High Protein and Calories Diet

It is important that advanced cancer patients have taken enough nutrition to help fighting cancer, especially when they are having anti-cancer treatment. However, they may have poor appetite. Please try frequent meals in small portions and take more high protein and calorie food, such as:

• Congee (with minced meat, fish filet or egg drops)
• Dumplings, wontons, fish balls and boiled eggs
• Fried eggs and baked beans
• Barbecued pork buns, vegetable meat buns, steamed buns and custard buns
• Rice rolls, dim sum, turnip cake and taro cake
• Sandwiches (eggs, ham, tuna, sardines, cheese), French toasts and toasts (butter, sweet peanut butter, salad dressings, jam, sweetened condensed milk)
• Ingredients in soup (potatoes, yam, carrots)
• Digestive biscuits, sandwich cookies, cookies and wafers
• Cakes, egg rolls, egg tarts and western cakes
• Red bean cakes, coconut milk cakes, white sugar cakes, steamed rice cakes, red bean puddings and split peas and coconut cream puddings
• Tofu puddings, stewed eggs, yoghurts, ice cream, puddings and jelly
• Sweet soups (sweet walnut soup, sweet black sesame soup, sweet peanut soup, pumpkin soup, almond milk, sago in coconut milk, red/green bean soup, yuba egg sweet soup, sweet potato sweet soup)
• Add some oil, e.g. canola oil, olive oil, peanut oil or rice bran oil during cooking

According to the food pyramid, the main sources of protein are beans, meat, fish, eggs, milk and dairy products.

Suggested priority:

1. Beans and related products (e.g. soybeans, black beans, edamame, tofu, dried tofu)
2. Fish and seafood
3. Eggs
4. White meat (e.g. chicken)
5. Red meat (e.g. pork, beef, lamb)

The recommended daily protein intake (gram) for an adult = body weight (kilogram) x 0.8

Example: For an adult with body weight 50kg, the recommended daily protein intake is 

50 x  0.8 = 40 gram protein

Notes:

Patients who are on anti-cancer treatment or have impaired renal function may have different requirements on protein limit. Please consult your doctor or dietitian about the amount of protein you need.

Many people take in protein in the form of protein shake. The standard recommendation of drinking protein shake is 2 scoops of protein powder with 200ml of water. However, protein powder does not dissolve in water easily and often many find the taste chalky and terribly. There are a lot of articles on the internet sharing ways to make protein shake taste better, but my advice is to “Divide”, “Dilute” and “Disguise”.
•⁠  ⁠Divide 2-3 scoops of protein powder into several intakes where you can choose to,
•⁠  ⁠Dilute 2 scoops into 2 liters of water in a big bottle and consume for the day,
•⁠  ⁠Disguise 1 scoop into meals. For example, 1/3 of it into the congee in the morning, 1/3 of it into the lunch meal and lastly 1/3 of it into soup during dinner. 

Hope these tips can help you to improve your albumin level.😉

If you cannot take solid diet, you can consider fluid diet rich in calorie, such as, 

• Nutritional supplements, fresh milk, soy milk, milkshakes, Ovaltine, Horlicks, Milo, chocolate milk, instant oats, and instant three-in-one beverages
• Egg sweet soup, fish soup, stews and cream soup
• Honey water, watercress honey drinks and grapefruit honey drinks