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I have not forgotten you, chemotherapy recipes.

It’s just that, this is a really tough problem! I’ve been gathering information for the past few weeks. Gathering recipes that other people recommend, gathering food substitutions, and gathering lots of (conflicting) information about what people can and cannot tolerate on chemotherapy.

Here’s my unscientific list of that last so far:

Food that cannot be tolerated
Onions, many herbs, vegetable juices, broccoli, milk & dairy, ice cream, vegetables, chicken, chocolate, italian food, hot liquids, garlic, red wine, fried foods

Foods that can be tolerated
Dairy, potatoes, pickled things, chocolate, fruit smoothie, rice, ginger, green tea, greek salads, broccoli, green beans, caesar salads, starches, pasta, soups, sandwiches, fruit, chicken chop suey, salads, creamy soups, veggie soups, cheese, zucchini, lemon-flavoring, jello, banana bread, bananas, cool whip, scrambled eggs, toast, oatmeal, pudding, applesauce, tomato soup, baby spinach, dark greens, avocado, portabella mushrooms, goat cheese, feta cheese, scallions, strawberries

Foods that tasted different
Sweets, watermelon, ice cream, water, grape faygo (soda)

Foods that were easiest to taste
garlic, salt

Seriously, putting that all together is quite the puzzle. But I like puzzles. I LOVE puzzles, in fact. So I shall prevail.

In the meantime, does anyone out there on chemo have any input? What tastes good/bad/awful/bland? Lemme know!

So I’ve been thinking really hard about this food thing, right? While most of my thoughts has been forward-thinking (I hope), it struck me the other day that I should look backwards as well.

I’m actually a cancer survivor, about six years now. I can’t complain about the experience, because treatment worked very well for me and I’m quite healthy today. But I did start to remember how I ate during that time — ugh. I don’t mean that I ate crap leading up to cancer (even though that’s true too), but more the fact that during four months of chemotherapy, I pretty much lived on Ensure.

Not to rag on Ensure, because it’s designed specifically for folks with compromised immune systems and compromised digestive tracts. It certainly did its job. But day after day it seemed like my only choices were chocolate, vanilla, or strawberry.

I thought to myself, if only I knew then what I’m learning now… How great would it be to have a nice stack of chemo-friendly recipes?

For those of you who don’t know, chemo tends to wreck havoc with your eating habits. First of all, you are killing off all the fast-growing cells in your body - the pesky tumor, your hair, and also a good chunk of your stomach lining. So nausea is a common side-effect.

So is an increased, super powerful sense of smell. Trust me, there is nothing like it. One day, everything is normal, and the next you are able to pick out what’s hidden in your neighbor’s garbage can. Chemo treatment rooms generally ban the use of perfumes and scents for that very reason. What’s nice and subtle normally is gag inducing to a cancer patient. Again, this is due to killing off the fast-growing cells in your nose.

And everything just tastes funny. Ironically, a lot of food loses its flavor, so the first impulse is to add more spice and seasoning, which is the last thing your stomach wants.

Another problem is that certain chemo cocktails can cause severe allergic reactions in people. To prevent these reactions, patients are put on steroids. So you have nausea and the steroid munchies at the same time. It’s infuriating.

Eating well on chemotherapy is challenging, to say the least.

So one of my new missions is to come up with a bunch of recipes that are chemo-friendly. I’m currently surveying a bunch of folks to see what they could and couldn’t eat during chemo. The answers are sometime predictable, but sometimes surprising! Like the one girl who wanted everything pickled. I wasn’t expecting that!

I’m doing a lot of research and promise I’ll come up with some good stuff. Stay tuned.