Feel Healthier and Stay Strong

Guest Post by Anna Zufall, MMSc, RD, CD, CSO

Living with cancer is one of the most daunting experiences you can face. Unfortunately, your cancer and its treatment may result in a number of nutrition impact symptoms (appetite loss, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea,  constipation, alterations in taste and smell, swallowing difficulty, etc.). These symptoms may also lead to secondary problems, with all having the potential to affect your quality of life.

As an Oncology Dietitian, I have witnessed firsthand how a cancer diagnosis can quickly rob a life of normalcy. And with quality of life issues crossing each facet of the cancer continuum, the impact can be severe.

Proactive nutritional care, including focusing on good nutritional management and careful food selection, especially in the first days after diagnosis, may help in maintaining a high quality of life throughout your cancer journey. Eating the right kinds of foods can help you feel healthier and stay strong. Many patients have expressed to me improvements in their quality of life with even modest diet modifications. And though nutritional needs may vary as you go through the cancer experience, it is important to focus on consuming adequate nutrition to maintain a desirable weight and activity level.

For most people, a healthy diet includes lots of fruits and vegetables, whole grain breads and cereals,
modest amounts of meat and milk products and small amounts of fat, sugar, and salt. However, when you have cancer, dietary needs can be somewhat different. You may need extra calories and protein to help keep up your strength and energy.

Consider adding more calories and protein to your daily diet by increasing your intake of foods such as milk, yogurt, natural cheeses, eggs, nuts, seeds, peanut butter, poultry, fish, beans and legumes. Liquid nutritional supplements can also provide more calories and protein in the diet. Also, include nutritious snacks daily—keep a variety of protein-rich snacks on hand that are easy to prepare and eat, such as cheese and crackers, cereal and milk, a hearty bowl of soup, or half of a sandwich. Avoid foods that may make any treatment-related side effects worse.

By empowering yourself with nutrition—making small, achievable positive changes—you are helping yourself to retain your health and your quality of life.

So remember, good nutrition is always important and is vital during your cancer journey. It can help you maintain weight and offer relief from nutrition impact symptoms for improved quality of life.

Your body is fighting disease, and food is an essential weapon in the fight. Take a proactive approach to your health—give yourself the gift of good nutrition. Eat well and often throughout your cancer journey!

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Anna Zufall, MMSc, RD, CD, CSO

Anna a Registered Dietitian and is Board Certified as a Specialist in Oncology (CSO) Nutrition. Drawing upon her 15 years of  experience, she provides clinical support for TherapEase Cuisine. Anna is one of less than 600 Oncology Certified Dietitians across the
nation helping patients with cancer.
Learn more at www.therapeasecuisine.com.
Online Nutritional Support for Cancer Patients and Survivors

Increase Your Quality of Life One Bite at a Time

GUEST POST by Vivian Roe of TherapEaseCuisine.com

Something that nearly every cancer patient will experience at some point after getting diagnosed is a feeling of being absolutely out of control.

With those three words “You Have Cancer” ~ the future becomes even more unknown. Doctors for a while will become the ruling authority over your day to day schedule. Treatment appointments, medications, side  effects: suddenly overshadow all of the normal things your life was made up of. And you may feel like the quality of your life will be on a steady decline with little or nothing you can do about it.

But there is A LOT you can do about it. And it starts with the simple, daily acts of eating and drinking.

When I was diagnosed 6 years ago, the very first fears I experienced…more than fears of losing a breast or possibly not surviving…were that the treatment would make me so sick that I wouldn’t be able to function. I feared I wouldn’t be able to eat or drink; that I’d constantly be throwing up. I’d be weak, unable to care for my two young sons, and even worse – that being so sick would jeopardize the 9- week old baby growing inside of me. I feared that food would become my enemy.

If I had continued down that mental and emotional path I probably would not have been motivated to make some significant changes to my eating habits. But all it took was hearing the baby’s heartbeat and looking at my boys to realize I couldn’t afford to allow food to become my enemy. CANCER was the enemy…I needed to make food a weapon.

So I asked “What should I be eating?” of my doctors, nurses, and others in my healthcare team. I scoured health stores, bookstores, magazines and the Internet to find any and all information on the medicinal effects of certain foods for specific ailments.

Some of the information was long-known; like eat more fiber if you are constipated and saltine crackers if you feel nauseous. Some of the information was a revelation; like Brazil nuts contain selenium which helps fight cancer, and lemon juice and lemon zest contain limonene which helps boost the immune system.

Vivian co-created
TherapEaseCuisine.com
to assist other survivors

These rules and dozens of others came together to give me a clear “game-plan” for what I would eat and drink every meal of every day. From the time I woke up to when I went to bed I had confidence that the fuel for my body – what I ate and drank – would help prevent or alleviate treatment side effects. At the same time, I’d be consuming a higher level of vitamin/nutrient-rich foods than ever…and that had to be a good thing.

When I embraced using food to complement my treatment, not only did I empower my physical body – but I empowered my whole self. I took back control. I went on the offense to cancer ~ and my quality of life during treatment was better than anyone ever imagined. My pregnancy was not affected at all by treatment; and I had a perfectly healthy little girl full-term. My husband, sons, friends, and extended family were amazed at my energy level, optimism and condition of overall health (that is condition other than the bald-head and cancer-thing).

When you think about the average American’s diet (full of fried, cheesy, greasy high-cal/low-nutrient foods) the truth is that even modest changes, like adding green vegetables and fruit to every meal, are a big improvement.

I always considered myself to have better-than-average diet habits; but it wasn’t until I started really paying attention to everything that I consumed that I realized how very big the impact of eating the right stuff is.

Changing your diet to best fit with a cancer diagnosis and treatment may seem like a big hassle and a lot of work at a time that you’re already overwhelmed….but you don’t have to bite off more than you can chew.

Just take it one bite at a time ~ and your quality of life just may surprise you too.

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Vivian Roe is a cancer survivor and Founder and COO at TherapEase Cuisine. Her personal cancer journey brought about the creation of a one-of-a-kind, patent-pending online solution to nutritional concerns of cancer patients and those with chronic conditions. With online assessment and customized food and nutritional recommendations, TherapEase Cuisine makes individualized nutritional support easy and accessible to its users; and provides a method for healthcare providers and health plan administrators to offer a comprehensive nutrition program to those they serve.  Learn more at TherapEaseCuisine.com

Want to Live Longer?……Start Worrying

GUEST POST by Susan Gonzalez, Moon-Organics.com and Savvy Sister Blog


Most of us want to live long worry-free lives.  But what if I told you worrying could make you live longer?


In 1921 a Standford University psychologist, Lewis Terman, began studying the lives of 1500 of the brightest boys and girls he could find.  Detailed information was archived about their lives, from how many siblings they had to how many books were in their house, to how cheerful they were.


When Terman died in 1956, his study was continued by others. In 1990, Friedman and Martin began piecing the data together to come up with factors that determined what contributed to living long lives.


A new book, “The Longevity Project”, by Friedman and Martin looks at the 1500 study participants and follows them over 80 years to determine what the magic recipe is to living longer.


One interesting fact was that cheerful optimistic children were less likely to live longer than those who worry.  It was explained that the children who were inherently optimistic and cheerful ended up taking more risks in their lives.  It was theorized that these individuals never thought anything bad would happen, and so they ended up engaging in more risky behavior like smoking and drinking.  Their hobbies were also more risky.


The individual personality traits that were the strongest indicator for longevity were prudence, persistence, and being well-organized. Conscientious, responsible people also developed better social relationships and achieved more.  Because of these qualities they were given more opportunities in life which led to being more fulfilled.  These individuals had more stressful jobs, but when these same people found meaning in their work, the stress was not a negative factor in their health. (There must be tons of science professors and engineers in their 80′s!)


They also found that physical activity, while important, does not have to be as strenuous as once thought. It seems that finding an activity you enjoy has just as much benefit (especially in your middle age) as routine exercise at the gym.


Genetics accounted for about 30% of your longevity puzzle.


In a previous post, there was a fun test that assessed your daily habits to see how long you would live.  The following assessment can be used as another tool.  Together these two tests should give you a very good idea of just how old you will get. (provided you don’t get hit by a bus….)


This assessment tool was part of an excerpt from “The Longevity Project”


Self-Assessment: A Key Personality Component (taken from NPR news)


To assess a core aspect of personality, decide how well each of the following statements describes you. Be honest, thinking about yourself as you usually are, compared to others who are the same sex and about the same age.


1. I am always prepared.


1 — very inaccurate
2 — moderately inaccurate
3 — neither accurate nor inaccurate
4 — moderately accurate
5 — very accurate


2. I leave my belongings around.


1 — very inaccurate
2 — moderately inaccurate
3 — neither accurate nor inaccurate
4 — moderately accurate
5 — very accurate


3. I actually get cold when I think of something cold.


1 — very inaccurate
2 — moderately inaccurate
3 — neither accurate nor inaccurate
4 — moderately accurate
5 — very accurate


4. I enjoy planning my work in detail.


1 — very inaccurate
2 — moderately inaccurate
3 — neither accurate nor inaccurate
4 — moderately accurate
5 — very accurate


5. I make a mess of things.


1 — very inaccurate
2 — moderately inaccurate
3 — neither accurate nor inaccurate
4 — moderately accurate
5 — very accurate


6. I get chores done right away.


1 — very inaccurate
2 — moderately inaccurate
3 — neither accurate nor inaccurate
4 — moderately accurate
5 — very accurate


7. I have sometimes had to tell a lie.


1 — very inaccurate
2 — moderately inaccurate
3 — neither accurate nor inaccurate
4 — moderately accurate
5 — very accurate


8. I often forget to put things back in their proper place.


1 — very inaccurate
2 — moderately inaccurate
3 — neither accurate nor inaccurate
4 — moderately accurate
5 — very accurate


9. I like order.


1 — very inaccurate
2 — moderately inaccurate
3 — neither accurate nor inaccurate
4 — moderately accurate
5 — very accurate


10. I shirk my duties.


1 — very inaccurate
2 — moderately inaccurate
3 — neither accurate nor inaccurate
4 — moderately accurate
5 — very accurate


11. I follow a schedule.


1 — very inaccurate
2 — moderately inaccurate
3 — neither accurate nor inaccurate
4 — moderately accurate
5 — very accurate


12. I am persistent in the accomplishment of my work and ends.


1 — very inaccurate
2 — moderately inaccurate
3 — neither accurate nor inaccurate
4 — moderately accurate
5 — very accurate


How to compute the total score:


Each item scores from 1 to 5. But for items 2, 5, 8, and 10, you need to reverse the scores. So if you said that “I leave my belongings around” was “very inaccurate” in describing you (a 1), change your score to its opposite, which is a 5. If you gave yourself a 2 you would change this to a a 4 and so on. If you said this was neither accurate nor inaccurate, you would leave your score as it is — a 3.


Then eliminate item 3 and item 7. Item 3 (“I actually get cold when I think of something cold”) is an irrelevant filler item. Item 7 is a lie scale, in more than one sense of the term. For the remaining ten items, simply sum your scores.


A total score will fall somewhere between 10 and 50. This scale is a good measure of conscientiousness. Total scores between 10 and 24 indicate very low conscientiousness (the lowest quartile or 25 percent in a recent sample of adults). Scores between 37 and 50 suggest exceptionally high conscientiousness.


Another way to understand your own conscientiousness and to make it a more valid assessment is to get the viewpoint of someone else who knows you well. (In 1921 and 1922, Dr. Terman didn’t ask the children about their personalities. Instead he asked their parents and teachers.) People who know you well are generally good judges of your personality, and sometimes the perspective of someone else can be enlightening, helping us to see ourselves more objectively. So use the same scale, but this time, have a friend rate you.


…….taken from The Longevity Project by Freidman and Martin


So if you’ve already planned your funeral, chances are you won’t be needing them right away. :)


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Susan Gonzalez is a registered nurse and Stage III cancer survivor for 5 years. She is the owner of MOON Organics and is passionate about educating and supporting people to live a healthy life. 

MOON stands for Made Out Of Nature and that's just what you'll find in each and every product they offer.  MOON's products contain only what occurs naturally, so you don't ever have to worry about being exposed to harmful petroleum, synthetic ingredients, or chemical preservatives. Learn More