Nutritional intake plays an important role for people with cancer.
Dream – Nutrition has an important role for cancer patients who are malnourished. Apart from the type, schedule, quantity, and jelly, though, are important parts in maintaining the patient’s nutritional adequacy.
Medical Senior Manager of PT Kalbe Farma Tbk, Dr. Dedyanto Henky Saputra MGizi explained, for people with cancer, nutritional intake plays a role in various things.
Among other things, preventing and correcting nutrient deficiencies, helping patients tolerate therapy, minimizing side effects and complications related to tissue nutrition, and fighting infections. This can help maximize life expectancy and treatment outcomes.
In addition, nutrition also helps maintain a healthy body weight and condition, prevents damage and helps build tissue.
According to Dedy, there are four things that must be considered in order to fulfill the nutrition of cancer patients, namely type, schedule, quantity, and jelly.
Type
For type, choose fresh food. Avoid canned or preserved foods.
Choose foods high in calories and protein, including snacks and substitutes. Also, avoid foods with “empty” calories, such as soda, as well as overly spicy foods with strong aromas.
Amount
Wherever possible, eat according to the portion your doctor recommends.
Eat small, frequent meals. Take medication with fluids high in calories and protein. Do not drink with meals, because it can cause satiety quickly without enough calories.
Schedule
Try to eat whenever you feel you have a good appetite. Eat small, frequent meals. Eat when the food is neither too hot nor too cold.
Sports jelly
Avoid cooking foods with excess spices with a strong aroma. Be creative in serving food. Avoid processing food by burning.
“Giving nutrition with the right amount, type, and method will support the success of cancer therapy,” he said in a press conference for Nutrican Friends of the Struggle for Cancer, Thursday, February 25, 2021.
The Importance of Exercise
Dedy suggested not forgetting to exercise. Try to increase your appetite by doing light physical exercise.
“Do sports that move your entire body, for example jogging or swimming. Do it 30 to 60 minutes.