Healthy Eating When You're Sick
Healthy eating when you're sick is a challenge -- especially when you have a chronic illness like cancer, arthritis, or even depression. Diseases and their treatment can sap your appetite or leave you nauseated. Cancer fatigue might leave you too worn out to cook. Arthritis can make it a lot harder to get out and shop for groceries.
It's natural to let good nutrition slide when coping with an illness. But it's also dangerous. Everyone needs to get enough vitamins and nutrients. And that's truer than ever when you're sick.
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By learning what to look for, and making smart choices, you can get the nutrition you need without a lot of extra effort.
Healthy Eating When You're Sick: Protein
When you're sick, dietitians agree that protein is key. "Protein is crucial for building and repairing cells," says Paula Charuhas, RD, nutrition education coordinator at the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance. Protein can help you prevent the loss of muscle mass. It also helps maintain fluid balance and improves your body's ability to heal.
Some of the best sources of protein are obvious, says Christine Gerbstadt, MD, a spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association. Chicken, pork, lean beef, fish, and lamb are all good. Eggs and cheese are also easily digestible forms of animal protein.
What if you're a vegetarian? Getting enough protein can be harder, says Gerbstadt. "The problem is that you have to eat a lot of vegetable protein to get the equivalent of a much smaller amount of animal protein," she tells WebMD. "Not everyone can do it."
Good non-animal sources of protein are beans, soy products like tofu, and nuts. Adding more peanut butter or almond butter to your diet is one easy way of getting more protein.
If you just can't get enough protein from foods, your doctor may recommend high-protein nutritional supplement drinks. You might also benefit from powdered protein that you can stir into any food.
Healthy Eating When You're Sick: Getting Enough Calories
Many of us spend our adult lives counting calories. But for some people who get sick, the meaning of the phrase gets turned upside down. Instead of trying to reduce their calories, they may actually need to increase them.
When you're sick, you may need more calories than normal because your body is working harder. But just when you need to eat more, your appetite is gone. Unintentional weight loss can become serious. It can leave you exhausted, weak, and interfere with your treatment.
Preventing weight loss can put people -- and their dietitians -- in an odd position. "It's totally counterintuitive," says Rachel Zinaman, MPA, RD, of Memorial Sloan-Kettering's Evelyn Lauder Breast Center. "But I sometimes actually recommend cheese fries and burgers and milkshakes to some women with cancer to stop them from losing too much weight."
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