Hi All,

I helped my FIL in India, where choices are quite different when it comes to eating. We came up with a few solutions I haven't seen before and/or which aren't always practiced in many cases, that I think might be underused in the USA.

Here are a few tips I have

1. Healthy oils were added to supplement missing calories. My FIL didn't much care for ensure drinks, so we added oil to his food. We primarly used canola and mustard seed oils. For lunch, in order to catch up on his caloric intake, there were often times when we would add 4-5 tablespoons of oil to his lunch, for example. This not only gave him needed calories, it also made the food a lot easier to swallow. I know this level of oil consumption is unusual, especially in the USA, but it was critical for him.

2. A pressure cooker does wonders. This is a device that basically kills the fibers in a food (if you cook it long enough!) that makes it harder to chew or swallow. And it does it far more quickly than regular stovetop cooking. Many protein rich foods can be consumed this way, including beans, lentils, chana dal, and quinoa. Grains like rice and oatmeal can also be softened into total mush using a pressure cooker. All of these can be found in the USA. In the pressure cooker we were able to make a combination of rice and lentils that we'd then add several spoons of oil to. It was easy to make a 1000 calorie, protein and fiber dense meal in this way. I especially suggest sonsidering quinoa for this purpose due to its being a complete protein source, but it was not available in India. Get it at whole foods by the pound. Be careful that you get enough protein.

Pressure cookers are not nearly as scary or difficult to use as they seem. I use one most days even now; as do most Indian housewives. Without it we'd be cooking all day.

3. Track calories. It's pretty imperative that you do it regularly. There is no way to be sure you are getting enough calories unless you track them. If you don't do this, odds are you will not get enough, lose weight, and severely interfere with your body's attempts to heal. I used a website called thedailyplate.com to very quickly track calories and set up custom foods and menus.


4. The other foods he consumed regularly were eggs, milk, and fresh pomegranate juice (since it is low acid).


My FIL lost no weight during his treatment, despite a complete lack of taste and moderate difficulty swallowing for a few months.


Hope these suggestions help.