How To Make Food Enjoyable Again When You Have Cancer
Many cancer treatments impact your relationship with food. Many cancer treatments can cause your food to taste different than it did before to you. Foods that you loved before may suddenly taste way too sweet or taste way too bland when you eat them. Changes in the taste of food can make the process of eating food less enjoyable during a time-period where you need to make sure you are eating enough food and getting enough calories.
If food is not tasting right to you anymore, there are a variety of changes you can make to how you prepare your food and what you eat based on the type of change in taste you are experiencing.
#1. Foods Don't Seem to Be as Tasty
If normal foods that you eat don't seem to be that tasty or flavorful, you are going to want to increase the amount of seasonings, sauces, and marinades that you use on your food. Using more seasonings, sauces, and marinades will help improve the flavor of your food.
When you cook, use marinades with your meat. Go for bold sauces to bring more flavor to your dishes, such as barbecue sauce and teriyaki sauce. Get out your condiments, and use ketchup and different types of mustard to add more taste to your dishes. Cook with vinegar and wine, which can help bring out the flavor in your dishes. Experiment and be liberal with adding spices, fresh herbs, and dried herbs to your dishes.
There are also certain flavors you can add to your food that have stronger flavor profiles. Try cooking more with onions, garlic, bell peppers, bacon, and cheese. All these foods have strong flavor profiles and can bring more flavor to your food.
#2. Foods Seem to Be Too Sweet
If foods taste too sweet, you can tone down the sweetness of the foods you are eating. Add a dash of salt to the dish, and that should help cut down on the sweet flavor. A squeeze of lemon juice can also cut down on the sweet flavor you are experiencing from your foods.
You can also switch out the types of snacks and foods you are eating and go for snacks that are not too sweet to begin with. Try snacking on things such as nuts, crackers, cheese, chips, pretzels, nut butters, and savory dips. These saltier and savor flavors should taste more appealing to you when everything tastes sweet.
#3. Foods Taste Too Salty
If foods are tasting a little too salty, you are going to want to change things up in a different way. If foods are tasking too salty, you can add a little granulated sugar to the dish to cut down on the taste of salt. Avoid cooking foods that contain a significant amount of salt, and stay away from things like soy sauce which just add more salt to your dish. When you shop, pick up foods that are labeled as low or reduced sodium. Avoid chips, crackers, and other snacks that naturally seem to be saturated with salt. Stick to blander snacks, such as cottage cheese, graham crackers, and toast.
To make foods enjoyable as you go through your cancer treatment, you may need to make some adjustments to how you cook your food and what you eat to make food more palpable. Reach out to cancer treatment professionals, like those represented at http://swoncology.net/, to learn more.