Dr. Carla M. Prado, PhD, RD
Professor, University of Alberta
Director, Human Nutrition Research Unit
Campus Alberta Innovation Program Chair in Nutrition, Food and Health
@drcarlaprado
Nutrition is powerful! It can be used to help people—including those with cancer—live longer with better health. This cookbook is particularly focused on muscle health, which is related to the amount and type of protein in our diets. People with cancer need more protein than those who are healthy, and animal protein sources are particularly important for building muscle mass; these include, among others, beef, pork, chicken, fish, eggs, milk, and cheese. Our High Protein Cookbook for Muscle Health During Cancer Treatment includes 66 high protein recipes for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks to help patients increase their protein intake for muscle health.
This nonprofit cookbook is our gift to you. Here, we combine two of our passions: nutrition and serving our community. We hope this is distributed to thousands of patients; we have published this cookbook as a freely downloadable resource to achieve this goal.
Enjoy the delicious recipes and beautiful pictures we have selected, and we hope that this book serves as a constant reminder that Muscle Matters!
Where did the idea come from?
I was inspired to initiate this project in 2017 during a visit to Dr. Aoife Ryan’s laboratory at the University College Cork in Ireland. At that time, Dr. Ryan gave me a copy of her first cookbook for people with cancer, titled: Good Nutrition for Cancer Recovery. I was not only in awe of the quality of the book but, above all, her vision and initiative to create this nutritional educational resource for patients. Her cookbook was focused on high protein and high calorie recipes for those experiencing cancer-induced weight loss. As many of the patients we were working with in Canada would benefit from high protein but normal calorie recipes, I decided to adapt her idea to meet their needs. The aim was to increase protein intake for muscle health (prevent muscle loss and promote muscle gain) but without higher calorie recipes. I invited two nutrition students and our late friend, Julie Rohr, who effortlessly volunteered their time towards the completion of this project. Together, we recruited several additional volunteers who helped us achieve our goal (see Acknowledgements).
Why focus on protein? Muscle Matters!
Protein is essential for muscle maintenance and growth. It also helps our immune system, healing, and recovery. My research looks at the importance of muscle mass for patients with cancer. Low muscle mass can happen at any stage of cancer, from early to advanced, and is associated with severe side effects due to chemotherapy, cancer progression, surgical complications, and shorter survival times, among other problems. Therefore, preventing and reversing low muscle mass has the potential to improve health outcomes and survival.
While treating cancer and exercising are important for muscle health, nutrition is an essential piece of the puzzle because it supplies the nutrients and substances we need to build muscle. This includes protein, which is the main building block of muscle.
