The Royal Marsden Cancer Cookbook wins Best Eating Well prize at Live Better With’s Spotlight Awards
Nominated by our cancer community for its great selection of recipes and easy-to-navigate format, the Royal Marsden Cancer Cookbook was awarded the top prize by our esteemed panel of judges.
Find out why the Royal Marsden Cancer Cookbook is the ideal product for helping you eat well when you have cancer.
Eating the right kinds of foods before, during, and after cancer treatment can help you feel better and stay stronger. But, understandably, it’s not always that simple.
There may be times during your cancer treatment when you are unable to eat as healthy as you would like. When you’re experiencing sore mouth, difficulty swallowing, and general loss of appetite, how are you supposed to keep your diet balanced and nutritious?
Good nutrition is especially important if you have cancer because both the illness and its treatment can affect your appetite. Cancer and cancer treatments can also affect your body’s ability to tolerate certain foods and use nutrients.
The Royal Marsden Cancer Cookbook explores the foods that will support and nourish you during this time and offers more than 150 delicious, healthy recipes divided into ‘During Treatment (dishes with more energy and in a form that is easier to eat) and ‘After Treatment’ (healthy options that encourage a balanced diet). There are also masses of inspirational ideas, variations and tips.
All the recipes have been reviewed and analysed by Dr Clare Shaw PhD, RD, Consultant Dietitian at The London-based Royal Marsden Hospital, a world-leading cancer centre specialising in diagnosis, treatment, care, education and research.
The recipes are designed for all the family – as well as for friends – to share, so you don’t have to cook individual meals, this easing stress and saving time and money. Positive, healthy eating is acknowledged to be invaluable in helping people to remain physically and mentally strong.
The book is divided into three sections:
- A detailed section by Clare Shaw about diet and cancer and the problems you may face during treatment (like loss of appetite, nausea, sore mouth, change of taste)
- Recipes to cook during treatment, that are nutritionally beneficial and wholesome enough to keep you strong even if you can’t eat too much
- A section of recipes for after treatment aimed at keeping you healthy.
We spoke to author Dr Clare Shaw to find out more
What inspired you to create a cookbook?
I was aware of the lack of good practical cookery books that provide information about diet and cancer and translate it into delicious recipes.
People going through cancer treatment can experience so many different reasons why eating is not easy and I wanted the book to give lots of ideas to encourage people to eat well.
How did you go about creating the recipes for the cookbook?
Many of the recipes were created especially for the book by Catherine Phipps. She really listened to all the information about eating well and translated the nutrition into practical recipes that were imaginative, tasty and suitable for the person with cancer and the whole family.Much of the advice and tips were passed on from people who had undergone treatment for cancer and other dietitians working in cancer.
What makes this cookbook stand out against all the other cancer cookbooks?
The book provides sound nutritional advice for those with cancer. There are many fads and myths around cancer and the book helps people make good food choices based on fact not fad. It also has lots of ideas to help people overcome some of the common symptoms that occur during treatment that can impact on food intake.
We should all eat well, but why is it especially important for people with cancer?
Eating well during treatment is vitally important to ensure people are fit to withstand cancer treatment and recover from treatment as quickly as possible. Losing weight can make people feel weak, fatigued and they are more vulnerable to the side effects of treatment. It is also important to recognise that some people may gain (unwanted weight) so for some eating well may be to try and avoid excess weight gain.
How does it feel to know that the book you created has helped so many people, that they chose to nominate it for a Spotlight Award?
I was so pleased to hear that the book had been nominated [and won]. The most important part of writing the book is for it to be of use to those with cancer, their family and carers.
The first of its kind, the Spotlight Awards shine a light on the achievements of truly remarkable people, products, and services in the cancer community. Nominated by the public, and voted by a panel of expert judges, the winners are from all walks of life, of all ages, and from across the world.
The Spotlight Awards have been organised by Live Better With, an award-winning online platform where cancer patients and their loved ones can find products and information to help with the symptoms and side effects of living with cancer.
See the full list of Spotlight Award winners here.