If cancer had a taste, it would be bitter – like the bitter diagnosis, treatments and side effects. Yet for many cancer patients, one of the most frustrating challenges isn’t bitterness at all but rather the struggle to taste anything. Foods they love lose their flavor, meals become chores instead of a source pleasure, and getting needed nourishment feels like climbing a mountain with no map.
But at Cleveland Clinic Indian River Hospital’s Scully-Welsh Cancer Center, patients are discovering that food can still be a source of comfort, strength and joy during treatment.
Cancer. It is the dirty six-letter word no one ever wants to hear. It barges into life unannounced, bringing appointments, tests and treatments that leave little room for anything else. But while cancer takes away many things, nutrition is one area where patients can regain a sense of control, according to Gabriela Sabanilla, a dietitian at Cleveland Clinic Indian River Hospital…