tips on eating during chemo?

Tan
What worked for me was milkshakes and fruit smothies, the cold feeling down my throat help with nausea. The times I was too tired to make the shakes I would just have a tb of sherbert to feel the cold down my throat and then I would be able to eat a little.
Also, eat a little every 2 hours, lots of protein. When the hunger kicked in I was eating scrambled eggs, beans, milkshakes (with protein powder). My nephew made a milk, bananas, vanilla ice cream and 2 table spoons of peanut butter milkshake and it was quite good.

Are you taking your meds? that also helped me.

Also lots of liquids, I got tired of water, (didn't taste good) so I added Crystal Light and it made the water taste less salty.

I hope this helps you. Good Luck

Hi Tan:
The first few days after chemo, I found that soft foods such as pasta and mashed potatoes were the only foods by stomach could tolerate. The other days I would eat small meals more frequently. I stayed away from acidy, spicy, fried foods. Grilled or broiled worked best for me. Also, Lots of liquids. Water tasted funny so I added the Crystal light powders to the bottled water and it helped. Drink at least 8 glasses a day it really does help. Good luck with the rest of your treatments. Hugs, Lili

tan39 said:

thanks for the tips all, what is crystal lite powder? im from Australia so is this a worldwide thing? Tanx

Crystal Lite is a brand name of powered flavored kid's drink mix. It comes in lots of flavors here like Pink Lemonade, Stawberry Kiwi, or Raspberry Cooler, and things like that. It doesn't add calories, but it is sweet(thanks to artificial sweeteners) and flavorful. I bet you have other powered drink mixtures down under that would also work. Or you could squeeze a lemon or lime or other fruit juice into some water on ice for naturally flavored water. There are some cookbooks out there for folks on chemo. Most that I have read suggest frequent small snack meals. Whole grains, potatoes, and fruits sit better with most folks compared to meat, fat, and spicy dishes. Small custards (like egg custard, corn custard, pumpkin pie custard) might go down easily and provide protein and needed calories. The old fashioned kind of oatmeal tastes a whole lot better than the instant kind, but that depends if you have the time and energy to make it. If you have a small freezer and a microwave, you can quickly heat up some macaroni and cheese or other pasta dish and eat before the smell gets to you. I remember being a bit queezy after my last operation. My mom wanted to cook something so I would eat up and get my strength back. Fortunately my husband warned her that my tummy was badly affected by cooking smells and other odors. Usually I love the smells of a kitchen, but this time it was a trigger for problems. So my mom being the great mom that she is, made my dad go out and buy a store cooked chicken and served it with instant mashed potatoes and green beans. I managed a plateful which I never could have done if she had filled the place with the smells of the delicious things she usually makes. Good luck finding out what works for you!