ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the relationship between the individual suffering from cancer or any other life-threatening illness and the contribution of diet and nutrition to the general well-being of that individual. The scale of the challenge in communicating the issues that relate food, nutrition and cancer is such that it is unreasonable to expect individuals trained in a single discipline to teach the issues adequately. This suggests the need for a multiprofessional approach to teaching all the relevant aspects of cancer and palliative care in an integrative way within cancer care modules and programmes. The complexity of cancers suggests that it is unlikely that nutrition and diet alone will be adequate to cure cancers. The interaction of diet and nutrition with cancer could be considered to be like a double-edged sword. The chapter discusses nutritional therapies and dietary management such as Bristol diet, Gerson diet and Macrobiotic diet.
