Customer Reviews

What to Eat During Cancer Treatment: 100 Great-Tasting, Family-Friendly Recipes to Help You Cope

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I am a speech pathologist in an acute rehabilitation hospital and I would greatly recommend this cookbook. I work with patients who have a variety of medical issues, but recently we've seen an increase the number of patients with brain tumors, or with a history of cancer. Because I work with the patient's swallowing safety I often discuss their nutrition and eating habits. I had one patient in particular whose sense of smell and taste had been altered due to their chemo treatment a year prior and he had been losing weight steadily since then. I got in contact with a dietitian with the American Cancer Society who referred me to this book. I bought it immediately because I knew it answered many questions that I had been asked by patients in the past and it also gave such great suggestions for different side effects including decreased taste sensation. I showed this recipe book to that patient and his wife and made a copy of one of the recipes (The Blueberry-Peach Crisp) for them to try. The wife made it and brought it in for the patient the next day. His wife altered it as the book suggested with increased cinnamon and he was able to taste it and enjoyed it. The patient's wife ordered this book that night.

On a more personal note, my father went through chemo and radiation and I have seen first hand how difficult it is for the patient and the caregiver to manage eating and maintaining nutrition while undergoing such a harsh treatment which takes away any natural want/yearn for food. I searched many resources at that time to attempt to help him, but nothing I found was organized in such a useful fashion as this cookbook. This book is organized into sections of suggested recipes for the various side effects that the patient may be experiencing including: nausea, diarrhea, constipation, soar mouth/swallowing deficits, taste alterations and unintentional weight loss. It also gives suggestions for dining out and a list of kitchen staples with a variety of foods to keep in your pantry to help prepare little snacks or full meals depending on the patient's wants.

As you can tell, I can't say enough about this book. It has been a great resource for me professionally and personally (My father now has a copy himself) and I definitely recommend it for people during treatment or for anyone continuing to deal with any of the symptoms after treatment. You will find not only the recipes helpful, but the added nutritional information and recommendations for aiding nutrition during/after treatment are priceless! This cookbook is truly fantastic!

This book was a godsend. Nothing tasted right. This book helped find "tasty" alternatives and provided an understanding of how to cope.

What a disappointment this book was! The recipes are loaded with sugar. Sugar feeds cancer! Heck, they even use glucose when doing PET scans because the glucose (sugar) is like a magnet to cancer. In addition to all the sugar, there is a lot of dairy used in the recipes. Dairy is bad because 85% of milk protein is casein and the substance is also found in yogurt. Casein promotes cancer growth and the pre-cancer cell clusters called foci. Casein is not a carcinogen, rather it encourages or feeds cancer or pre cancerous foci cells. Consuming even moderate amounts of milk and cheese will stimulate any cancer cells that may be latent in your body.
Do the recipes look yummy? Absolutely! It is laid out well in that it breaks recipes down according to symptoms. A nice feature and the reason I bought the book. But with all the sugar and dairy, it would be hard to ever beat cancer. The American Cancer Society should be ashamed of themselves!

What to Eat During Cancer Treatment offers a comfort-food cookbook for people undergoing cancer treatment, offering recipes organized not by type but by side effect. From dishes for nausea and diarrhea to those for sore mouth and difficulty swallowing or taste alterations, this packs in dishes high in nutrition and appeal alike. Any undergoing cancer treatment needs this.

My wife has been on various forms of Chemo for lung cancer for 3 years, which she suffers from although she never smoked. Over the past 6 months she had started loosing weight because she did not have an appetite. She was approaching 120 pounds when I read an article in USA today about this book. I immediately ordered it and started preparing the recipes that were designated for weight loss.
It took about 7 days of these meals to curb the weight loss and after another 10 days she has regained 2 pounds putting her back at 120 pounds.
She loves the recipes and eats small meal portions 4-5 times a day as the book suggests.

I found this cookbook (unlike many) to be full of commonly available ingredients - things you can pick up at the local grocery store. That makes it so nice for us cancer patients who are really too tired to shop around for exotic ingredients and who want easy, quick recipes.

I first saw this book at a cancer support group shortly after being diagnosed. It was highly recommended by the Nurse Advocate who is one of the leaders of the group. I knew it was something I wanted to try - even for just the ideas on what you can eat for the different side effects of chemo. Once I received it and really started looking at it, there are a LOT of recipes I want to try. Probably more than any other single cookbook I own -and I own a LOT of cookbooks. I took this cookbook to my chemo treatment so my mother could look at it and there are several recipes she wants to try also.

I tried the Individual Shepard's Pies today and they are wonderful. I found I cannot taste peas and carrots since starting treatment. When I prepared the Shepard's Pies today according to the recipe, I could actually taste the peas and carrots. Tomorrow night (since I have leftover mash potatoes) will be Mashed Potato-Chicken Patties, then maybe Pumpkin-Ginger Mini Muffins for dessert.

This book has so many wonderful recipes and they are categorized by side effects patients may be experiencing. There are also dozens of helpful hints in this book. This book is a wonderful resource for anyone undergoing chemotherapy.

The "What to Eat During Cancer Treatment" book is exactly what I was looking for. It has simple tasty recipes of which I have used many. The beef and barley soup is delicious. I made it in my crockpot and froze individual servings. The book also contains tips for the caregiver. The book is published by The American Cancer Society. I ordered a couple other cookbooks for cancer patients but I use this one. I really like it!

Purchased this book to help my daughter with chemo. We have found it to be very helpful and have made many meals and treats. Would recommend this to anyone needing good sound nutrition during this time.

I sent this book to my parents (they are both in their 80s) before my dad started his first chemo treatment. I think it not only gave them good ideas, it gave them some peace of mind too. I think they felt more prepared for whatever was to come. Well worth the money.