Eat when you feel well. It is better to eat small portions at mealtimes and spread them out regularly throughout the day. Take advantage of the good days to eat plenty, in the most pleasant environment possible. Try to keep a stock of food that is quick and easy to prepare.

Nutrition regulates the digestion. In the event of constipation, taking in more liquids in the form of herbal teas, fruit juice or water can lead to improvement. Prunes or syrup of figs together with fluids and fermented milk products like yoghurt have a natural laxative effect. In the event of diarrhoea, on the other hand, easily digested foods are suitable: cooked vegetables, rice, fish, potatoes, lean meat. You should avoid foods that cause flatulence, such as pulses, onions or cauliflower. As with everything, check with your health care professionals if you are unsure on which foods to consume.

To alleviate her problem, you can try smaller volume but higher frequency diet. If she does not like red meat, you can try poultry, fish, egg and other soya product for replacement.

If she feels bitter, you can add sweet sauce, seafood sauce or peanut butter or drink fruit juice and honey to cover up the bitter taste. If she finds food tasteless, you can add more salt, garlic, sugar, cheese, ham, celery, onion, pickled vegetable or herbs to strengthen the taste. Besides, meat can be served with pineapple or peach.

If she tastes metal, you can use plastic utensils to reduce bitter taste. Do not use canned drink or metal cup. Food with sour taste can help reduce the metal taste e.g. fruit juice. Lastly, rinse the mouth before eating can also improve the situation.

Nowadays, there is no study indicating that food reduction can kill cancer cells or reduce their spread. Hence, please do not listen to rumor. For cancer patients, they should continue to feed and avoid weight loss. If weight loss is too high, it can affect quality of life, reduce the treatment effect and survival rate. Patient with cachexia will lose appetite, lose muscle and weight because of altered metabolism. It is common cause of death of cancer patients and lead to 5 to 25% of mortality. Hence, weight is vital to survival rate. If one loses 5% of weight in 1 month or 10% in 6 months, one is malnutrition. He or she should consult dietitians immediately for nutritional assessment and treatment. The early the intervention, the more effective the treatment will be.

During the treatment period, one can consider to take 2g of EPA daily. According to clinical study, EPA may inhibit weight loss, improve appetite. For more details, please consult your registered dietitian.

Drink enough liquid can improve the dryness situation. You can bring water along the way and keep the oral cavity wet. Patient can also eat wet food, e.g. soya bean curd, soft rice, cereal, and mashed potato. Add extra sauce e.g. soup, meat sauce and margarine. Eating very sweet or sour food can stimulate more saliva (This method is not suitable for patient with pain in oral cavity). Use straw to drink liquid food. Avoid eating very salty food because it can cause dryness. Putting ice inside the mouth, chewing hard candy or chewing gum can also stimulate saliva. If necessary, rinsing the mouth more often can keep your oral cavity healthy.

You can cut the food into pieces and cook until it becomes soft. You can eat soft food which is easy to chew and swallow which includes soft fruit (banana, mashed fruit, cooked pear or apple etc.), mashed potato, noodle, milk shake, cereal, soya bean curd etc. Besides, you can blend the vegetable and food to make it smooth. Or you can add meat soup or sauce into the food.

Beside normal meal, you can drink high energy, high protein nutritional supplement and choose cold or warm food. Moreover, please avoid food, which is too hot or sour such as alcohol, orange, lemon and grapefruit, spicy or salty food, coarse or dry food (potato chip, biscuit, toast, dry cereal). Remember to clean your teeth (including false tooth) after every meal and before sleep. Keep your mouth clean and prevent infection.

Patient can eat less with more frequent meal and avoid food which has too strong taste, too sweet and too oily. He can try dry food (such as toast, biscuit, fried ginger rice). Cold or warm food is more easily acceptable. Eat slowly with chewing can help digestion. If appetite is bad because of vomiting, he can try nutritional drink to supplement the regular meal. If he feels vomiting in the morning when he wakes up, he can eat a little soda biscuit on the bed. On the other hand, speak less before eating can help and avoid too much air entering into the stomach. At the same time, he should stay away from smoke, fragrance and mist. If the situation is serious, patient can ask the doctor to prescribe anti-vomiting medicine.

Persistent diarrhea can cause dehydration or the body deficient of important minerals such as sodium and potassium. Patient should eat less with more meals and try to drink fluid such as water or rice water during diarrhea to alleviate the situation. It let the intestine rest and replenish the water loss. When the diarrhea situation is improved, patients can slowly increase the portion of food with low residue and solid food, such as congee, white bread, white rice, mean meat, fish or cooked egg.

Sports drink can replenish the loss of sodium and potassium because of diarrhea. At the same time, drink sufficient warm fluid. Avoid drinking coffee, alcohol, milk, fruit juice and carbonated drink, or eating food, which is fried, oily, too sweet, too strong taste. Avoid chewing sugar free chewing gum or candy, high fibre food (e.g. full cereal food, bean or nuts). Should choose vegetable with low residue (e.g. young leaves, squash or melon without skin or seed). Reduce the portion of vegetable. If the situation is serious, please consult the doctor to prescribe anti-diarrhea medicine.

If you have less than three times per week, feces are in particle shape and are hard, you need to push hard and feel jammed, these are symptoms of constipation. This is common in cancer patients. They can drink 8-10 liquid (e.g. water, tea, soup, milk or grapefruit juice), eat more high fibre food e.g. whole wheat bread, cereal bread, red rice, coarse rice, cereal, vegetable, fruit, bean. Regular jogging and exercise can help intestine movement. If necessary, you can consult your doctor to prescribe medicine.

Patients should eat more slowly and avoid eating food which creates gas such as bean, onion, corn, cabbage, milk, carbonated drink. Slow walking can help ease the problem. Avoid eating chewing gum. Do not speak during eating to avoid inhaling too much air. If situation is persistent or worsen, please consult your doctor.

Breast cancer patient may gain weight during chemotherapy because of eating too much high calorie food or not doing exercise during the therapy. Hormone therapy such as female hormone is also possible reason to gain weight. If you weight is increased, it would be better for you to consult registered dietitian for weight reduction plan after the chemotherapy is finished.

This is the symptom of Dumping Syndrome. The volume of stomach after the surgery is reduced. It makes the food entering the small intestine too soon and stimulates body to stimulate large amount of insulin which cause very low blood sugar level. It makes people feel dizziness, sweating and faint. This usually happens in half hour to 2 hours after meal. It is suggested to eat less with more meal, to eat complex carbohydrate e.g. rice, bread and macaroni to delay the time of food entering the small intestine so that the blood sugar level can be maintained in relatively stable level. Since candy, sweet soup, carbonated drink, fruit juice contains lots of sugar which can be easily absorbed, they should be avoided. At the same time, avoid drinking fluid when having meal.

Radiotherapy, chemotherapy or cancer can reduce the white blood cells level which can increase the chance of infection. To reduce the chance of infection, one has to avoid uncooked egg, fish, rotten or damaged fruit and vegetable, damaged packaged food, expired food, salad bar or buffet.

Meat, poultry and fish needs to be fully cooked. Food should be defrosted in microwave oven, in refrigerator, or in running water. Do not defrost in room temperature. Food should be cooked immediately after defrosting. Hot food and cold food should be kept in right temperature. Unfinished food should be frozen within 2 hours and should not be stored in more than 3 days and should not reheat more than once. To reduce unfinished food, it would be good practice to buy small quantity packaged food or cook in smaller quantity. Knifes and chopping boards for raw and cooked food should be separated to minimize cross infection. In personal habit, one should use liquid soap to wash hands to prevent germ from spreading.

Late stage cancer patients have palliative care which includes nutrition therapy and/or medicine therapy to alleviate the pan and maintain quality of life and to keep balanced nutrition. The need of late stage cancer patients may vary. For late stage cancer patients, most food is accepted because patients always have problem with body function because of loss of appetite. Hence, one should encourage the patients to eat what they like. If they have problems with eating, they should consult registered dietitian for professional advice and consider having nutritional supplement with proper exercise to increase appetite.