Maintaining a healthy, balanced diet is crucial for everyone, but it's especially important for individuals facing pancreatic cancer. Pancreatic cancer and its treatments can significantly impact a patient's ability to digest food and absorb nutrients, leading to symptoms that can reduce the desire to eat and accelerate physical decline. Therefore, a well-structured dietary plan is essential to manage symptoms, maintain weight, and improve overall quality of life.
Understanding the Impact of Pancreatic Cancer on Digestion
Pancreatic cancer can disrupt the pancreas's normal functions, both endocrine (hormone production for blood sugar regulation) and exocrine (enzyme production for digestion). The pancreas produces enzymes that digest (break down) food. Pancreatic cancer can reduce the number of enzymes that your pancreas makes or block the enzymes from getting to where they are needed for digestion. This can result in exocrine pancreatic insufficiency (EPI), where the small intestine cannot fully digest food due to a lack of digestive enzymes from the pancreas. This leads to malabsorption of nutrients and calories, resulting in weight loss.
Tumor-induced weight loss, also known as cancer cachexia, further complicates the nutritional status of pancreatic cancer patients. This condition affects the way the body uses calories and protein, leading to a significant loss of weight and muscle mass.
The Role of a Dietitian
A dietitian can be a valuable resource for patients living with pancreatic cancer. They will work with you to develop an eating plan catered specifically for your needs that will typically involve keeping fat intake low and carbohydrate intake high. A dietitian can help patients navigate these challenges by developing personalized eating plans. These plans often focus on:
- Managing Symptoms: Addressing specific symptoms like diarrhea, nausea, and loss of appetite.
- Maintaining Weight: Ensuring adequate calorie and nutrient intake to prevent malnutrition and weight loss.
- Optimizing Digestion: Incorporating strategies to improve the digestion and absorption of nutrients.
General Dietary Recommendations
While individual needs vary, some general dietary recommendations can benefit many pancreatic cancer patients:
Read also: The Ultimate Guide to Male Diet Supplements
Small, Frequent Meals
Eat five to six small meals that are easy to digest throughout the day.
Focus on Nutrient-Dense Foods
For patients with reduced appetite and gastrointestinal distress, nutrient-dense foods-high in calories, fat, and protein-can go a long way even in smaller amounts.
Adequate Hydration
Staying hydrated is important. Drink about half of your body weight in ounces daily. Staying hydrated is important in managing diarrhea, as it can help prevent dehydration. It is recommended to drink an additional cup of clear fluids after each bowel movement.
Protein Intake
Since protein is the building block for cells, and pancreatic cancer therapies increase cell turnover, it makes sense that protein needs increase during treatment.
Healthy Fats
While no one is recommending you load up on fried foods or saturated fats, healthy mono- and polyunsaturated fats are a great way to sneak in calories with less volume. Fats not only support cell growth, but they also help your body absorb important nutrients, including vitamins A, D, E, and K.
Read also: Meal replacement guide for women
Colorful Vegetables
Colorful veggies are loaded with vitamins, minerals, and disease-fighting chemicals that can give your immune system a boost during treatment.
Ancient Grains
Ancient grains like quinoa, farro, amaranth, bulgur, and barley are chock-full of nutrients and fiber. With all three parts of the plant still intact, whole grains boast countless vitamins, minerals, and disease-fighting chemicals.
Easy-to-Digest Foods
Choose foods that are chopped, soft, or boiled for easier digestion, particularly those that are high in nutrients and calories.
Addressing Specific Symptoms and Challenges
Pancreatic cancer patients often experience a range of symptoms that can affect their ability to eat and digest food. Addressing these symptoms is crucial for maintaining adequate nutrition.
Diarrhea
Diarrhea is another common symptom seen in pancreatic cancer patients. Staying hydrated is important in managing diarrhea, as it can help prevent dehydration. It is recommended to drink an additional cup of clear fluids after each bowel movement.
Read also: Chlorine Brand Comparison
Exocrine Pancreatic Insufficiency (EPI)
People experiencing EPI may be prescribed digestive enzymes may be prescribed to patients who are not producing enough enzymes to break down food or who have conditions that cause poor absorption. Pancreatic enzyme replacement therapy (PERT) can help you digest food and manage problems with diet and digestion caused by pancreatic cancer, like weight loss. These enzyme supplements come from pigs.
Nausea and Loss of Appetite
Limit your exposure to odours by removing garbage right away, or have a loved one bring you meals that were cooked elsewhere.
Taste Changes
Sometimes, cancer treatments can alter a person's sense of taste. Experiment with different flavors and seasonings to find foods that are appealing.
Weight Loss
If a patient is consuming regular meals and snacks but is losing weight, it may be a sign of a more serious problem.
Foods to Limit or Avoid
While a balanced diet is essential, some foods may exacerbate symptoms or hinder nutrient absorption. It’s easy to look at food as “good” and “bad.” But cancer, like eating, is an emotional experience-and food can be a bridge to connecting with other people. Dietary specialists often begin by educating them about some of the healthier foods they can add to their diets. Rather than telling patients what they can no longer eat.
Sugar and Artificial Sweeteners
Whether you’re eating real sugar or one of the many sugar stand-ins (including stevia), sweeteners have no nutritional benefit. Yet they take up critical space in your diet.
Excess Fruit
You’ve probably heard that fruits of all types are good for you, and that’s true, but most people overdo it on fruit. Bananas can be particularly problematic. They’re constipating, and constipation is a common side effect of cancer treatments. Bananas are also high in sugar-one medium banana counts as two servings of fruit.
Processed Foods
Eating highly-processed packaged foods like chips, pastries, microwave meals, and processed meats may be associated with an increased risk of developing cancer. There’s also a strong association between eating processed foods and developing chronic conditions such as hypertension, high cholesterol, and diabetes.
Alcohol
In addition to flooding your system with empty calories, drinking alcohol can contribute to dehydration.
Dairy
During treatment, some people with pancreatic cancer become lactose intolerant, and dairy can also be inflammatory for a subset of patients. Amaral recommends limiting dairy to two or three servings daily.
Nutritional Interventions and Supplements
In addition to dietary modifications, nutritional interventions and supplements may be necessary to address specific deficiencies or support overall health.
Enteral Nutrition
Enteral nutrition shows positive effects on length of stay in hospital, complications, weight loss and cytokines.
Parenteral Nutrition
Parenteral nutrition is associated with a higher incidence of complications.
Dietary Supplements
Dietary supplements enriched with omega-3 fatty acids improve body weight and lean body mass.
Pancreatic Enzyme Replacement Therapy (PERT)
PERT can help you digest food and manage problems with diet and digestion caused by pancreatic cancer, like weight loss.
Vitamins and Minerals
Pancreatic disease impacts the body’s ability to absorb fat-soluble vitamins. Many pancreatic patients need to replenish electrolytes due to chronic diarrhea. This is initially addressed through diet with foods high in potassium and magnesium, and then rehydration drinks like Gatorade or Pedialyte.
The Importance of Exercise
For pancreatic cancer patients in particular, there’s a lot of research around the benefits of exercise. It helps with physical health, mental health, increasing energy, and improving sleep.
Research on Nutritional Interventions
Several studies have investigated the impact of nutritional interventions on cachexia, malnutrition, and weight loss in patients with pancreatic cancer. A systematic review of 26 studies found that:
- Enteral nutrition is associated with shorter hospital stays, lower complication rates, and reduced weight loss.
- Dietary supplements enriched with omega-3 fatty acids can improve body weight and lean body mass.
These findings suggest that enteral nutrition and omega-3 fatty acid supplements should be considered in the nutritional therapy of pancreatic cancer patients.
tags: #diet #for #pancreatic #cancer #patients