Cancer dietary taboos

There is no universal list of taboos that applies to all patients. The rumors spread online that "no food is allowed to touch", "sweets are 100% carcinogenic", and "eating vegetarian can starve cancer cells to death" are all blanket rumors. All taboos must be judged individually based on the type of cancer, stage of treatment, and personal physical condition. Safety, absorption, and comfort are the highest criteria.

Last month, I accompanied an elder in my family to the oncology department for a follow-up visit. I met an aunt who had just finished chemotherapy for lung cancer. She asked the doctor with a wrinkled handwritten list of taboos. He said that chicken, goose, seafood, and even eggs were listed on the list as fat. She had not dared to eat meat for half a month, and now her legs feel weak when she goes downstairs to throw garbage. The doctor was very happy at that time, pointing to her blood routine report and said: "Your hemoglobin has almost dropped to the critical value now. If you don't eat these high-quality proteins, do you need to drink white porridge to make up for it?" If those lists were useful, our nutrition department would simply close its doors. ”

When it comes to this, some people will definitely mention the term "hair food". There is no need to argue about right or wrong. The taboos of hair food in traditional Chinese medicine originally correspond to specific disease stages - for example, if you are suffering from a rash or are allergic to seafood and mango, then you should eat less regardless of whether you have cancer or not.； If the wound has not yet healed after surgery, eating spicy food can indeed aggravate the inflammatory reaction. This makes sense. But from the perspective of modern nutrition, as long as the ingredients are clean, have no allergic reactions, and do not conflict with the medicines you are currently taking, high-quality proteins such as shrimp, chicken, and beef can replenish your body faster than drinking ten bowls of health soup. After all, cancer itself is a wasting disease, and if nutrition cannot keep up, the tolerance of subsequent chemotherapy and targeted drugs will be significantly worse.

Of course, that doesn’t mean you can eat whatever you want. There are some specific taboos that you should remember. For example, patients with hormone receptor-positive breast cancer and ovarian cancer should not follow the trend and buy animal estrogen-containing supplements such as snow clams, purple river jelly, and royal jelly to replenish their bodies. I met an aunt before. Her breast cancer was stable for 6 years after surgery. I heard from my best friend that snow clams are good for beauty. She took them for more than half a year. During the review, a recurrence was found. Is it a loss? There are also patients with digestive tract tumors. During the period after gastric cancer and esophageal cancer surgery, don’t eat hot pot, chew hard bones, or drink high alcohol. The mucous membranes are fragile. You are just looking for trouble for yourself. Patients with pancreatic cancer should pay more attention to eating oily braised pork and fried crispy pork as little as possible. The secretion of pancreatic enzymes is not enough. Eating these foods can cause diarrhea and abdominal pain in mild cases, and may induce pancreatitis in severe cases.

Even for the same person, the taboos at different stages of treatment are different. If you have severe oral ulcers during chemotherapy, avoid eating anything that is too salty, spicy, or hard-shelled or prickly. It hurts to eat, so eating these is simply a disaster. It is better to drink more warm egg custard and milk, which will make up for it faster. If you develop severe rash or paronychia while taking targeted drugs, you can eat less high-sugar milk tea, spicy hot pot, and hot durian and lychee to avoid aggravating the inflammatory reaction. When we are really in the terminal stage, we should stop using those rules and regulations to block patients. I once met a grandpa in the oncology department who was in the late stage. He wanted to take a bite of a popsicle, but his family was afraid that he would get cold. In the end, he didn’t even eat it before he left. Now I feel regretful when I think about it. At this stage, making the patient comfortable and without regrets is more important than anything else.

By the way, there is also the most widely circulated rumor: "Sugar will feed cancer cells, so you should completely quit sugar." To be honest, this is really a half-understood rumor. What you need to get rid of is the added sugar in milk tea, cola, and cakes. The carbohydrates in the rice and fruits that you eat normally are necessary sources of energy for the human body. If you really have to completely cut out the staple food, the cancer cells will not starve to death. You will collapse due to malnutrition first, and the gain will not be worth the loss. I have seen many patients eat plain water and cook vegetables every day, saying that they want to starve the cancer cells to death. In the end, they could not bear the chemotherapy and were forced to postpone the treatment, which in turn delayed the treatment.

I have talked with many teachers in oncology and nutrition departments, and everyone agrees: the diet of cancer patients has never been a shackle of "you can't eat this and you can't eat that". The core is "eatable, absorbable, and nutritious." There is no need to read the words in the list of taboos posted online every day. As long as they are not uncomfortable and do not conflict with your treatment plan, it is really no big deal if you occasionally take a bite of the cake you want to eat or drink a sip of warm milk tea. After all, eating well, drinking well, and feeling comfortable are the best foundation for fighting against diseases.