Nutrition Therapy: Personalized Nutritional Plan
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Building A Nutritional Plan to Meet Your Needs
During your consultation visit to our hospital, you’ll meet with your dietitian to discuss which dietary goal is most important for you to pursue at that time: increasing the amount of nutrition you are able to intake, or improving the quality of food you eat. Once you and your dietitian have decided which goal to focus on, you’ll work together to design a nutritional plan that addresses your needs.
The first step to developing your plan is to fill out an informational sheet, which asks questions about your weight, including whether you’ve gained or lost weight since you were diagnosed with cancer. Additionally, the form inquires:
- Whether any of the symptoms you are experiencing are interfering with your ability to eat and digest food
- If you have been engaging in activities of daily living as you normally would
- If you are taking any dietary supplements
Next, you and your dietitian will have a detailed conversation about the current status of your diet. She or he will ask you to talk about what you eat in a typical day, as well as any recent changes in your diet.
After your dietitian has collected and reviewed your dietary information, along with your medical history and lab work, she or he will make specific dietary recommendations and help you to put together your nutritional plan.
Each time you meet with your dietitian, you’ll go through the same steps. You’ll complete the informational form again, and your dietitian will review your up-to-date medical records in the CTCA Electronic Health Records system to check your weight and blood work. This will help your dietitian to determine whether your nutritional plan is working.
If your dietitian feels that your plan is not helping you, she or he will offer new recommendations and make modifications to the plan. For example, your dietitian may speak with your medical oncologist about prescribing an appetite stimulant if the natural therapies you have tried and the changes you have made to your diet are not working.
After you have completed cancer treatment, your dietitian can recommend which foods to eat more frequently (e.g., fish, fruits and vegetables, whole grains), as well as which foods to avoid (e.g., butter and other saturated fats).
Your Next Steps
Call CTCA today at 888-841-9129 to learn more about nutrition therapy and our nutrition metabolic support team. Oncology Information Specialists are always available to answer your questions and provide information on our hospitals and treatment options.
