For inpatients undergoing chemotherapy the risk to become malnourished because of appetite loss stemming from the side effects of chemotherapy is high. Therefore, a specialdiet improving appetite in these patients should be developed. We served a type of special diet, called “fit diet”, and investigated the effects of this diet. Thirteen chemotherapy patients with poor appetite were divided intotwo groups: a “fit diet” group (F group, receiving “fit diet”, 8 patients), and a control group (C group, receiving “ordinal hospital diet”, 5patients). The “fit diet” was composed of weak smell, smoothly swallowable foods and adjusted to 1500 kcal of energy, 245g of carbohydrate, 50g of protein and 35g of fat per day. Averageintake of energy, blood levels of transthyletine and albumin, total lymphocytes count and cholinesterase were compared between the two groups. Energy intakes before the study period did not differ between the two groups, however, daily energy intake in the F group was 1156±259kcal during the study period, which was significantly higher than that in the C group, 882±279kcal (student's t test). The ratio of energy intake to the expected basal energy expenditure calculated by the Harris-Benedict equation in the F group, was alsohigher than that in the C group, 94% vs 79.7%, respectively. The blood test results did not differ between the groups. According to a questionnaire, “fit diet” was easy to eat and barely caused nausea.
In conclusion, nutrition support for chemotherapy patients using a special diet resulted in improvement of appetite and increase of energy intake.