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Guest post: The importance of good nutrition with cancer
Today I welcome Jillian McKee, who has worked as the Complementary Medicine Advocate at the Mesothelioma Cancer Alliance since June of 2009. She also has a blog.
Here is what she has to say about the importance of nutrition with regard to effectively fighting cancer.Cancer patients and the benefits of good nutrition
Cancer patients have a host of health concerns to attend to. As well the more obvious issues surrounding their course of treatment and their physical condition they must also look after their nutritional needs. Proper dieting is no cure, but it will help give patients the strength and energy to maintain a better quality of life throughout the process. Whether it is mesothelioma cancer or another form of cancer, there are many benefits to be had by maintaining high standards of nutrition through all stages of the disease.
Energy : To help them through the many difficult cancer treatments, patients should ensure that nutrition is enabling them to maintain good energy and strength levels. Chemotherapy and radiation are known to take their toll. Proper dieting will help replenish lost nutrients. Good nutritional practices will help the body maintain proper muscular levels.
Immune System : With all of the various invasive procedures that take place, cancer patients are always at risk of infection, further complicating their condition and knocking treatment off course. Protecting the immune system is vital. According to the National Cancer Institute one of the principal goals of good nutrition is to make sure patients have a strong immune system.
Wellbeing : High nutritional standards can lead to a better quality of life. The National Cancer Institute indicates that proper nutrition can help improve wellbeing. This can make the difficult days a little bit easier. Having the psychological strength to face another day is one of the primary challenges that cancer patients face.
Complications : One thing that physicians worry about is the existence of complicating conditions. They want to treat cancer directly without other worries. Nutrition can play a role in preventing other health problems. Good diet is closely linked to good heart health and good blood pressure. It will not, in itself, heal a patient, but it will provide a healthy environment in which to treat their disease. -
Flying school and birdseed sundae
There seem to be an awful lot of irresponsible parents around here. They have countless offspring and then leave them to fend for themselves while they go off galavanting, without even taking the time to check that their babies can fly properly first.
Luckily Léo, my son, is here to rescue them; He has a knack for finding himself in the vicinity of their nests when they tumble out and he snatches them up before sharp canines, beaks or hooves can cause irreparable damage. He feeds and waters them, gives them a bed in his bird youth hostel and then teaches them to fly. The only thing his hasn’t yet mastered is a feeling of satisfaction and contentment when they fly away from him for good; tears are shed. 🙁
In honour of our quick-to-learn, high-flying baby birds I created this delicious sundae. The only thing that is slightly unhealthy is the ice cream but as long as you use a good-quality full-fat one without too much sugar or additives it’s well worth the sacrifice. Ice cream also has fairly low GI, lowered further by the addition of the yoghurt, nuts and seeds. The rum aids digestion – that’s my excuse and I won’t be told otherwise. 😉
Ingredients (serves one)
10 cherries, pits removed
Two scoops of good quality vanilla ice cream
Two tablespoons of greek yoghurt
A tablespoon of dark rum
1 teaspoon each of : chia seeds, cocoa nibs, pumpkin seeds, dessicated coconut
2 teaspoons of raisins
2 teaspoons of chopped almonds
2 squares of 80% cocoa dark chocolate
1 teaspoon of coconut oil
Melt the dark chocolate with the coconut oil and a tablespoon of water over a low heat. Prepare the sundae, starting with the cherries, then adding the ice cream, yoghurt, rum and raisins, followed by the seeds, cocoa nibs and coconut. When the hot chocolate sauce is melted, pour it over the ice cream, yoghurt and seeds and finally add the chopped almonds. -
Nine-year-old boy logic and crab salad
This is a translation of a ‘phone conversation between my nine-year-old son and his friend :
Son : ‘Hi ‘Friend’, would you like to play tennis this morning?’
Friend: ‘Er, OK, but could we make it this afternoon?’
Son: ‘But it’s going to be too hot this afternoon – why can’t you make it this morning?’
Friend: ‘It’s just it seems a bit chilly* this morning and I’m wearing short sleeves’
*’chilly’ for a native of Southern France is anything under 25°C
My son applied his steadfast and infallible logic, advised his friend to dig out a sweater and off they went. Imagine though, the possibilites of this kind of rationale. ‘Inappropriate attire’ could become a valid excuse for getting out of just about everything – school, work, boring cocktail parties, cooking lunch, the possibilities are endless…
Unfortunately for me, I was dressed appropriately enough to make lunch and I produced this crab salad. To be consumed on a terrace in light attire:
Ingredients (serves four)
400g tinned crab
1 greek yoghurt
1 small onion, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, pressed
4 heaped tablespoons of chopped cucumber
A thumb of freshly grated ginger
1 tablespoon of raisins
1 tablespoon of sweet and sour chilli sauce
1/2 tsp chilli powder
seasalt and pepper to taste
Combine the onions, garlic, cucumber, raisins and ginger in a small mixing bowl. Add the drained crab and the sweet and sour sauce, mixing well. Add the Greek yoghurt and spices and mix with a spoon until the crab is entirely covered in the yoghurt mixture. Serve chilled. -
Basque Piperade and a disoriented white hen
When is an a tomato not a tomato? Answer: when it’s an egg…
The white hen has taken to laying her eggs amongst our tomato plants. I only realised the other day when I spotted several egg-coloured tomatoes. As hens tend to lay where there are, or have been, other eggs, I wondered whether she thought that the pepper tomatoes were green eggs. Which begs the question: are hens colour blind or just a few French fries short of a Happy Meal? Answers on a postcard please!
Of course the other explantion is that she’s a Basque hen gagging for some Piperade, no doubt one of the most renown Basque dishes.
Ingredients (serves four)
6 medium tomatoes
2 tablespoons olive oil
100g sliced Bayonne ham
3 cloves of garlic
2 onions
Chopped parsley, thyme, bay leaf
2 red bell peppers cut into strips
2 green bell peppers
2 teaspoons Espelette pepper (if you don’t have this, Paprika, chilli powder or Cayenne will do)
4 eggs
Blanche and skin the tomatoes. Add a tablespoon of olive oil to a medium frying pan and cook the ham until golden brown (about 7 minutes). Set aside. Cook the garlic and onion in two tablespoons of olive oil until golden brown. Add the herbs and peppers, Espelette pepper and seasalt to taste. Cover and leave to cook until the peppers soften (about 10 minutes). Stir in the tomatoes and browned ham and cook until the mixtures melds and juices slightly thicken. Beat the eggs and add over the heat to the tomato/pepper mixture, stirring until cooked. Serve immediately! -
Lentil dahl soup
Spicy lentil soup might seem a rather unexpected choice for the South of France in the middle of July, but I’m indulging the locals who, poor things, are at the end of their weather-tethers. It is unseasonably cool this Summer with many days not getting above the low 20s. Anything under 40°C in July and August in this region is unacceptable and strictly for namby-pambies (Parisians). It gives carte blanche for unrestricted and expansive whingeing, as well as countless visits to the doctor for weather-related complaints such as ‘chills’ and acute depression.
Puy lentils have a delicious earthy flavour and are packed full of goodness – protein in the form of amino acids and fibre. They are also an excellent source of iron and B vitamins. What better for a cold Summer day 😉
Ingredients (serves four)
200g Puy lentils
2 diced tomatoes
1 large onion
2 carrots, sliced
Tablespoon of olive oil
Tablespoon of coconut oil
6 cloves of garlic
fresh grated ginger
seasoning to taste (seasalt, freshly ground black pepper, cumin, tumeric)
Put the lentils, diced tomatoes, onion, carrots and seasoning into a large saucepan containing 2.5 litres of boiling water. Bring the water back to the boil and then simmer uncovered for about 45 minutes.
Five minutes before the soup is ready, heat the oils in a frying pan and gently fry the garlic and ginger until golden brown. Add to the soup, mix well and simmer for a few more minutes. Serve with chickpea pancakes which will be the subject of my next post… -
Ossau Iraty and black cherry chutney
I haven’t started talking in tongues; this is the name of a delicious cheese from the Basque region. So delicious, in fact, that it was named ‘Best Cheese in the World’ at the World Cheese Awards 2011. It is nicest served at room temperature with black cherry chutney.
I last enjoyed it just the other day, at the top of a mountain in 30 degree heat, surrounded by 30 ten-year-olds. And it was delicious nonetheless 😉 ! We were on a school trip to the pyrenees, a somewhat long but very enjoyable day. Well, apart from the bit where the coach had to reverse down a tiny mountain road, negociating no fewer than EIGHT hairpin bends backwards. I’m not that cool on tiny mountain roads in a car going forwards, so I’ll leave it to you to imagine the state I was in after this little escapade. There’s always a plus side though, and in this case it was that the children were actually SILENT for the time of the manoeuvre. They also derived much amusement from the fact that their teacher inadvertently let slip a four-letter word (or French equivalent thereof) in sheer terror.
As you can see, I didn’t take a photo of the cheese and chutney. But I did take one of a ‘typical Frenchman going for a picnic in the mountains’!
To make the black cherry chutney:
Ingredients
300g black cherries
1cm fresh grated ginger
Pinch of cinnamon
Black pepper
60g of cane sugar
2 tbls white vinegar
Heat the cherries and sugar in a casserole for just under five minutes. Add the ginger, cinnamon and black pepper and continue to heat for another five minutes. Add the vinegar and cook until the mixture starts to congeal. Leave to cool before serving. -
Fish curry (and absolutely not a hen in sight!)
I’m a great fan of spicy food in very hot weather. Actually I’m a fan of spicy food in cold weather too, but the arguments in favour are less convincing.
Spices help to kill bacteria that develops in hot weather when fridges are unavailable. Certain spices, such as chilli also help kill off intestinal parasites which tend to develop in warm weather. They also stimulate appetite and digestion, both of which become sluggish when it’s very hot. They make you sweat (although this may not really sound like a good thing), which is your body’s way of cooling down and as a final bonus spices boost serotonin levels which makes you happy 🙂
So even if it’s 10 degrees and cloudy with you today, you’ll find this easy, delicious and healthy.
Ingredients (serves 4)
4 filets of white fish (I used hake)
1 onion
2 cloves of garlic
Freshly grated ginger
2 tomatoes
1 cinnamon stick
1 cup of peas
Handful of cashew nuts
Handful of raisins
1 cup of coconut milk
Fresh mint
1 fresh chilli
1 tblsp coconut oil
2 cups of vegetable stock
Seasoning – curry powder, sea salt, pepper, cumin seeds
Melt the coconut oil in a frying pan and gently fry the onions and garlic until golden brown. Add the fish and the chopped tomatoes and keep frying gently for few minutes. Add the stock and then the spices, ginger, cinnamon stick, raisins, cashew nuts and peas. Bring back to a gentle simmer. Cook for about 15 minutes and then add the coconut milk and freshly chopped mint. Serve! -
Spicy strawberries and dunking hens
To follow on from my previous post, my husband decided that the softly softly ‘I’m listening’ approach was not going to be the way forward with our moody, hormonal hen. Anyone who has met my husband will appreciate that this is said without even a trace of irony. So bottom-dunking in a bucket of cold water three times it was. The cussing was impressive, but in fairness, so were the results; she has lost the will to phantom nest and is back to scutteling around happily after her friends, no doubt wishing much harm upon the mad dunker in her mind. Problem solved you might think. Perhaps, but the horses who had been witness to the unceremonious bucket-dunkings are now traumatised and scared witness of their master. They do 0-60 faster than I ever thought possible as soon as he approaches, leaving hens, humans and dogs in their wake. They can rest assured though; we don’t own, and aren’t about to own buckets big enough for him to dunk their hindquarters in.
This has absolutely nothing to do with stawberries of course, for which I’m about to give you details of an original and ultra-healthy way to serve…
Ingredients
Strawberries
Yacon syrup
Juice of half a lemon
Fresh mint
Chilli powder
Grated ginger
Black pepper
Prepare the strawberries by cutting off the leaves, rincing and cutting into two. Place in a bowl and then add the syrup, lemon juice, grated ginger, mint and peppers. Chill for at least an hour and serve with greek yoghurt.
The combination of antioxidents in the strawberries and peppers, the alkalising effect of the lemon juice, the anti-inflammatory action of the ginger and the many virtues of yacon syrup makes this dish practically medicinal. Consume without moderation. -
Coronation chicken and adolescent hens
This was topical a week ago, but I’ve been rather over-stretched. Amongst other things, the horses flooded their barn (our mare enjoys turning on taps with her nose), and one of the hens is in the midst of a phanton pregnancy. Actually our mare’s passion for taps might be a blessing in disguise. The flooding reached the hens’ nest which meant that the phantom nester had to abandon ship (not without much cussing) and go back to being a hen that struts around (with wet feet!), as opposed to a hen that skulks in bed, hissing at anyone that approaches and only getting up once a day for food. This, I assume is the hen equivalent of a ‘fags and booze run’. Thinking about it, maybe she’s just hit adolescence and it’s not a phantom pregnancy at all…This coronation chicken is made with Greek yoghurt as opposed to mayonaise, which makes it a healthier option, without sacrificing any of the creamy taste or texture.
Ingredients (serves four)
4 chicken breasts
1 glass red wine
butter
bay leaves
2 greek yoghurts
2 tablespoons mango chutney
1 shallot
2 cloves garlic
fresh grated ginger
chopped cucumber
seasoning (salt, pepper, curry powder, cumin)
half a cup of sultanas
half a cup of chopped almonds
fresh mint
Poach the chicken breasts in the wine, a little water and melted butter (there should be enough liquid to just cover them), seasoning and bay leaves. Strain and put aside to cool.
Mix the yoghurt, mango chutney, chopped shallots, crushed garlic, grated ginger, seasoning (plenty of curry powder), sultanas, almonds and chopped cucumber and add the cooled poached chicken. Mix well and then chill for at least two hours. Add the fresh mint and serve.
