My mom is on chemotherapy, and her weight is dipping incredably low. She wants to remedy this in a whole-foods way, and certain thick textures really throw her off food, so I've been making her nut milks and raw cookies, trying to pack in the calories.

I'm inquiring as to some of your favorite calorie-dense recipes that you use, particularily if you're an athlete who burns fuel like nobodies business. She doesn't want to eat ALOT OF BULK, but she needs the calories in as small a package as possible, and an appealing one at that. I'm going to venture into raw buckwheat and rice milks tonight, because of the lower fat content and more carbohydrate they offer.

Suggestions are extremely welcome!

(She's not all raw, but she is vegan and she drinks green juice and eats very well.)

banana coconut water smoothies? pretty much banana-anything smoothies. or are smoothies too thick?

She doesn't like really cold things, she can't drink much freezing stuff at once, but I could do that at a room temperature. Thanks!

Banana and coconut pudding.

You need ripe bananas, and young coconuts, or old ones could do the job too. Put everything in the food processor.

She should put on some weight with that

Hi smilingrawdancer!!

So sorry to hear about your mom, that is such a difficult time in a person's life, I wish her a good journey and a good recovery.

I had to go through chemo a few years ago, and there are some challenges. For one thing, a lot of your old favorite foods can suddenly become revolting to you. You could not have paid me to eat chocolate during my chemo, or anything fried in oil - totally gross! (I wasn't raw then, but I was vegetarian). But sometimes, she might want to eat things that aren't really strictly part of her desired diet. That's okay, she shouldn't beat herself up if it happens. One day, I ate an entire jar of cheeze whiz with a spoon. Just found it in the fridge, and couldn't stop myself. I hadn't eaten that stuff in years, but my doctor just laughed and said I probably needed the fat. Although it isn't like pregnancy when you get odd cravings. This is cravings because you are poisoned, so it can't be really trusted.

If your mom is having trouble with creamy thick textures like banana smoothies, maybe you could try something tomato or spicy based and add avocado or olives (like some kind of gazpacho or blended salad?). Flax crackers might be helpful if she is allowed to eat flax (estrogenic). Dry crunchy things like toast helped me with my nausea.

It's important to be open to the unexpected. I had one drug I had to take - five pills every day for fourteen days, then fourteen days off in the hopes I could build myself up enough to tolerate another fourteen days of hell (for six months). The problem was that these pills did something horrible to me. I don't know how to describe it except to say it was like severe heartburn, and yet nothing at all like heartburn. Some kind of very awful gurgly feeling that would last for about 10 or more hours every time I took my pills. It was awful. But finally a chemo nurse told me about red wine. I discovered that if I took these pills and washed them down with a few sips of red wine (which was really weird, because I had to take them first thing in the morning when I woke up), the gurgly discomfort was almost completely eliminated!!! How strange, but saved me from a lot of misery! So even keep your eyes and ears open for strange ideas.

Lastly, the best thing that ever happened to me during chemo was that I discovered Cellfood. That stuff really saved me. I healed at record speed from my surgeries, my gums got super healthy (my dentist was totally impressed), and it just seems to do me a lot of good over-all. I don't know why, but it works. You can google it if you like, but I don't order it on-line, because it is available at any health store near where I live. Check that out first.

Good luck and please keep posting. I pray that your mom sails through this difficult time and comes out okay on the other end.

Sapphire

Thanks for the reply!

She's a trooper - I love her to death, and she is determined to be a good patient and take all her meds and finish this off for good.

Yeah, it's the creamy things that sometimes give her trouble, but even that is unpredictable and dependant on her mood. Some days she is GREAT, and on those days I try and give her tons of goodies and calories.
Today I made her rice/almond milk, to give a better ratio of carbs and fat, and she loved it and it tasted awesome, so that's going to be a keeper.
I've also been adding Nutribiotic rice protein powder to things (it's processed under 90 degrees -I couldn't recommend it more!). She's had pretty bad muscle wasting.

She is adverse to flaxseed - she can't get past the idea that they will make her @#$%& like crazy - I personally have never had that experiance, I do fine with them, but I don't give her flax-heavy things for that reason - she doesn't want them. Otherwise I'd make her crackers and portable snacks like that, She almost needs food constantly around, so whenever she feels like eating she can do it right then. I'm going to look up alternative food bars and crackers that I can make with only nuts or vegetables, no flax. I haven't found any inexpensive chia seeds, or else I'd venture into making things with those.

Next, I'm going to start drying fruits or buying dried fruits to make things with. She eats dates, but some other sticky alternatives for recipes would be a nice change.

I'll suggest the wine idea - that's BIZARRE, but I don't think she'll want to drink wine because of the alcohol. Her liver is somewhat compromised from Hep C, and she doesn't want a drop of alcohol in her body - not even Vanilla extract!

I'll look up the cell-food, thanks!
As you can see, she's on a mission to heal many things - her body has paid her whole life for various illnesses that doctors could never diagnose, such as Hep C and Celiac Disease, both of which wreaked havoc on her intestines and liver for a long, chronic period of time.

Thanks for the help guys!

bananas, dates, raisons, figs, mango, orange juice (fresh squeezed, valencias)

avocados and tomatoes

wishing the best to your mom and you

Your mom is so lucky to have you to help her through this!

I just wanted to say, about the red wine thing. There are countless different chemotherapy drugs, a lot of people don't know that. I had to take three different ones, two by injection and one orally as I mentioned above. Each one had it's own laundry list of side effects, and then all the other medication that I had to take to combat all those side effects had a laundry list of side effects of their own. It's a pretty vicious circle! So the red wine thing probably won't apply to her at all, but it sure demonstrates how weird things can get. Tell her not to be afraid to discuss anything at all with the chemo nurses - they have seen everything under the sun, and may have a lot of unexpected but helpful ideas.

I can remember the time when flax was only thought of as a laxative. Might come in handy, as one side effect of some of her medications may be irregularity in that department. They really make great raw crackers, but you can cut the recipe with ground almonds or any number of things. The only thing is that flax is so magical about making crackers stick together really well.

Good luck with everything!

Sapphire

If she thinks flax will make her @#$%& too much, well chia is pretty much the same to me...

You can grind them and mix it along with other stuff, so she just wont taste it...!

hope she will like this one -- it is a healthy trifle

sliced banana, blueberries and instead of cream get some raw cashew nuts
and blend with water into a paste - no sugar required this makes a great 'cream'
on top of your fruit. haven't found a substitute for the sponge but this is
one i love
ann

I'm sorry to hear about your Mom. I hope she enjoys this:

Not Pumpkin Pie

[www.goingbananasblog.com]

(If you can't find persimmons right now, sub with mango instead).

This is a very simple recipe, only 3 ingredients, and all 3 are low fat AND high calorie!

HTH

Sarah
[goingbananasblog.com]

IMO
just what meinleben says except for the avocados (very high fat )

bananas, are best

but for less bulk: dates, raisins, figs, (dried fruits) are all high calorie

also fresh organic carrot juice etc.

I would recommend just feeding her whole bananas. Another alternative might be some banana soups. For instance, blending a few dates with some water in a blender, and then adding a few bananas until you reach desired consistency. Or you could use fresh figs, which wouldn't need any water added, then add bananas. With figs it's important to make sure the figs are very dark and soft, and the inside should be dark brown or they won't taste sweet.

There's this smoothie I like, bananas, coconut butter, lecithin (for nutrition and to make the smoothie super smooth), agave (or honey or dates), and water or coconut water. It's got like a million calories, it's pretty easy to digest, and it's delicious!