Dietetics

Nutrition

Nutrition plays a crucial role in the treatment of cancer. An  optimum nutrition helps a patient to reap better outcome. Hence, Nutrition education is important in providing  dietary aid that includes better understanding concept of healthy diet, components of food, balanced diet etc. and counseling to cancer patients during their treatment. A customized diet plan is vital in monitoring nutritional status, supporting immune function, treatment outcomes and in upgrading cancer patient’s basic quality of life.

How Nutrition Helps

• Supportive nutrition: Cancer and its treatment can affect the appetite, digestion, nutrient absorption and metabolism, leading to malnutrition, weight loss and nutritional deficiencies. Oncology dietitians assess patient’s dietary habits and develop personalized diet plan to cater their specific requirements
• Managing consequences of treatment: Chemotherapy, radiation treatment, surgery, and other cancer treatments can cause side effects such as nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea,  dysphagia, fatigue, and weight reduction etc. Nutritionists provide strategies to address these issues through proper diet plan.
• Immune System: Proper nutrition supports rebuilding immunity in the cancer patients that was suppressed during the treatment. 

Benefits

The benefits of good knowledge of nutrition are:

• Improved nutritional status: Personalized diet plan assist the patient, by enhancing their nutritional status which in turn helps in better immunity, saving them from malnutrition and infections.
• Proper nutrition helps in continuous treatment as per protocol where patients require less number of hospitalization for supportive care. Further the treatment outcome is as desired, providing a better quality of life to the patient.