Let them eat cake: Food for cancer patients need not always be "healthy"

A healthful approach to food can be an important step in a cancer patient’s journey. But experts want to dispel fear and confusion around nutrition during a time that is rife with those emotions.

“No matter what, when you have cancer, you have anxiety,” said Lanie Francis, a medical oncologist and hematologist who is founder and director of the Wellness and Integrative Oncology Program at the UPMC Hillman Cancer Center.

That anxiety can be translated into being “rigid,” “paranoid” or even “paralyzed” about food, she said.

Which is not to deny food’s potentially transformative effects on well-being, but Francis said that though there are general research-backed suggestions, her program focuses on listening to individual patients and making recommendations based upon their needs.

Francis