Diet and self care - a guide to good eating

A varied diet is essential for health and well-being.

However, during cancer treatments it may be difficult to eat well.  The side effects of surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy can affect your ability to eat.

Alternatively, you may have completed your treatment and are having eating difficulties.

Some people lose weight due to not being able to each much or as a direct result of the cancer.  Not being able to eat can sometimes be distressing but there are changes which you can make to your normal diet to help overcome weight loss. It is important that you eat as well as you can.

These pages have been written by dieticians and describe how to make changes to your diet according to any symptoms you may have.  Not all of the side-effects listed will affect you so use this as a reference rather than reading it all. You can print off pages that are relevant to you.

It is important to remember that there is no exact way in which you should eat, but do try to experiment to find eating habits that suit you best.

There are many people with cancer who do not have eating difficulties or lose weight.  Other people have only temporary eating problems and eat well for the majority of the time.