me if I've posted this to you before, but maybe others have not seen it:

In a blender:  1) make a powder of one part fiber cereal (I like FiberOne, MIL likes AllBran); 2) blend in one part applesauce; 3) blend in one part prune juice.  The result is a paste.  Eat two heaping tablespoons each morning (only one for the non-chemo crowd).  Make only enough for one week at a time; store refrigerated.  Do not "double-dip" your spoon (use fresh spoon for each serving). For "extra strength" version, use wheat bran instead of fiber cereal (hard to find in groceries; we order from Walmart or Amazon).

I am a newbie to shrimp & grits.  So far I've had them at Tupelo Honey in Asheville & the Sprouter Inn in Beaufort.  Plus a number of places nearer to home. No bad ones, although they vary a lot. Haven't tried to cook 'em, but may consider that once the weather cools. Be well.  

I don't recall what region you live in, Afraid (if you ever stipulated), but consider yourself invited to move to the Southeast -- the rest of the world is doing so.

Northeasterners who initially move to Florida are dubbed "Snowbirds."  Many discover there that the heat is too oppressive to live in, and then move about half way back north; these folks are "Halfbacks": they've gone half way back.  SC/NC are among the most popular choices among Halfbacks, but I have heard new arrivals in Virginia so-designated also. 

I've always had a gift for recognizing domestic and foreign dialects, since I've lived in or visited almost everywhere, and frequently ask people in stores or wherever where they are from.  Although I grew up a Geechie, I have been told by people all over the US that 'I do not sound southern', and in fact get asked pretty frequently in SC, "where you from boy ?" When I tell them I grew up in Charleston, they look at me suspiciously, and then say, "oh, ok."  A Geechie is a white Charleston area native; not to be confused with native sea-island blacks, who are Gullah. Some people confuse geechie and gullah, but they are actually quite different, and a Charlestonian would never use those terms interchangably, especially since geechie sounds nothing like gullah.  If you have ever heard the late US Senator Fritz Hollings speak, you have heard perfect geechie spoken.  Gullah is a recognized US dialect developed by slaves, but very limited in range, mostly coastal SC and parts of coastal Georgia.  I can speak it very fluently....my aunt owned a plantation in Georgetown, SC, where I spent my summers as a young kid.  In the 1960s, she had a then-elderly maid whose parents had been slaves on the property, and I played with her grandson all the time when she would bring him to work there, and learned the dialect from them and some other individuals around Charleston.  There are Charleston and Beaufort area organizations funded to work toward the preservation of spoken gullah.

If the person looks about 65 and sounds like they are from New Jersey, and I ask where they are from, the conversation usually goes something like, "Well, we lived in Hoboken most of our lives, and then moved to Tampa for six years, but it was too hot and the hurricanes kept blowing our motorhomes away, so we came here four years ago."

The movie Deliverance (the whitewater scenes) was filmed about 35 miles from my house, a region that is still wilderness and extremely remote.  The whole Northeaster Georgia/NC/SC region is mostly uninhabited; occasional small town like Murphy, Cashiers, Highlands, NC.   Wal Mart and CVS can't build on sheer cliffs. 

Newcomers are trained in detecting remote bango noises for "well being."

max

ShadyGuy said:

Thanks. I am totally new to

Thanks. I am totally new to constipation. Its a problem I never had before this chemo. Seems to be easing. Seems like the muscles in my bowels don't work the way they should. Both my constipation and fever have improved in the last 12 hours.

I had shrimp and grits at the Tupelo Honey in Johnson City and was unimpressed. The dish varies so much from place to place and day to day. I have ordered it in places where I did not even recognize it as being shrimp and grits. Overall, I have been disappointed in Tupelo Honey though my wife likes it.

I hope you are feeling better by now. I also never had a problem with constipation before chemo and thankfully haven't since. During my treatments, I discovered that a pediatric dose of old fashioned milk of magnesia did the trick for me without working TOO well (if you know what I mean).

I got tickled in your post above when your grand child ask why your head was wet! They do keep us going don't they?

When Tupelo Honey was a single restaurant in downtown Asheville, it was wonderful. We ate brunch there almost every Saturday after our granddaughter's ballet classes. Then they started opening new locations. A few years ago, they completely redesigned their menu to market more to millennials. We haven't been there in about two years now.

My favorite Southern delicacy is our beloved Pimiento Cheese. I made a big batch this afternoon. 

Hugs,

Rocquie