Three nutrition experts at the University of Alberta have published a non-profit cookbook designed for people undergoing cancer treatment that features high-protein, whole-food recipes.
The High Protein Cookbook for Muscle Health During Cancer Treatment contains 66 recipes, divided into meal and snack categories, that are high in protein and functional for patients with cancer.
“From the start, we really wanted this to be a gift to the community,” said registered dietitian Anissa Armet, who dealt with recipe testing, styling and photography.
In 2017, Dr. Carla Prado, another registered dietitian who conceptualized and supervised the project, was inspired by a cookbook published by Aoife Ryan of the University College Cork in Ireland. It focused on high-calorie, high-protein cooking for muscle health during cancer recovery.
Prado’s book also cites recent scientific research that encourages the consumption of protein, specifically from animal sources, to improve outcomes in patients with cancer.
Registered dietitian Hillary Wilson, who designed and tested the book’s recipes, said Prado recognized that many cancer patients struggle to consume enough protein, rather than meet their caloric intake, due to westernized food culture in Canada.
To Armet and Wilson, this free-to-download cookbook provides more value to people with cancer than other forms of research do because it makes research-based cooking practical.
“Scientific articles aren’t always accessible or relatable for a lot of people, so being able to do that knowledge translation so people can easily apply it to their own lives and make it realistic for them, I think, is really rewarding,” Wilson said.
Prado, Armet and Wilson took care to use only easy-to-find, affordable ingredients, ensuring that all could enjoy the benefits of high-protein cooking.
“I think people really can use this cookbook in their everyday life as they see fit and hopefully reap the benefits of this,” Armet said. “Really trying to optimize [patients’] nutritional intake can be very important in their overall treatment.”
Armet explained that the University of Alberta’s Faculty of Agricultural, Life and Environmental Sciences financially supported the book’s development. The faculty also helped print and distribute approximately 1,000 copies of the book to cancer centres across Alberta as well as faculty donors and alumni affected by cancer. The project was partially funded by the Campus Alberta Innovation Program.
“I think people really can use this cookbook in their everyday life as they see fit and hopefully reap the benefits of this.”
Despite the scientific nature of each recipe, Armet prioritized creating a visually appealing cookbook.
“Something that’s important to me is eating with your eyes first, and so we really wanted to try and make these recipes attractive to people so that they would look at them and think, ‘That looks like a delicious recipe,’” Armet said.
“She helped bring all of our recipes and pictures to life, and even now, with the final cookbook, the colours that you see and the layout and things like that are her creative spin on things,” Armet said.
This innovative approach to knowledge translation has gotten some attention in the nutrition field. Dr. Catherine Chan, a human nutrition professor, praised Prado, Armet and Wilson’s work to reduce the burden of nutrition on patients dealing with life-changing diseases like cancer.
“[Patients] don’t have to spend an hour looking through cookbooks or on the internet trying to find a recipe that they think will meet their needs for that higher protein,” Chan said.
In 2013, Chan published her own research-based cookbook. It encourages the consumption of locally produced food for people with Type 2 diabetes who live in the Prairies. Chan applauded Prado, Armet and Wilson’s cookbook for helping prevent muscle loss during cancer treatment.
“[It’s important to] figure out how to use the foods that we have in that preventative way, reduce consumption of highly refined foods and focus on really high-quality ingredients,” she explained.
Although they designed the book specifically for people being treated for cancer, Armet and Wilson hope that many people, including students, will implement its whole-food approach.
“In terms of research, [what] I think we want students to know is that, really, it all goes back to that nutrition matters and muscle matters … to maintain optimum health,” Armet said.
In a previous version of this article, Anissa Armet was misquoted as saying “from the community” instead of “to the community.” The Charlatan regrets the error.
Featured image by Dawn Graves.
