Episode 059: Your Nutrition After Cancer Treatment
May 14, 2019•41 min•Transcript available on Metacast Episode description
We know that life after cancer treatment is not always easy. Maybe you don’t have as much energy as you’d like, or still dealing with side-effects, or maybe you’ve put on weight. And today, I’m talking to Lauren and Elise, they’re nutritionists who specialise in oncology and they share fantastic advice on getting your nutrition right after cancer. Here are some things that we cover today:
How good nutrition can make a huge impact after cancer
Why metabolic rate is a crucial factor when it comes to losing weight
The truth behind organic food and how it affects you
Real metrics to understand progress you're making
and much, much more!
Links
Oncore Nutrition
Instagram: @OnCoreNutrition
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/OnCoreNutrition/
Email: enquiries@oncorenutrition.com
Linked in: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauren-atkins-983268108/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/elise-den-129837149/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/oncore-nutrition/
Full Transcript
Joe: Thank you so much for taking the time to talk with me today, I really appreciate it, I loved our conversation before on nutrition before and during cancer treatment. Now, I’m really excited to get your insight into really eating well after treatment. Tell me, first of all, what I want to understand is your perspective and maybe we can start with you, Elise, is why nutrition is so important after cancer treatment?
Elise: That’s a great question, Joe. Nutrition, as we spoke about last time, is hugely important during treatment, but equally as important after treatment as well. Often, some of the anti-cancer treatments of therapies or surgeries. That could be chemo, radiotherapy, even immune therapy obviously damage the cancer cells and kill off the cancer cells, which is exactly what we want them to do. What they also unfortunately do is damage some of our healthy cells, as well. Good nutrition and eating well helps to repair and heal our healthy cells.
It also helps to keep us stronger during treatment, the stronger we are during treatment, this improves our management of side-effects, after treatment, as well. It provides our bodies with the energy that it needs to function efficiently and effectively. By achieving and maintaining a healthy weight, this actually helps to reduce our risk of cancer recurrence in the future. As well, maintaining a healthy weight helps to reduce our risk of other chronic diseases such as heart disease, diabetes, kidney disease, liver disease, etc. I guess because of all of these factors, it really highlights how important nutrition is after treatment as well.
Joe: Yes, that makes so much sense, Elise. You know, Lauren, because most people, we don’t really think about cancer and nutrition in the same space. Is there a science behind it?
Lauren: Yes, heaps of science behind it, Joe. We wouldn’t be here if there wasn’t. We only practice when there’s really solid evidence to support the advice that we’re giving. What we’re really fortunate to have is a really strong community of wonderful researchers and scientists and health professionals out there, who are really dedicated to making sure that they look into the best nutrition advice in the cancer survivorship space, not just generally for people who have undergone cancer therapy, but specifically for different types of cancer as well.
The nutrition advice for someone who’s gone through breast cancer treatment could very well be different to that of someone who’s gone through pancreatic or lung cancer treatment. Huge amount of science to support the advice that we give. One really useful organisation is the World Cancer Research Fund, who have a wonderful report that summarises the evidence that’s available to us to provide recommendations to eating and drinking after cancer treatment.
Joe: I think it’s so fantastic that it’s targeted toward people who have gon...
