Dave Myers has opened up about the side effects of chemotherapy, after undergoing treatment for cancer.
The Hairy Bikers chef shared he had been diagnosed with an undisclosed type of the disease in May last year.
After going through several rounds of chemo, Dave described how “brutal” if was not being able to eat after losing his appetite.
Appearing on the Seasoned podcast, host Tommy Banks asked the TV cook if he’d had to change his eating habits, to which he replied: “It’s funny, when you first start chemotherapy… it’s quite hard. I’m still having it. It really was brutal, I lost so much weight and then it’s a battle to get your calories in.
“At first I thought, ‘Right, this is great, I can eat all those pies I haven’t been eating for years’, except the appetite was dreadful!”
Dave continued: “And for me, who’s a glutton, losing my appetite was awful. A can of soup was about as far as I could go, but then it slowly comes back. And now I’ve got to the point where I’m at the weight I want to be, and I want to maintain it.
“I am starting to think very carefully about what I put in. I have to cut down on not so much butter, because I’ve got the calories in now, eating a lot more pulses, and an awful lot more beans.”
Dave went on to describe undergoing treatment over the past year as “pretty crappy”.
He added: “I think it’s about eating for the immunity, your heart, for fibre. And as you get older, well, young as well, it’s important to eat well, but still have that knack of making food tasty so you don’t feel as though it’s a penance.”
Dave, who competed on Strictly Come Dancing in 2013, returned to TV last year and said he will resume filming the Hairy Bikers with his TV partner Si King in May.
The Seasoned podcast is available to stream now.
