Why diet is important
Eating a balanced diet can help you cope with cancer and its treatments.
How eating well helps
Eating and drinking a balanced diet is important when you have cancer. It can help you feel better. You may have more energy and it could help you cope better with your treatment.
A balanced diet means eating foods from all the food groups that your body needs. But for many people with cancer, this can be a struggle. Up to 40 out of every 100 people (40%) have unplanned weight loss when diagnosed with cancer. Unplanned weight loss can affect your quality of life.
Your healthcare team can discuss ways to support you with eating and drinking. And there are things you can do to help yourself.
A balanced diet
Try to eat foods from all food groups to include everything your body needs to work well. These include:
- beans, pulses, fish, eggs, meat and other proteins
- potatoes, bread, rice, pasta and other starchy carbohydrates
- fruit and vegetables
- oil and spreads (fats)
- milk, yoghurt and cheese (dairy products)
The diagram below is of a plate of food. Each slice shows how much of that food group should be on your plate to follow a healthy balanced diet. This guidance is from Public Health England (PHE).
A balanced diet can help to reduce your risk of chronic diseases. If you have problems that are affecting your diet, your doctor or healthcare professional may suggest that you change the amounts you eat from each group.
Malnutrition
Malnutrition means getting too little of the types of food necessary for good health. About 3 million people in Britain have malnutrition. This affects their health and ability to work.
Some people are more at risk than others. Between 40 to 80 out of every 100 people with cancer (40 to 80%) have malnutrition. You can be malnourished or at risk of being malnourished regardless of how much you weigh.
Not being able to eat enough protein and calories is one of the main problems for people with cancer. Extra protein helps with healing after treatments such as surgery.
The MUST screening tool for malnutrition
The British Association for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition (BAPEN) developed a tool called the ‘Malnutrition Universal Screening Tool’ (MUST). This simple tool is available to GPs and other people working in health care.
The MUST tool helps to identify people who are:
- at risk of malnutrition
- already malnourished
The results from the screening tool will show if you need more support with your diet. Your doctor or another health professional can then refer you to a dietitian.
Self screening
BAPEN also has a self screening tool for malnutrition. They based it on the MUST tool. Research showed that self screening for malnutrition works well.
Talk to your doctor about the results of the self screening tool if you are worried.
For general information and support contact the Cancer Research UK nurses on freephone 0808 800 4040 Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm.
This page is due for review. We will update this as soon as possible.