Nutrition and Wellness
Nutrition is critical to the well-being of everyone, but can become especially important for someone who has been diagnosed with breast cancer. Whether you are receiving active treatment for cancer or have entered the survivorship phase, nutrition counseling can help you learn about how food and certain lifestyle behaviors can affect your health. At the Dubin Breast Center, we offer a variety of nutrition services, with the goal of helping you feel and function at your best.
Personalized Nutrition and Wellness Counseling
Research has continues to show certain diet and lifestyle factors play important roles in improving breast cancer outcomes, in addition to improving general health and quality of life. At Dubin, we analyze the latest research to help guide you towards optimal wellness. We offer compassionate and personalized counseling based on your current health, goals, and life obstacles that encourages nourishment and the enjoyment of quality food rather than restriction or fad dieting. To promote healthy and sustainable behavior changes, nutrition consultations focus on lifestyle factors that contribute to health, such as sleep patterns, diet, physical activity and stress.
Who Can Benefit from Nutrition and Wellness Counseling?
A breast cancer diagnosis can prompt you to make lifestyle changes, and nutrition can be part of that. We encourage all of our Dubin Breast Center patients to take advantage of our nutrition services. You may request a nutrition consultation due to a desire for:
- Relieving general confusion regarding nutrition and breast cancer
- Making diet or lifestyle changes
- Fine-tuning an already healthy lifestyle
- Learning to eat for a new cancer diagnosis, management of treatment side-effects, or breast cancer survivorship
Nutrition and Wellness Services
Our registered dietitian specializes in oncology nutrition and wellness and is available for individual appointments, infusion visits, group or individual walking consultations (weather permitting), and educational programs to promote:
- General wellness and optimal energy levels
- Effective weight management
- Reduction of chronic disease risk
- Management of cancer or treatment-related symptoms
- Healthful cooking and meal planning
Side Effect Management
Nutrition can play a significant role in the management of the side effects associated with breast cancer treatment. Our nutritionist can recommend dietary and wellness practices that can alleviate the following concerns and discomforts:
Symptom Soothing Recipes
Whether dealing with symptoms of cancer or the side effects of treatment, the following easy recipes offer nutrition and could relieve certain discomforts. To prepare these recipes, you might need a Vitamix blender, immersion blender (or hand blender), good quality chef’s knife, cheese cloth, and a jelly roll pan.
Helpful Nutrition and Wellness Resources
Our nutritionist, Kelly Hogan, MS, RD, CDN, recommends these websites and tools to you navigate your journey through breast cancer treatment, recovery, and survivorship.
Informational Websites
- American Institute for Cancer Research
Comprehensive resource with information on cancer research, prevention, treatment, and survivorship. - Environmental Working Group
Comprehensive resource on important environmental issues, such as toxic chemicals in our foods, household and personal products, agricultural subsidies, public lands, and corporate accountability. - Harvard School of Public Health – Nutrition Source
Information on basic nutrition, the latest news, tips and more. - National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine
Reliable information to help safely navigate medical and health care systems, practices, and products that are not generally considered part of conventional Western medicine. - The Smart Seafood Buying Guide
Guide from the National Resource Defense Council on choosing healthy seafood that has been caught or farmed in environmentally responsible ways.
Nutrition, Health, and Recipe Resources
- Cook for Your Life
Healthy cooking website with recipes tailored for various stages of cancer treatment and beyond, as well as a regular schedule of healthy cooking classes taught to the cancer population. - Cookie and Kate
- Minimalist Baker
- Oh She Glows
- Epicurious
Healthy, plant-based recipes and research-based nutrition information
Books
These books are great resources for healthy plant-based recipes, reliable nutrition news and research.
- Giada’s Feel Good Food – Giada DeLaurentis
- Four Day Wins – Martha Beck
- Intuitive Eating – Evelyn Tribole, Elyse Resch
- My New Roots – Sarah Britton
- One Bite at a Time – Rebecca Katz
- The Art of Simple Food – Alice Waters
- The Cancer Fighting Kitchen – Rebecca Katz
- The VB6 Cookbook – Mark Bittman
- Weeknight Wonders – Ellie Krieger
- What to Eat – Marion Nestle
Mobile Applications
These apps can be downloaded on any smartphone, and can help with tracking daily steps, meal and snack intake, at-home yoga routines and meditation.
- Calm
- EWG’s Skin Deep
- Headspace
- Pocket Yoga
Meet Our Nutritionist
Kelly Hogan, MS, RD, CDN
Kelly Hogan received her undergraduate degree in journalism from Northeastern University and her nutrition education, training and Master of Science degree in Clinical Nutrition from New York University. As the Nutrition and Wellness Manager at the Dubin Breast Center, Kelly incorporates a holistic approach with patients focusing not only on nutrition, but overall wellness including physical activity, stress management and sleep. Prior to transitioning to the Dubin Breast Center to focus on breast cancer nutrition, she worked with the general surgery and oncology inpatient populations at The Mount Sinai Hospital.