Introduction If you've picked up this book, it's probably because you or someone very close to you is going through a difficult time. A cancer diagnosis and the prospect of cancer treatment is scary, even for the most upbeat soul. There are probably a million questions and thoughts running around your head, and while I can't address them all, I can speak to one: Am I going to enjoy eating during treatment? Heck, am I going to be able to eat at all? This book is all about enhancing your appetite during treatment, and much more. For me, the key concept is something I think of as "the power of yum," a phrase I've used throughout my career as a "culinary translator," if you will. I work with oncologists, nutritionists, and cancer wellness professionals to help their patients stay well fed during treatment by translating nutritional recommendations into delicious, nourishing meals. To me, this was always the power of yum in action: showing people that great nutrition and great taste could join together joyously on the same plate. Working with cancer patients for the past decade, I've seen heartening results. People who had truly disconnected from food could be brought back to the table and nourished, so long as the food was appealing to all the senses; was presented in a manner that fit their often shifting tastes and appetite (think small, nutrient-dense portions that are easily stored and reheated); and could easily be shopped for, prepped, and cooked by either the patient or their caregivers.

If that was all there was to the power of yum, I'd be eternally grateful. It turns out that this is only half of the story. Over the past five years, the study of nutrition has expanded, exploded really, especially when it comes to understanding the many incredible properties foods have to fight cancer and limit the side effects of treatment. This isn't fly-by-night science either; it's the result of thousands of credible studies done by the country's finest academic research institutes and presented in first-rate peer-reviewed scientific journals such the New England Journal of Medicine and the Journal of the American Medical Association . As a chef, I've been awed by this data and, truth be told, a little intimidated. I intuitively and experientially understood how taste and flavor could positively affect the people I worked with. It had long been known that as many as 80 percent of cancer patients were malnourished, in some cases leaving them too weakened to withstand ongoing treatment. By keeping them nourished with healthy foods, both the patients and I knew they stood a better chance of making the transition from patient to survivor.

Still, it seemed like a new study was coming out every week on this food or that, and all of this nutritional data was a bit confusing to me. And from the conversations I had with clients, I knew it was confounding to them at times. Yet this information held such promise that I decided I'd better learn to talk the talk. I was excited at the prospect of being able to make dishes that not only tasted great, but could make someone with a specific side effect feel better. So I went and got a masters in nutrition, not to impress my clients, but to be able to converse with those doctors and scientists working in the trenches with these foods to get a feel for where the research and the cancer-food connection was strong and where it wasn't, and so I could translate all that information into more outrageously scrumptious dishes to lure people in treatment back to the table. The result of this melding of science and taste is the cookbook and resource you hold in your hands. It's the culmination of conversations with what I think of as my counsel of experts: more than a dozen of the best minds in medical and cancer wellness in the country. Each of these individuals sees nutrition and food as a vital, complementary part of their healing arsenal, a tool that patients themselves can use to keep their bodies and minds in optimal shape while enduring treatment.

That last point is so crucial. A cancer diagnosis is shocking, disorienting, and capable of scrambling anybody's mental GPS. To find a stabilizing force, a grounding activity such as cooking and eating well can provide more than nourishment; it can offer a huge psychological boost. Jeanne Wallace, PhD, a researcher and expert in cancer nutrition, articulates this idea of sustenance beautifully. Jeanne's voluminous, meticulously researched, personalized action plans for her clients in treatment include numerous food recommendations to combat their cancer. She says, "When you get a cancer diagnosis, suddenly you become a very powerless person. You're traipsing through the hospital as a name and number, people do all kinds of procedures to you, and you have a life-threatening condition, which many doctors maintain you have no control over. So when I'm handing someone their plan, saying, 'You could make some changes with your diet and it would give you some sense of empowerment,' many of my clients are so willing to do that.

They embrace the sense of not being powerless, that even though they might not have total control over the cancer, they do have some influence." Defining that potential influence is fascinating. Can what you eat really affect cancer? Professor Jim Gordon, MD, founder and director of the Center for Mind-Body Medicine in Washington, DC, sponsors several annual symposia that address the issue. His Cancer Guides training and Food as Medicine programs attract hundreds of doctors from across the country, including top integrative oncologists, internists, and other cancer wellness professionals. Gordon, a pioneer in the use of nutrition to impact cancer, uses a bit of scientifically informed common sense when asked if what he teaches makes a difference. "People with cancer are told by their oncologists, 'This is the treatment: surgery, chemotherapy, radiation, maybe even immune therapy. Everything else is regarded as, at worst, unnecessary, peripheral, or, at best, complementary. 'I think that's a major misconception.

The data in standard textbooks on nutrition and cancer is that cancer is related in some way to nutrition. It stands to reason that if nutrition is a significant factor in the development of cancer, you would want there to be to a focus on nutrition as part of the treatment and the prevention of recurrence in cancer." Gerry Mullin, MD, a contributing editor to Nutrition in Clinical Practice , agrees: "Cancer is a consequence of the complex interplay of genes and environment on the immune system, and diet, as part of the environment, plays a role that can influence cancer's development and treatment." A key area of nutritional research is looking at the environment in which tumors function within the body. Part of what makes cancer such a difficult foe is its ability to send out signals that divert vital resources, such as blood and energy, for its own nefarious purposes. Researchers are now looking at how various nutrients in food--especially plant-based foods, spices, and herbs, with their abundant phytochemicals--can block cancer's communication. If we can cut off this internal dialogue, tumors may become much more vulnerable to treatment. Integrative oncologist Donald Abrams, director of clinical programs for the Osher Center for Integrative Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), tells his patients by way of analogy that when it comes to cancer, it's perfectly acceptable to be a bad host.

In fact, it's encouraged. "I tell them that cancer is a weed, you're the garden, and our job is take make your soil as inhospitable as possible to further growth and spread of the weed. The first approach I take is through diet and nutrition." The wonderful aspect of this work is that so many common foods--everything from broccoli to blueberries--have multiple cancer-fighting properties, including controlling blood sugar so you avoid insulin issues and obesity, which are major secondary risk factors for cancer. Similarly, everyday herbs and spices ranging from ginger to cinnamon to turmeric can help quell side effects ranging from nausea to fatigue. If you'd like to learn more about these properties, see the Culinary Pharmacy, page 28, where we've detailed the beneficial properties of most of the foods used in the recipes in this book. We've included the science because many of my clients get interested in the particulars once they realize how much better they often feel as they become well nourished. Still, others couldn't care less about the science; they just want to be able to eat something, anything , because during treatment, their appetite has left the building.

First and foremost, I'm a chef and a teacher who believes everyone has the ability to nourish themselves, even in the most dire of circumstances. This book was designed to meet you wherever you are in your treatment journey. If you just want to eat without giving a second thought to nutrition, worry ¬ every recipe in this book was created to be a nutrient-dense, delicious powerhouse, full of what your body needs to support your immune system, which is called upon to do yeoman's work during treatment. The Cancer-Fighting Kitchen emphasizes what's known as a whole foods approach. As the name suggests, whole foods come straight from the farm to the table with their nutrients intact, unlike refined and processed foods, such as white flour a.