Introduction If you've picked up this book, it's probably because you or someone very close to you is going through a difficult time. A cancer diagnosis and the prospect of cancer treatment is scary, even for the most upbeat soul. There are probably a million questions and thoughts running around your head, and while I can't address them all, I can speak to one: Am I going to enjoy eating during treatment? Heck, am I going to be able to eat at all? This book is all about enhancing your appetite during treatment, and much more. For me, the key concept is something I think of as "the power of yum," a phrase I've used throughout my career as a "culinary translator," if you will. I work with oncologists, nutritionists, and cancer wellness professionals to help their patients stay well fed during treatment by translating nutritional recommendations into delicious, nourishing meals. To me, this was always the power of yum in action: showing people that great nutrition and great taste could join together joyously on the same plate. Working with cancer patients for the past decade, I've seen heartening results. People who had truly disconnected from food could be brought back to the table and nourished, so long as the food was appealing to all the senses; was presented in a manner that fit their often shifting tastes and appetite (think small, nutrient-dense portions that are easily stored and reheated); and could easily be shopped for, prepped, and cooked by either the patient or their caregivers. If that was all there was to the power of yum, I'd be eternally grateful. It turns out that this is only half of the story. Over the past five years, the study of nutrition has expanded, exploded really, especially when it comes to understanding the many incredible properties foods have to fight cancer and limit the side effects of treatment. This isn't fly-by-night science either; it's the result of thousands of credible studies done by the country's finest academic research institutes and presented in first-rate peer-reviewed scientific journals such the New England Journal of Medicine and the Journal of the American Medical Association . As a chef, I've been awed by this data and, truth be told, a little intimidated. I intuitively and experientially understood how taste and flavor could positively affect the people I worked with. It had long been known that as many as 80 percent of cancer patients were malnourished, in some cases leaving them too weakened to withstand ongoing treatment. By keeping them nourished with healthy foods, both the patients and I knew they stood a better chance of making the transition from patient to survivor. Still, it seemed like a new study was coming out every week on this food or that, and all of this nutritional data was a bit confusing to me. And from the conversations I had with clients, I knew it was confounding to them at times. Yet this information held such promise that I decided I'd better learn to talk the talk. I was excited at the prospect of being able to make dishes that not only tasted great, but could make someone with a specific side effect feel better. So I went and got a masters in nutrition, not to impress my clients, but to be able to converse with those doctors and scientists working in the trenches with these foods to get a feel for where the research and the cancer-food connection was strong and where it wasn't, and so I could translate all that information into more outrageously scrumptious dishes to lure people in treatment back to the table. The result of this melding of science and taste is the cookbook and resource you hold in your hands. It's the culmination of conversations with what I think of as my counsel of experts: more than a dozen of the best minds in medical and cancer wellness in the country. Each of th Excerpted from The Cancer-Fighting Kitchen: Nourishing, Big-Flavor Recipes for Cancer Treatment and Recovery by Rebecca Katz, Mat Edelson All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.
