Considering food after being diagnosed with cancer.

A cancer diagnosis changes a lot of things very quickly.

Suddenly there are appointments, scans, treatment decisions, new terminology to understand and often an enormous amount of information coming at you from every direction.

Food can very easily become an afterthought.

Or, at the other end of the spectrum, it can become another source of anxiety.

Should I stop eating sugar? Should I go vegan? Should I fast? Should I take supplements? Is dairy inflammatory? Should everything be organic?

And unfortunately, the internet has no shortage of people telling you that one particular diet, supplement or protocol is the answer.

But considering nutrition as part of an integrative approach alongside treatment can provide lots of benefits.

Cancer treatment asks a lot of your body

Whether you're preparing for surgery, having chemotherapy or radiotherapy, taking hormone therapy or recovering after treatment, your nutritional needs can change. It's about making sure your body has what it needs to cope with what it's being asked to go through.

Your body may need to repair tissue, maintain muscle, produce immune cells and blood cells, recover from surgery and deal with the physical demands of treatment.

At the same time, the very treatments designed to help you can make eating well considerably more difficult.

You might experience:

• nausea or changes in appetite

• taste changes

• mouth soreness

• diarrhoea or constipation

• reflux or digestive discomfort

• fatigue that makes cooking feel impossible

• weight or muscle loss

• weight gain or changes in body composition

• changes to blood sugar

• altered bowel habits

• food aversions

This is why nutritional support needs to be individual.

The advice that's appropriate for someone struggling to maintain their weight during chemotherapy may be completely different from the advice I'd give someone taking long-term hormone therapy who is concerned about metabolic health, bone health and cardiovascular risk.

Sometimes good cancer nutrition is about making every mouthful count.