Nutrition & Diet Planning

Treatment raises your body's protein and energy needs while often reducing your ability to eat. Unintended weight loss and muscle loss are common, and they matter — patients who maintain nutritional status generally tolerate treatment cycles better and recover more comfortably.

Your plan is reviewed as treatment progresses, because what works during one cycle may be intolerable during the next.

For nausea, small and frequent meals usually work better than three large ones. Plain, low-aroma foods — khichdi, curd rice, idli, poha, dry toast, rice kanji — are often tolerated when richer food is not.

For mouth ulcers and soreness, we move towards soft, non-acidic, mildly spiced options. For metallic or dulled taste, we adjust seasoning, temperature and texture rather than simply asking you to eat more.

Protein is usually the hardest target to meet and the most important to protect. Rather than large portions, we look for concentrated sources that fit small appetites: dal, curd and Greek yoghurt, paneer, eggs, sattu drinks, besan chilla, nut pastes and well-cooked sprouts.

For vegetarian households, plans are built entirely around pulses, dairy and grain combinations — no patient is asked to change their dietary practice.

When your white cell counts fall, food hygiene matters more than usual. We cover practical guidance on freshly cooked food, safe water, washing and storing produce, and which raw or street foods are best avoided during specific phases of treatment.

This guidance is timed to your treatment cycle rather than applied as a permanent restriction.

We do not promote any diet as a cancer cure, and we will not recommend fasting, extreme restriction or unproven protocols. Claims that particular foods starve or kill cancer cells are not supported by evidence, and following them can cause real harm through malnutrition.

Supplements are discussed with care, since some can interact with chemotherapy and radiotherapy. We will always ask you to confirm supplements with your treating oncologist before starting them.

If your hospital has already given you dietary instructions — particularly around a specific surgery, a feeding tube, diabetes or kidney function — those take precedence, and we build around them rather than over them.

Bring any written advice you have been given to your first session. Where guidance appears to conflict, we will ask you to confirm with your treating team rather than guess.

Weight is the single most useful number, taken weekly on the same scale at the same time of day. Steady weight through treatment is a good sign; unintended loss is worth flagging early rather than after several kilos have gone.

Beyond that, we look at rough protein intake, fluid intake, and which specific side effects are limiting eating in a given week. Small, timely adjustments work better than a complete overhaul when you are already exhausted.

Most families cannot run two separate kitchens. Plans are built so that your meals come from the same pot wherever possible — a portion set aside before the chillies and heavy tempering go in, curd added to cool a dish, dal thinned or thickened to suit.

This matters practically. Plans that require separate cooking tend to be abandoned within a fortnight, however good they look on paper.