Nutrition During Radiation Treatment

A healthy diet is vital for your body to work at its best. That's especially true during radiation treatments. Good nutrition will help:

• Keep your strength up
• Prevent body tissues from breaking down
• Rebuild tissues that radiation treatments can harm
• You cope better with the side effects of treatment
• To keep your natural defense system stronger

A diet to keep your body strong should include foods from all food groups. However, you'll likely need more calories and more high protein foods.

You may need to use nutrition supplements to make sure you get enough calories and protein.

Talk to your doctor or care team about working with a dietitian to help you during your treatments. They can explain the nutrition you need and answer your questions. Working together, you can eat better during your course of treatment.