The Illness Diet: What to Eat When You’re Sick

A good diet is important to ensure your wellness, but what happens when you don’t feel well at all? If you’re ill, your wellbeing could suffer even more because healthy eating becomes more challenging, especially if you have a chronic illness such as cancer, arthritis or even depression. Whether it’s the disease or the treatment, you can feel too fatigued to cook, or without an appetite altogether. You might feel too nauseous to eat, and arthritis can make it a lot harder to get out and shop for food. However, you need vitamins and minerals more than even when you’re ill.

Firstly, according to Paula Charuhas, a nutrition education coordinator, ‘Protein is crucial for building and repairing cells’. Your body’s ability to heal will be improved, as protein helps to maintain fluid balance and muscle mass. Dr Christine Gerbstadt, a spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association, recommends the obvious sources of chicken, pork, lean beef, fish and lamb, as well as eggs and cheese as easily digestible forms of animal protein.

For vegetarians Gerbstadt notes ‘The problem is that you have to eat a lot of vegetable protein to get the equivalent of a much smaller amount of animal protein’ so you can try sources such as beans, pulses, Soya products and nuts, or adding more peanut butter or almond butter to your diet, but your GP may recommend high-protein nutritional supplement drinks or powdered protein that you can stir into any food if you’re not getting the protein power you need.

Next, make sure you’re getting enough calories because if you’re ill, you may need more calories than normal because your body is working harder. However, many people don’t have a large enough appetite but unintentional weight loss can become serious, leaving you exhausted and weak and potentially interfering with your treatment. Prominent dietician Rachel Zinaman ‘burgers and milkshakes to some women with cancer to stop them from losing too much weight’, though she stresses that this is obviously only a good idea for people who are losing weight, as some people stand to contrastingly gain weight from chronic diseases and treatments. When you need to gain weight, however, protein is again imperative, and you can try drinking full-fat milk instead of skimmed and adding cream to soups, fruit, and cold cereal and other foods.

Finally, add some fibre to your diet, focusing on whole grains, fruit and vegetables. By eating a wide array of these foods, you’ll naturally get the vitamins, minerals and phytochemicals you need to improve how you feel right now, and boost your immune system for the future. Contact your GP for more information.