Healthy food for chemo patients

Thankfully we don't have anyone in our immediate family who has had to undergo cancer treatment, but we've known plenty of people in our circle of association; friends and colleagues, who have undergone difficult cancer treatments, and survived. A common course of treatment for the cancer patient is chemotherapy.

Often the chemo patient develops sores in and around the mouth, making it extremely painful to chew or swallow, and therefore difficult to ingest protein, which can then perpetuate the cycle of depletion and deterioration. One woman I know of said that at one point all she could eat during her chemo treatment was applesauce. A recovering cancer patient, undergoing chemo needs far more nutritional support than just applesauce.

Homemade, high quality soup stock made from 100% grass fed beef bones or roasts offers an easy and wholesome manner in which to obtain protein, iron, and numerous other important nutrients without the need to chew and aggravate chemo-induced mouth sores.

Volumes of research indicate that clean, grass fed and grass finished beef, free of added hormones can play an important role in the prevention and management of debilitating diseases such as cancer, diabetes, and heart disease. More and more doctors are recommending that their patients eat clean, grass fed beef.

Other studies have indicated that good, old-fashioned stock made from bones, cartilage, and connective tissue has many great properties and nutrients, which help heal the core and aid digestive problems, as well as arthritis and joint problems.

In order to make it as easy as possible on the mouth, use a strained broth to start out with. If the patient feels up to it after trying the thin broth, add a little bit of blended meat and cooked vegetable mixture.

With chemo patients, you want to be careful not to use any salt as it causes great discomfort in the mouth. The celery provides some sodium as well as potassium, but salt must be introduced carefully and slowly, with building tolerance.

As the sores heal over, more salt can be tolerated, but be absolutely sure to use clean and pure sea salt such as Celtic Sea Salt or even land-based, ancient, sea-bed salts, such as Redmond Salt from Utah. Not only do they contain sodium and chloride, but many other trace minerals that are so essential to proper functioning, such as Ca, Mg, Mn, Cu, S, and others, in far higher concentrations than occurs in common table salt.

As the patient grows stronger, the mouth sores may begin to heal and he or she can begin to tolerate more solid food.

At that time, you can begin to combine cooked meat (roast or hamburger), cooked organic barley, and vegetables with a little broth, then blend them in the blender for easy consumption. Reheat with more broth.

Along with the celery, carrots, onions, and garlic; you can add, cook, and blend any of the following: Kale, cauliflower, broccoli, chard, spinach, cabbage, beet greens, leeks, or any number of vegetables, especially if they are clean and pure, and from a known source.

While you're busy straining beef broth for the chemo patient, you may have a whole number of other family or household members who also need to eat.

With a whole family to feed, you can slow cook a bone-in roast, with water, which cooks into a lovely au jus, or broth that can be used for French dips, gravies, or soup stock

Slow cooked roast recipe:
*Oil bottom of roasting pan with olive oil

*Peel and slice 2 onions and separate onion slices into rings

*Place half of sliced onion rings on bottom of pan

*Pat small amount of pepper onto roast and place roast on onion rings (as the patient progresses you can add sea salt to the rub on the roast as tolerated).

*Place remaining onion rings on top of roast

*Fill roasting pan with water until half-way up to the top of the roast

*Place in 250 degree F oven for 9 - 12 hours

Remove from heat and serve hot with au jus, roasted potatoes, salad, and / or steamed or sautéed vegetables.

Serve the roast and au jus to your family (French dips on a baguette are wonderful), but save some of the broth for the healing chemo patient. And if they're up to it add meat, vegetables, and barley that have been run through the blender.

Other studies have indicated that good old fashioned bone broth has many healing qualities, especially for the joints and bones. You can check out Dr. David Williams' research in his monthly newsletter: Alternatives at the following link.

Dr. Davd Williams, in an article on bone broth, states that bone broth is a plentiful source of the amino acid glycine, which is important for all different manner of proper bodily function.

In his article "The Best of Broth Worlds", Dr. Williams states: "In fact, glycine is a required component of so many functions of the body that a deficiency can result in a wide and varied range of problems.

In addition to its role in the synthesis of glutathione, glycine is required for the synthesis of oxygen-carrying hemoglobin, digestive bile salts, and glucose. Its importance becomes more apparent when you look at some of today's most common health problems and what doctors a hundred years ago were experiencing with some of their patients."

Dr. Williams continues: "Over a century ago, doctors reported that one of the primary attributes of adding gelatin (made from bone broth) to the diet was an immediate improvement in digestion. Not surprisingly, it was later learned that glycine is one of the few amino acids that actually stimulates the secretion of stomach acids".

If you are a chemotherapy patient who suffers from protein and iron deficiency, as well as debilitating mouth sores that make it next to impossible to chew food, try our bone broth (beef stock) recipe from our 100% grass fed and finished beef.

Throughout this lense, I have endeavored to provide you wtih some solutions to the problems created by your chemotherapy treatments. I hope you will take these suggestions in the spirit in which they were given, from my heart.

I don't have many photos of soup or broth, nor people undergoing chemo, so I settled for mostly ranch photos, so you can see the setting in which our 100% grass fed and finished beef is raised.