What is a Neutropenic Diet?
A neutropenic (nu-tro-PEE-nik) diet is for people with weakened immune systems. This diet helps protect them from bacteria and other harmful organisms found in some food and drinks. If your immune system is not working well, your body may have a hard time protecting itself from these bacteria. Cooking foods (like beef, chicken, fish, and eggs) completely makes sure that all bacteria are destroyed.
Who Needs to Follow a Neutropenic Diet?
Doctors often recommend this diet before and after certain types of chemotherapy and other cancer treatments. A blood test called an absolute neutrophil count (ANC) can help determine the body’s ability to fight off infection. Many cancer patients have this blood test done routinely. When the ANC is less than 500 cells/mm3, the patient is often instructed to follow a neutropenic diet. This diet should be followed until the doctor tells the patient to resume his or her regular diet.
Patients undergoing autologous stem cell transplants typically follow this diet during the pre-transplant chemotherapy and for the first 3 or more months after transplant. Patients undergoing allogeneic stem cell transplants typically follow this diet during the pre-transplant chemotherapy and continue on it until they no longer take immunosuppressive drugs. The transplant team will tell the patient how long to follow this diet.
People who have had an organ transplant or who are being treated for HIV/AIDS also may need to follow this diet. If you are not sure if you should follow this diet, check with your doctor, nurse, or dietitian.
General Tips
The following pages list the foods you should choose when you are on a neutropenic diet. Foods you should avoid are also listed. Please check with your doctor, nurse, or dietitian if you have questions about the diet or safe food preparation. Some general tips include:
Avoid all fresh fruits and vegetables, including all fresh garnishes. Cooked vegetables, canned fruits, and juices are fine.
Avoid raw or rare-cooked meat, fish, and eggs. Meat should be cooked to the “well- done” stage. All eggs should be thoroughly cooked (no runny yolks).
Avoid salad bars, fruit bars, and deli counters. Buy vacuum-packed lunch meats rather than freshly sliced meats.
Avoid raw nuts. You may eat baked products with these ingredients.
Make sure all of the dairy products you eat are pasteurized.
Avoid yogurt and yogurt products with live and active cultures.
Be safe in the way you handle foods. Wash your hands before handling food. Wash all surfaces, cutting boards and cutting utensils thoroughly. Keep hot food hot and cold food cold. (See the UPMC patient education sheet Food Safety: Preventing Foodborne Illness for more information.)
At home, you may use tap water. If you choose to use bottled water, be sure it is labeled as follows:
Reverse osmosis or
Distillation or
filtered through an absolute1 micron or smaller filter
Well water is OK if it is boiled for at least 1 minute.
see
http://www.upmc.com/patients-visitor...enic-diet.aspx for more details