Diet taboos for breast patients

Foods/health products that clearly add exogenous estrogen, alcohol, long-term intake of large amounts of high-sugar, high-fat and highly processed foods, and other statements spread online such as "can't drink soy milk", "can't eat fat" and "can't touch seafood" are all controversial, so there is no need to blindly avoid all foods.

I have met too many patients in the outpatient clinic. They compare the fasting lists found on the Internet one by one. They even dare not eat eggs, which makes people laugh and cry. Let’s start with the most uncontroversial and definitely risky things, which are things that clearly contain exogenous estrogen: such as snow clams, placenta, beauty salon “beautiful and anti-aging” health products with unknown ingredients, and products that claim to be able to quickly enlarge breasts. These are the areas hardest hit by estrogen. There was a 38-year-old post-surgery patient. He heard from relatives that snow clams are good for the body. He ate them three times a week. After taking the medicine for half a year, he checked again. His estrogen level soared to twice the normal value. He was so frightened that he stopped quickly.

As for whether soy milk can be drunk, which is the most frequently asked question, in fact, different systems have different views: Traditional Chinese medicine believes that soybeans have a cooling effect, and people with a weak spleen and stomach who drink too much may be prone to bloating and diarrhea, so it is recommended to reduce the amount appropriately.； But judging from the evidence of modern evidence-based medicine, soy isoflavones in soybeans are phytoestrogens, which can regulate estrogen levels in the human body in both directions - when your estrogen is high, it will help you lower it, and when your estrogen is low, it will help you supplement it. On the contrary, it can reduce the risk of breast cancer recurrence. Drinking a cup of 200ml light soy milk every day is absolutely fine. There is really no need to treat soy milk as a scourge.

After talking about the pitfalls that must be avoided, there is another category that many people tend to overlook, which is highly processed foods that are high in sugar and fat. Many people think that if I need to take supplements after surgery, what’s wrong with eating more sweets? In fact, it is not hypocritical. Fat tissue itself will synthesize endogenous estrogen. If your body fat rate exceeds the standard for a long time, it is equivalent to installing a small factory in your body that continuously secretes estrogen. It is self-evident that it will stimulate the breast glands. I met a 29-year-old triple-negative breast cancer patient before who lost her appetite after chemotherapy. Her family loved her and bought her the cream puffs and fried chicken drumsticks that she loved to eat as a child every day. As a result, she gained 12 pounds in three months. During the follow-up examination, although her hormone levels were fine, her blood lipids were high, and her body fat rate soared to 38%. I told her at the time that the supplements you were taking were not nutritional, but were increasing the risk of recurrence. Of course, that doesn’t mean that you can’t have a bite of fried skewers and a bite of cake. It’s perfectly fine to eat it once in a while to relieve your cravings, but just don’t eat it every day.

In addition, alcohol is 100% blacklisted, and this is really not negotiable. The WHO has long classified alcohol as a carcinogen, and it has been clearly mentioned that it is highly related to the incidence of breast cancer. No matter it is red wine, white wine or fruit wine, even one sip will not do any good to the breasts. Don't believe the nonsense about "drinking red wine to activate blood circulation and nourish the skin". If you really want to activate blood circulation, walking downstairs for half an hour is better than anything else.

As for the most frequently asked question "Can hair be eaten?", the controversy is indeed not small. According to the system of traditional Chinese medicine, it is indeed recommended to eat less heat-causing substances such as dog meat, durian, and mango during the postoperative wound recovery period to avoid wound redness, swelling, and allergies. ； But from the perspective of modern medicine, beef, mutton, seafood, chicken and duck are all sources of high-quality protein. As long as you are not allergic to them, they can help you repair your body and improve your immunity. I have seen the most extreme patients who haven't touched a bite of meat for half a year after the operation. They only eat vegetables and millet porridge every day. They are so thin that they only have 80 kilograms left. They can't even bear the follow-up endocrine treatment, which delays their recovery. So you can be more flexible here: if you have just had surgery and the wound has not healed, or you are allergic and get a rash after eating seafood, then stop for a while. ； If there is nothing wrong with what you have eaten, just eat what you need to eat. Keeping up with nutrition is the first priority.

There are also many people who ask whether they can drink coffee. Current research has made it clear that caffeine intake should not exceed 300mg per day, which is about the amount of two American cups. Not only is it okay, but some studies believe that it can reduce the risk of breast cancer recurrence. If you are afraid of being unable to sleep, you can also drink low-caffeine. You don’t have to quit completely. There is also honey. Many people are afraid of hormones. In fact, the estrogen content in pure honey is very small. It is perfectly fine to drink a spoonful of it occasionally to soothe your throat. Just don't buy the "breast enlargement honey cream" or "beautiful royal jelly" with unknown ingredients - I have encountered patients before who took royal jelly skin care products bought online. During the review, the estrogen was three times higher than the normal value, which was not worth the gain.

In fact, when it comes down to it, there really aren’t that many rules and regulations for the diet of breast patients. The core is not to take supplements containing estrogen, not to drink alcohol, and to eat less junk food. The rest will make you feel comfortable. If you can’t sleep because of anxiety over a bite of food every day, the damage to the breast glands will be much greater than if you eat a bite of beef and mutton.