You want to eat, you know you need to eat, but the thought of food either makes you nauseous, leaves you prematurely full, or feels impossible to even start. When you are in the middle of cancer or trying to rebuild after it, appetite loss can feel like the last straw.

For me, it didn’t happen all at once. It started with skipping meals here and there because my stomach didn’t tell me I needed food, and when I did eat, I would find myself taking fewer and fewer bites, feeling full sooner than I should have.  My pants began to sag and over several weeks tasks like climbing stairs or carrying laundry felt like I was doing a workout. At the time I didn’t know it, but I was already sliding into cancer-related wasting, also called cachexia.

Most people don’t realize that appetite loss in cancer is rarely about willpower or becoming a “picky eater.” It is a physiological process that tumors, the stress of treatment be it chemo or alternative, and trauma triggers inflammatory signals in the body that shut down hunger hormones like ghrelin. They can also raise resting metabolism and block our ability to absorb nutrition. In this state, the body literally rewires our digestion to conserve energy for survival.

Low blood sugar, also called hypoglycemia, makes this even worse. When blood sugar keeps dropping, the brain’s first priority is survival, not mealtime. That wired, panicked, hopeless feeling is not just in your head, it is in your cells. Without steady glucose, your muscles lose fuel, your mood crashes, and your immune system isn’t able to mount a strong defense. 

When I was going through this I lost over 100 pounds, most of it within 3 months, and when I went to emergency for help I was sent home. No help other than a glucose IV, just the suggestion of drinking Boost or Ensure and given what’s actually in those – and not in those, that wasn’t a solution either.

That’s when I sat down with my naturopath and learned that there are steps we can take to start reversing this, and I’m going to share some of what worked for me when I was literally wasting away.

First and most important, calm the system before trying to feed it. If your nervous system believes you are in danger, digestion isn’t going to happen.  This is where nausea, cramping and diarrhea come into play as a result of that – nothing gets absorbed.  

I started with grounding my body by walking, standing or even sitting barefoot on the grass, spending a few minutes on slow deep breathing with long exhales, usually resting with my hand on my belly until I felt my body soften.

Because digestion is a mess, you want to treat it like a baby’s tummy, beginning with easy-to-process, nutrient-dense fuel. This is not the time for bulky salads or heavy casseroles, the foods I used to love shredded my guts so instead, I began with warm, mineral-rich broths.

Miso, mushroom or bone broths are wonderful, especially if they’re home made. They activate the vagus nerve to kickstart digestion, trigger appetite signals and the electrolytes stabilize energy and reduce fatigue. Because it’s gentle to digest, broth helps the gut feel safe again after nausea or trauma, and that makes it easier to eat the next thing.

Once my gut was ready, I added in what I call Sippable Solutions, basically a balanced liquid meal with 20g of complete digestible protein, 4g of healthy fats, 6g of gentle prebiotic fiber, 24 real-food vitamins and minerals in serious amounts, and digestive support that would help me to absorb that much needed nutrition. Without that I would have literally starved to death of malnutrition.

It’s a source of fuel that I could sip slowly, just a few ounces an hour worked perfectly, (even in the middle of the night), without triggering nausea, cramping or the runs.

These three things helped to stabilize my blood sugars and prevented that hypoglycemia that sends our body into panic mode.

Over time I could add in gentle foods like baked yams, steamed white fish and mushy peas. There was no way that I could down three large meals, so I focused on micro-meals served on side plates that I could tolerate, spacing them out throughout the day, and even adding in a few sips of that Sippable Solution during the evening to help keep those nutrients flowing in.

If you’re losing weight, strength or energy by the day and the advice you have been given is “just eat more” or “stay positive,” you probably already know that it doesn’t help and how that advice doesn’t work when your physiology is in a crisis like that. It’s almost insultive because obviously, if we could, we would! Right?

The goal is not simply to get food or empty calories in, the goal is to get fuel into your body that it can actually use to recover and rebuild.

If you or a loved one is struggling to eat, I’ve been where you are. I know what it feels like to dread every bite, to push food away while the people around you are begging you to eat, but I also know it can change, because I have lived through that change.

If you’re at that point that you’re looking to fuel your body back to life, comment “FUEL” and I will send you my free guide with the exact strategies that helped me to turn my appetite back on.

Follow me on Instagram @CancerNutritionSupport for more survival strategies, I’m someone who has been there – done that.


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