During her fiancé’s two-year battle with brain cancer, Maranda Cress struggled with food.
When Cress learned the importance of proper nutrition and nutrition to a cancer patient, Cress consulted dietitians and nutritionists for recipes or modifications to their own preparations.
She threw herself into preparing meals that were heavily based on plant-based, vitamin-rich foods when Joe Mercer went through debilitating treatments.
Cress, a Coshocton resident, also began taking notes during the long ordeal – notes about cancer, treatments, mental health, and stories she heard from fellow patients and caregivers.
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Mercer faced high opportunities from the start. Cress said the doctors told him his cancer had a survival rate of about 5%.
He died in January 2012 at the age of 30.
The collection of recipes and notes sat on a shelf for many years, Cress said.
“It took me a while to realize I was making a book,” said Cress, 38. “It took me a few years to decide to turn to this chapter again.”
Two years ago, Cress began putting it together, a project complicated by COVID-19 and the fact that she was homeschooling four children for the 2020-21 school year. (She is now married to James Cress and has a blended family with a total of seven children.)
The result was a self-published book “Cooking for a Cure: A Nutritional Guide for Cancer Patients and their Caregivers” in March.
It contains many recipes, but also inspiring quotes, resource lists, and anecdotes and stories from others she met during Mercer’s fight.
“I hope it helps people,” said Cress. “When I took (Mercer) with me to doctor’s appointments or for treatment, I always felt alone. I wanted to change that for others. ”
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Proper nutrition is vital for cancer patients, said Dr. Carolyn Presley, oncologist at Ohio State University’s Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital.
“I’d say diet, along with exercise, is the # 1 changeable component that the patient is in control of during the cancer journey,” said Presley. “What you eat really affects how you feel and what side effects you may have during cancer treatment.”
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Presley and Colleen Spees, a registered nutritionist and associate professor at OSU’s College of Medicine, are helping direct a national study of lung cancer patients in which some patients receive medically-tailored diets and nutritional advice.
They hope this will increase the importance of diet in cancer treatment.
“Health professionals have always known the importance of diet,” said Spees. “But the problem now in oncology is that, in most cases, there isn’t a nutritionist who is fully integrated into the cancer care team.”
Right now, according to Spees, the ratio of dietitians to cancer patients is 1 in about 2,300 when it should be about 1 in 120.
According to the American Cancer Society, tips for cancer patients include staying well hydrated and eating a high protein diet (lean meat, no red meat) and enough calories. Citrus fruits and yellow and green leafy vegetables provide vitamins and minerals.
Avoid fried and spicy foods, along with saturated fats.
Experts also recommend eating smaller meals more often than two to three large meals. Caregivers can have portioned appetizers frozen and ready to eat when patients who may be nauseous from treatments feel better.
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Presley and Spees say they should ensure that patients contact their professional care team with all nutritional issues and are not receiving information from anyone trying to sell products. Certain herbal remedies or supplements may actually interfere with, rather than help, some treatments, they said.
The duo say they are encouraged by the preliminary results of their study, which started in 2019 and is about halfway through.
“Patients feel better, much better, and have fewer side effects,” said Presley. “Overall, they are more committed and feel more responsible for how they can contribute to their own health. This not only affects how they feel physically, but also provides mental health support. ”
Cress’s book can be purchased on her Facebook page facebook.com/MarandaCress/. Presley and Spees recommend checking with the American Cancer Society at.cancer.org or the American Institute for Cancer Research aicr.org.
kgordon@dispatch.com
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