Surprising Foods that burn your mouth -100 Meals You Never Thought You Would Eat Pureed - Recipes for Head and Neck Cancer patients

Surprising Foods that burn your mouth  -100 Meals You Never Thought You Would Eat Pureed - Recipes for Head and Neck Cancer patients

CAREGIVERS
Since most of the readers are CareGivers, I wanted to take a moment and give you a quick list of foods to either avoid or be wary of them.

Remember, this blog is about cancer patients who have lost the love of food, and are not getting the proper nutrition.  This blog is less about the nutrition, and more about trying to keep the cancer treatment survivor engaged with "eating" so they will also consume the foods that your nutritionist recommends.

A patient in pain will look for any reason not to have food pass their lips.  So I have asked actual Cancer Treatment patients their thoughts.  After the list of foods, there are some quotes from Survivors at the end

BANANAS
Number one most surprising food that burns the mouth of patients going through Cancer treatment.  No one knows why.  But burns like nobody's business.  I was 6 months into treatment and my wife was making me a smoothie and completely forgot and dropped a banana in the blender . . . DANNNNNGGGG
If the product you purchase says SMOOTHIE of JUICE - read the label.  Even A little bit of banana burns.  

STRAWBERRIES/KIWIS
Not everyone burns from strawberries, or their kin, kiwis, but those that do, complain bitterly.  Personally, I only had an issue when I had open sores in the mouth,  but then again, that seemed like most of the time.

MINT / PEPPERMINT
You won't see this in food that much; however, it is in all the health and beauty aids.  Worst offender is toothpaste.  It was nearly impossible to find a toothpaste without either mint or strawberry.  There is a toothpaste by prescription called Fruitastic, and Tom's of Maine has some varieties.  If you think getting a patient to eat is hard, try getting them to brush their teeth.  I recommend magic mouthwash before brushing.
Also check your cough/cold/liquid "aspirin" because it might be mint flavored.

TOMATOES
Yup once again open mouth sores can really sting from tomatoes - either raw or cooked.  Sometimes, it is not the tomatoes, but the spices added with the tomatoes - think chillis or pasta sauces.  The point being once the person accuses tomatoes as being the culprit, they will never eat tomatoes again.

ONIONS
This is more common than you might think.  The more cooked the onion the better chances it won't burn.  I talking about both green and bulb onions. Onions are often in tomato based foods, so tomatoes take the rap for it, when it was actually the little bit of green onion of chive sprinkled on the top.

KETCHUP / VINEGAR / SAUCES
Once I put vinegar in here, you probably thought, DUH, but other sauces like BBQ, Catsup, steak sauce, etc all contain a little vinegar.  This is the one that you might add that you didn't think might burn their mouth, because you just added a little.  I harp back to the patient is looking for any reason not to put the food past the lips.   Don't tempt the Fates - they be bitches that way . . . 

PICKLES
They are packed in vinegar.


COMMENTS FROM REAL SURVIVORS:

Anything sweet is out for me right now.

Kiwi fruit is painful

Strawberry was painful to me while in treatment

Anything heavy seasoned for me or spicy too

citrus fruits, pickles, anything with black pepper on it.

Bananas, and avocados both were irritating to my mouth back then. I remember being surprised, because they've pretty much always been staples in my diet.

I used to pour so much black pepper on top of my potatoes and gravy that it was entirely pitch black on to now if put just a few grains it can turn out to be so spicy that I can't eat it.

I'm 3 years out and the only thing I have trouble with is chilli and curry...doesn't stop me eating it though.

Chocolate always burned my throat, add chocolate to that , hellfire

I'm seven months out and still can't touch anything w/vinegar, pepper or any kind of drinks w/carbonation in them.

Carbonated drinks were impossible. Couldn't eat any fruit or pies or anything similar yuk.

Everything. Five years out and most things still do. Tomatoes, strawberries, ice cream, all things cold, unfortunately these are among the few things I'm able to swallow. Luke warm coffee is somewhat soothing after I eat something that burns.

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