How to Find the Best Meal Replacement Shakes for Chemo Patients

📌 Overview and Key Takeaways

This is a Dietitian’s guide on how to find the best meal replacement shakes for chemo patients.

Discover how to safely supplement your diet and during chemo.

Last Updated
Feb 7, 2026

Author and Medical Reviewer

Written by Kayla Kamen, MS, RD

Kayla Kamen is a Registered Dietitian with a MS in Nutrition.

Medically reviewed by Jennifer Fossett, PA-C

Jennifer Fossett is a Physician Assistant with a BA in Nutritional Sciences.

Meal Replacement Shakes for Chemo Patients

Are Meal Replacement Shakes Good for Chemo Patients?

The prevalence of malnutrition in chemo patients is estimated to be as high as 70% (Oncotarget, 2017).

Moreover, when cancer-related malnutrition goes untreated, the consequences can be serious.

Malnutrition is associated with treatment toxicity, complications, reduced physical functioning, and decreased survival.

Protein deficiency in particular is the leading cause of side effects and increased mortality (Nutr Cancer, 2015), which makes sense because you simply cannot heal or fight off infections without protein.

Chemo patients tend to experience malnutrition because they have elevated nutritional needs at the same time they experience reduced appetite (J Oncol, 2015).

As you might imagine, this can make it hard to keep on weight, maintain muscle mass, and recover from treatments.

It is recommended that adult chemo patients consume at least 25 calories and 1.5 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight per day (Clin Ther, 2019), which is 3-4 times what the average adult needs.

It follows that research shows nutritional supplementation has beneficial effects for chemo treatment tolerance and efficacy (J Clin Med, 2019).

This benefit is especially evident in patients with head and neck, breast, pancreatic, and bile duct cancers.

In other words, patients with higher calorie and protein intakes tend to have better outcomes.

Chemo patients should try to get as many calories and as much protein from traditional meals.

But meeting 100% of nutritional needs this way can be challenging, especially for patients experiencing nausea and/or loss of appetite.

This is where meal replacement shakes can help.

Adding a meal replacement shake to your diet is an easy way to fill in nutritional gaps and meet your nutritional needs during chemo.

What Are the Best Meal Replacement Shakes for Chemo Patients?

Not all meal replacements are created equal.

And many of them contain ingredients that might contribute to complications for chemo patients.

Among the potentially problematic ingredients are ultra-processed food additives and protein concentrates and isolates.

🚫 Avoid Food Additives

Regularly eating emulsifiers, thickeners, artificial sweeteners and other ultra-processed additives can alter the composition and function of your gut microbiome (North Clin Istanb, 2020).

This is a big deal because your gut microbiome plays an important role in cancer treatment efficacy (Nat Rev Microbiol, 2023).

An altered gut microbiome is also associated with resistance to chemo drugs and has even been linked to the development of certain cancers (Gut, 2020; Front Pharmacol, 2023).

⚠️ Here is a list of the most common food additives in meal replacements:

• acacia fiber
• acacia gum
• acesulfame potassium
• artificial flavors
• ascorbic acid
• aspartame
• calcium carbonate
• carrageenan
• cellulose gum
• dextrin
• dicalcium phosphate
• dipotassium phosphate
• erythritol
• gellan gum
• guar gum
• gum arabic
• inulin
• locust bean gum
• maltitol
• maltodextrin
• mono- and diglycerides
• ‘natural’ flavors
• rice bran extract
• rice dextrin
• rice hulls
• rosemary extract
• silica
• silicon dioxide
• sodium alginate
• soluble corn fiber
• sorbitol
• soy lecithin
• sucralose
• sunflower lecithin
• tocopherols
• tricalcium phosphate
• xanthan gum
• xylitol
• zinc oxide

As a rule of thumb, if you could not find an ingredient in nature or make it at home, it is a food additive.

🚫 Avoid Protein Concentrates and Isolates

You should also consider avoiding protein concentrates and isolates.

Most meal replacements are made from one or both of these protein sources, which have been mechanically and/or chemically stripped of everything but the protein.

This includes the enzymes, fiber, and other natural digestive aids that help you break them down.

You therefore do not digest them in the same way that you do whole foods, which can affect your gut health.

In fact, studies show that regularly eating protein concentrates and isolates can disrupt your gut microbiome and cause the formation of toxic byproducts in your gut.

So instead of ultra-processed protein concentrates or isolates, look for whole food protein sources like egg whites and almonds.

They are easier to digest and absorb.

Order Samples to see for yourself.

Editorial Guidelines

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This article was written by a Registered Dietitian and reviewed by a Physician Assistant. We rely on peer-reviewed research and trusted medical sources, and regularly update our content to ensure accuracy and clarity.

Sources

1. Oncotarget (Oncotarget). Prevalence of malnutrition in patients at first medical oncology visit: the PreMiO study.. 2017.
2. Nutrition and Cancer (Nutr Cancer). Low Recent Protein Intake Predicts Cancer-Related Fatigue and Increased Mortality in Patients with Advanced Tumor Disease Undergoing Chemotherapy.. 2015.
3. Journal of Oncology (J Oncol). Cancer-Associated Malnutrition, Cachexia and Sarcopenia: The Skeleton in the Hospital Closet 40 Years Later. 2015.
4. Clinical Therapeutics (Clin Ther). Protein Requirements in Cancer Patients: A Systematic Literature Review. 2019.
5. Journal of Clinical Medicine (J Clin Med). Nutrition in Cancer Patients.. 2019.
6. Northern Clinics of Istanbul (North Clin Istanb). Food additives and microbiota.. 2020.
7. Nature Reviews Microbiology (Nat Rev Microbiol). The gut microbiome modulates the efficacy of cancer therapy. 2023.
8. Gut (Gut). Commensal bacteria promote endogenous resistance to chemotherapy by inducing autophagic and apoptotic pathways. 2020.
9. Frontiers in Pharmacology (Front Pharmacol). Understanding the role of the gut microbiome in gastrointestinal cancer: A review.. 2023.
10. Nutrients (Nutrients). Effect of a Protein Supplement on the Gut Microbiota of Endurance Athletes: A Randomized, Controlled, Double-Blind Pilot Study.. 2018.
11. Molecular Nutrition & Food Research (Mol Nutr Food Res). In Vitro Fermentation of Animal and Plant Protein Isolates by the Human Gut Microbiota Under High and Low Carbohydrate Conditions.. 2024.