How to Eat Healthy to Fight Leukemia

Healthy diet during leukaemia enables your body to fight against fatal blood cancer while minimising the risk of infection so that your body can heal at a faster rate. Adhering to a healthy diet to fight leukaemia is as important as completing its treatment. Let’s find out how a leukaemia patient can eat healthy to effectively fight the repercussions of this lethal cancer form.

Increase your Protein Intake

Due to lengthy process of chemotherapy, you are bound to feel fatigued.  Protein will help you to stay strong during the physically taxing process of chemotherapy. If you do not want to have meat, you can opt for easily digestible sources of protein , such as fish or chicken to obtain the required amount of protein. If you are vegetarian eat nuts and seeds, soy products, whole grains and dairy products, such as eggs.

Read: Diet for Leukaemia Patients

Limit your Intake of Processed Protein  

You should abstain from consuming processed or organ meat. Processed meats increase the risk of complications because they contain high amount of nitrates that further stimulate the growth of the cancerous cells. Lean protein sources, such as egg whites, oatmeal, soy, nut butter and white meat chicken are more suitable options for you.

Include Fruits and Vegetables

Veggies and fruits provide numerous minerals and vitamins that are essential to boost your immune system. It is recommended by doctors that an adult should consume around two to three cups of vegetables per day and two cups of fruits for his overall health.  Carrots, broccoli, sweet peas, cauliflower, collard greens and spinach are some beneficial vegetables that you can include in your diet. In fruits, you may eat strawberry, apple, peaches and blackberry. The plant-based protein present in q certain veggies, such as lentils and beans is an added bonus for leukaemia.

Considerations

Apart from the various types of foods you may consume, it’s also important to consider the following points:

• To prepare your food, make sure all the utensils to be used are thoroughly cleaned and washed to avoid food contamination
• Fruits and vegetables wash should be used to thoroughly clean fruits and veggies before being eaten
• Keep the raw foods and prepared foods in different shelves
• You are not advised to eat leftover food due to the risk of food poisoning
• If you are eating leftovers, ensure that the food was refrigerated and was thoroughly heated before being served to you

Read: How to Prevent Food Poisoning

• Food related complications in leukaemia may aggravate your condition further worsening the side-effects of the cancer treatment along with delaying the healing process

Top image source : Getty

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