Gloria B. is a personal Chef in the Boston area who has experience cooking for cancer patients undergoing active treatment. She also is a personal chef to non-cancer patients who just want to change the way they eat, lose weight, improve your overall health.

Here is a blog post from Gloria for CancerVictory! Thanks Gloria! Karen

Here are some suggestions from a Cancer specialist (Donald Yance) about foods
during Chemo…

What to eat during chemo
•    Rule #1 hydrate – drink coconut water with Power or Vital Adapt straight or dilute with a herbal ice tea (this tastes much better very cold)
•    The day of chemotherapy and the day after eat lightly – studies have shown that a modified fast for one or two days significantly enhances the effectiveness of chemotherapy.
(Lizzia Raffaghello*, Changhan Lee†, Fernando M. Safdie†, Min Wei†, Federica Madia†, Giovanna Bianchi*, and Valter D. Longo, Starvation-dependent differential stress resistance protects normal but not cancer cells against high-dose chemotherapy, www.pnas.org_cgi_doi_10.1073_pnas.0708100105 PNAS Early Edition)

Juicing!

Make yourself Fresh juices with a juicer, fruit and / or vegetable. Cabbage, kale, celery, watercress, parsley, cilantro chard, beet tops, beet roots, carrots, burdock root, jicama, apples, oranges, and others as you wish. Leave the peel on the citrus and put the whole lot through the juicer. Dilute with water as desired. Smoothies made with fresh fruit, organic goat or sheep yoghurt, soy / rice / oat / almond milk and Greens Plus or other equivalent product. Also add whey or rice protein powder. For extra nutrients you can soak a handful of nuts overnight in water, whirl this up with everything else or put in a spoonful of almond butter. Purchase the young green or white coconuts and drink the liquid inside – one a day. Eat the pulpy flesh as well, and use it in smoothies and juices. This is great if the gut lining is damaged from chemo. (If this is for Estrogen Positive breast cancer, eliminate soy)

Apple sauce, soaked and poached dried fruits, mashed banana with soy / rice / oat / almond milk. Lots of room temperature water, sipped slowly through the day. Broths and pureed soups. If you can get organic beef bones with plenty of marrow and cook them up to make stock. This will help build back the blood cells and give overall strength.
Poached or soft boiled eggs. Poached fish in a good broth / stock. Oatmeal, millet porridge, congee (cream of rice), barley, quinoa

Bone Marrow Soup

BONE MARROW SOUP (to nourish the blood)
•    The best bones to get are organic, hormone free, antibiotic-free, beef or lamb bones. •    Cover the bones with pure water, add the soup herbs and place over low medium heat. Slowly bring to a simmer and let it simmer for about 1 to 1 1/2 hour. •    Add vegetables like beets, celery, burdock root, carrots, kale and whatever else you’d like. •    Optional: shiitake mushrooms, garlic, ginger and herbs according to your taste
(parsley, rosemary, thyme etc …)

For 1 big pot of soup (about 4 quarts) – this is about 4 days’ worth of soup.  When soup is done it maybe pureed in food processor for a smooth consistency, if desired.

As a personal chef, I used much of these recommendations for a patient going through cancer.  The bone marrow soup was very helpful for her and she found having these foods she didn’t get nauseous with the chemo.

Gloria Bakst, Chef Gloria B, www.ChefGloriab.com