Evaluation of diets served to cancer patients in oncology ward of university of Nigeria teaching hospital, Ituku/Ozalla, Enugu State

Abstract

Nutrient adequacy of selected High Calorie High Protein diet served to cancer patients in Oncology ward of University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital (UNTH) Ituku/Ozalla Enugu was evaluated. The objectives were to find out what constitutes a high protein/calorie diets in the therapeutic diet kitchen, to determine the proximate and selected micronutrient composition of high protein/high calorie diet served to the cancer patients and to ascertain the adequacy of those diets using the nutrient density relative to standard values. Recipes of the foods consumed by cancer patients were collated from the menu of therapeutic diet kitchen in UNTH. A total of 14 most frequently consumed foods were sampled using frequency distribution table (the foods sampled include: beans and yam pottage, vegetable yam pottage, boiled yam, garri, okpa, moimoi, pap, fish, stew, rice, bitterleaf soup, okro soup and egusi soup and meat). The samples were analyzed in the laboratory to determine the proximate and micronutrient compositions. The results were subjected to statistical analysis to determine the mean and standard deviations and also, the nutrient densities were determined and compared with standards. The proximate composition showed that the diets served contain average of 79.95±17.95 g of protein, 51.39±19.58 g of fat, 635.29±128.32 g of carbohydrates daily making up an energy value of 3323.42±329.38 kcal daily. The result also showed that the daily percentage contribution of macronutrients to energy composition of the diets were 9.62% for protein, 13.93% for fats and 76.46% for carbohydrates respectively. The mean values of the micronutrients per serving portion were 43.09±8.26 for vitamin A, 19.28±1.78 for vitamin C, 24.25±6.92 for vitamin E, 22.26±2.71 for folate, 62.02±5.59 for zinc and 3.82±0.98 for selenium respectively. Among the foods, moi-moi, okpa, fish, stew, pap, OKS, ES, BLS and meat had high protein density of 313.48, 375, 851.28, 142.2, 78.72, 128.24, 125.60, 92.76, 136.28 and 617.92%, respectively. BYP and BY had moderate nutrient density of 67.04% and 65.84% respectively. VYP and GA had low nutrient density of 45.12 and 22.92%, respectively. All the foods had low vitamin A, selenium and folate densities relative to FAOAA/HO reference value. The dishes served show that most of the foods were adequate (highly densed) and have potential for control and prevention of all types of cancers if dietary habits are maintained with improvements in vitamin A, selenium and folate content of the dishes as consumed. © Asian Network for Scientific Information, 2016.