Our mission at Navigating Cancer is to empower those diagnosed with cancer to be active participants in their care. To that end, we feature resources from trusted experts that can sometimes be hard to find in the vast expanse of the internet. One area that has been receiving more attention recently is nutrition, and we’re excited to introduce a new partner who is dedicated to helping cancer patients improve their diets.
Cooking with Cancer: Recipes for cancer patients
Cooking with Cancer is a non-profit organization started by Dr. Luis Pineda, an oncologist with over 26 years of experience. Dr. Pineda attended culinary school in 2003 to improve the nutrition and diet of cancer patients. Cooking with Cancer has created a group on Navigating Cancer, and each week we will add to their library a new recipe that has been prepared specifically with cancer patients in mind. Every meal features foods and preparation methods to help minimize the negative reactions certain foods can have with specific side effects from chemo and radiation treatment.
The first recipe (just in time for St. Patrick’s Day!) is a Green Tea Ice Cream that promotes good bowel function and has a cathartic effect. Join the Cooking with Cancer group on Navigating Cancer to get updates when new recipes are posted. To add a recipe to your personal library, simply click the “like” button at the bottom of the page. When you visit your profile the recipe will now be saved in your library folder.
Below is a guest blog post from Cooking with Cancer’s Gina Seibert with more info about the organization and their mission.
Have you ever wondered why there aren’t recipes on your menu for people with special needs? For over 25 years, Dr. Luis F. Pineda has listened to his patient’s symptoms and nutritional needs during their battles with cancer. He found himself asking, “doesn’t everyone deserve the right to eat well?” With this in mind, Dr. Pineda decided to return to school. He enrolled in Virginia College’s Culinard program and studied the Art of Cooking. He has now combined the Art of Cooking with his Knowledge of Medicine to create a new way to care for cancer patients.
An oncology physician’s routine of making hospital rounds reveals the same problem day in and day out, finding the same full cans of supplements and untouched trays because patients are unable or unwilling to eat. In previous regiments to combat this issue, high calorie (carbohydrate base) liquid products were used through total parental nutrition or gastronomy tubes forcing nourishment, but with very little success. Unlike healthy individuals, cancer patients lose their ability to smell and taste sugar and lipids, both necessary for normal diets. Thoughtful and targeted changes are needed to achieve improvement in nutrition.
This is the foundation which Cooking With Cancer, INC. is built on. A non-profit charitable organization that dedicates its resources and energy to research and development of new recipes for cancer patients, to provide education not only for patients afflicted with cancer, but also their family and friends.
Our mission is: “Helping those afflicted with cancer to enjoy a better quality of life through good food”. Our goal is to create awareness of patients’ poor quality-of-life due to neglected nutrition from lack of enjoyment in eating. This problem has continued to be neglected, accepted, and even expected.
We support the right of everyone regardless of state in sickness or health to enjoy an enhanced quality-of-life and nutrition through good food, good eating, and good cooking. We believe that patients undergoing treatment deserve the same benefit to enjoy the pleasure of food and nutrition.
Each recipe is intended to enhance taste for patients, calculated to heal the mouth, and to provide maximum nutrition. They are meant to treat certain side effects, such as nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pain, fluid retention, etc.
We hope you’ll find these recipes helpful and delicious! We’d love to get your feedback after trying them out, please leave comments after each recipe in the Cooking with Cancer group.
Bon Appetite!