Teaching Kitchen Would Help Nourish Cancer Patients for Fight of Their Lives

For cancer patients who struggled to stay nourished during treatment, Benefis aims to work with donors to add a teaching kitchen during a “re-visioning” remodel of the Benefis Sletten institute. The project also will involve increasing the size of the infusion suite and pharmacy and expanding the genetic counseling program.

With advanced cancer particularly, appetite loss and fatigue are major factors, said Amanda Lucas, an SCI nurse practitioner specializing in palliative care. Taste buds change, too, and patients often are frustrated because nothing tastes good.

Too much weight loss during cancer treatment can seriously impact quality of life, particularly by causing worse levels of fatigue.

“I’m constantly having to call our dietitian,” Amanda said.

The plan for the teaching kitchen includes using the space for classes with trained dieticians and chefs to provide patients with tips so patients can better tolerate treatments and reduce complications.

They’ll have strategies on how to incorporate different flavors, textures, and nutrients into patients’ diets to mitigate the changes the patients will likely experience as a result of particular types of treatment, while also giving input into how to wash and prepare food differently to adapt to being immunocompromised as a result of aggressive treatments.

Nearly 80% of cancer patients experience malnutrition at some point during their course of treatment so a teaching kitchen would help create a more holistic and comprehensive treatment of patients’ needs.

The teaching kitchen also would offer a place where people walking the same challenging paths have camaraderie as they work on staying nourished, plus expert advice, patient Janet Hansen said.

“If you get together in that environment and everyone collaborates, you’ll find out what works. It’s a social thing. It’s good to put your heads together and get new ideas,” she said. “Having a teaching kitchen at SCI would have been helpful. I spent a lot of time by myself, experimenting, and not knowing what to do.”