High calorie recipes

[Morwenna]

I was wondering if anyone has any high calorie recipes or meal ideas they would be happy to share?

We are trying to get some weight back onto my Dad, he is due to start chemotherapy next week and I am thinking if it makes him nauseous it will be even more difficult to get food into him. The problem I have is that he is diabetic and calories usually mean sugar! ! I have found some alternative sugar which I got in a health food shop so have used that to make cupcakes for him and packed them with bananas, walnuts and coconut. I! going to attempt a quiche or pie but he says pastry makes him feel ill after he's eaten it!!! Also I made him a lasagne with a really cheesy sauce but in my dad's words "it was lovely but it landed heavy"!!! : )

I would be grateful for any ideas, suggestions or tried and tested meals.

Thankyou so much

Morwenna

[Catherine]

Hi Morweena,

Does he have any suppliments? My mum has fortijuice and she works one or 2 a day into her diet. They're not as high sugar content as the milk based suppliments and are just like a drink of squash. There's a section on the PC website about diet which has loads of useful tips on it to add calories to food. I also made my mum home made custard, mince pies, meat pie and anything else she would eat. Although she did say I was attempting to kill her as she thought some of the food I made her was too rich! (Parents who'd have them) Does your dad have a dietician and diabetic nurse? They can control the diabetes to allow for a higher calorie diet.

Good luck

Catherine xx

[Morwenna]

Hi Catherine

Yes he does have a diabetic nurse and a dietician but hasn't had much contact with her as yet. He's not on any supplements either. The trouble with my dad is he says he's fine and won't ask for anything!! If I lived with him I could keep more of an eye on him, I know he is making himself lots of stews but I worry this is not calorific enough for him. So really i'm trying to sneak calories into foods I can make myself and take to him. Unfortunately my step mother is very 'anti fat' anything and even though the nurses have told her he needs full fat food she's still cooking healthy low fat meals...it's very frustrating!!!

I was thinking about making him some custard so might do that this afternoon. I have looked at the diet section on here and there are some great tips, also Jeni gave me some good tips.

Thanks for the help Catherine xx

[laura]

morwenna. cant remember is dad on creon, cant remember, sorry, if yes perhaps he need more, his stools should be a good indicator if creon is doing its job, shouldnt look greasy or float etc.

ensure plus is another good calorie meal, complete with vits etc and can be used in addition to meals, bri went diabetic on diagnosis, on metformin then insulin but did with approval let him eat what he wanted, and he did, sherry trifle and cream, and chees and pickles and crackers, add butter, cream etc to stews and soups, see what he can tolerate.

could you get your dads wife to have a look at the internet, or show her specifically the article to read, so she understands that shes not helping him? she can of course still have her fat free/low meals, as for most that is the healthy way, regretfully pc doesnt respect peoples health!!

love as always laura xx

rereading your post, bri did and does still occasionally take domperidone, anti nausea tabs bri was never actually sick, but i tackled it as prevention rather than cure, our gp or the oncology didnt appear to have a problem with that, he took 8 a day, 2 b4 each meal, might be worth trying that as chemo is due, they do inject with the chemo, or just b4, anti nausea liquid, metochlorpromine? [spelling], i think you will find that anything you find that helps dad ba as good as poss, will be met with approval, gotta try and get sm on your wavelength tho! laura xx

[Morwenna]

Hi Laura

Yes Dad is on creon now, only 10, 000 dose but I've told him to take more as he was only taking a total of 8 in a day. I told him if he has cheese or creamy things to take extra and hopefully he won't get the pain after.

With regards to his diabetes his blood sugar levels are all over the place ranging from 5 to 25!! Jeni did say you can get sugar free sorts so if he keeps on losing weight I will ask the hospital for some.

Thanks Laura, and a happy new year to you and bri

Morwenna xx

[laura]

morwenna, bri takes 25,000, two with cereal, two with sandwiches, soup or something on toast, one with biscuits or cake, three with main meal, he cannot overdose, but can under acheive, n he may well suffer, bri's bloods, often were up in high 30's ?? hope you all have good new year, we are in loungers eating cheese n biscuits!! we know how to live it up!!lol peaceful new year to all on here. lets hope for a better 2013 eh

love laura xxx

deb, think of you often, my thoughts are with you, your doing so well,love laura xxxxx

[Carole McGregor]

Hi Morwenna

We had the same issue with my husband's diabetic doctor telling him to stick to low fat, high carb diet. His surgeon (who is currently chairman of the Pancreatic Society so must know what he is talking about !) has said he should eat whatever he likes just so long as he eats, and manage blood sugar levels through increased insulin. Bit tricky but we seem to be getting there. Porridge made with full fat milk and dash of cream in morning. My mum does a weekly home made soup delivery. Clive not great at lunchtime but always seems to manage some soup and bread. Perhaps you could do some for your Dad ? Your step mum cant object to that ! We've given up on pasta - Clive finds it hard going but somehow manages Chinese takeaways. He has also rediscovered his love of ginger nut biscuits. We eat a lot of chicken and fish. Delia Smith doesn't spare the butter so her recipes are good. Have to say trying to come up with nice things to cook all the time with everything else that is going on is a real pain so I would be delighted if someone was thinking of ways to help like you !

Best of luck

Carole

[PCUK Nurse Jeni]

Hi All,

Great to see your various tips on here regarding diet. Well done to all!

Few points:

1. The supplementary drinks ARE available in sugar free options, so please do ask the dietician for them, or the GP. Not all manufacturers do the sugar free option, so you may end up with a different supplement to the one you are on, but they will still do the same trick. You should be able to get these on prescription.

2. Treating diabetes unrelated to pancreatic cancer varies to diabetes with pancreatic cancer. One of the main concerns with PC is the loss of weight, which can lead to muscle loss. Once it gets to this stage, it is difficult to reverse. So, in "normal" cases of diabetes, it is right to have low fat foods, but not so with PC, as the only way to get enough calories will be via fatty foods. Pancreatic Enzymes should be adjusted accordingly to cope with the extra fat in the diet. for this reason, a specialist HPB (dealing with pancreas, gall bladder, liver) dietician is preferrable over a diabetic nurse in terms of diet information, as they will deal with all aspects of PC.

3. Absolutely agree with Laura - Morwenna, try getting step-mother to read the diet info on the net, and as Laura pointed out, she can stick to low fat for herself, but must be aware that it is not good for your dad.

Hope this is useful?

Jeni.

[Morwenna]

Thanks everyone for the advice, I will get in touch with his dietician re the meal supplements. Dad doesn't seem to be putting on any more weight but isn't losing any!

I made him a proper cornish egg & bacon pie at the weekend which was a big hit and he took extra creon with it and didn't suffer any pain which he usually does with pastry so I think he is now starting to realise he needs quite a lot(he's only got 10, 000 dose). He has also discovered peanut butter which is high in fat so thats great too.

I have also made my own diabetic cupcake recipe which as well as putting butter in I add organic coconut oil (from health food shop) desiccated coconut, bananas and walnuts. Very nutritious and high in good fats. He loved these also. I would be happy to share the recipe.

Maybe we could start up a recipe forum?

Love to you all

Morwenna x

[DRAD3]

Hi Morwenna - great news that you are getting the high calorie recipes sorted and you are managing to maintain your Dad's weight. What a great idea about the recipe sharing. Perhaps you can start a new thread dedicated to this and others will add their own?

Deb

x

[PCUK Nurse Jeni]

Hi All,

Morwenna, we will all move to your house!! Your cooking sounds amazing!!

Great idea about the recipes! Would you mind if we could have a think about this as a team, and maybe find a place to "put" them on the website, for example?

Good news that your dad is getting the hang of creon, Morwenna. 10,000 units really is of very little use for meals - he would need more like 40-80,000 units. Even more sometimes! 10,000 would be given to infants who have cystic fibrosis, where there is impaired pancreatic function, so if you compare this to adults, you will see the difference which is needed. It is not a drug, so it is not harmful if you take "too much", though this rarely happens. Usually people take too little. Good that the weight is maintaining, at least.

Thanks again all,

Jeni.

[Catherine]

Hello there,

We have some recipies from the dietician for smoothies that seem quite good, she also suggested adding evaporated milk to full fat milk as an alternative to the milk powder. I made my mum a smoothie tonight and it didn't seem too rich even with the evaporated milk. I was thinking some of the celebrity chef's recipies they don't stint on anything.

Catherine xx

[PCUK Nurse Jeni]

Hi all,

Further to my post on Monday, we now have a new Recipes sub-forum, which you can access here:

http://forum.pancreaticcancer.org.uk/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=915

So, happy posting, and keep those ideas coming!

Jeni.