What are the dietary taboos for COPD?

If we want to list the highest priority dietary red lines for patients with COPD, the first priority is to avoid eating foods that can easily cause airway irritation and coughing. The second step is to avoid categories that will squeeze the breathing space and increase the burden of breathing. Most of the other taboos need to be adjusted based on personal constitution. There is no absolute "one size fits all" list.

A while ago, I treated an old man who had suffered from COPD for 11 years. His blood oxygen was stable at home and he didn't even need an oxygen concentrator when walking. Last week, his grandson brought him a package of super spicy braised lotus root and ate half a plate with ice soda.

In fact, the airways of patients with COPD are much more sensitive than ordinary people. Just like skin that has been red and injured for a long time, they will immediately become red, swollen and painful when they touch irritating things, such as food that is too spicy, too cold, too hot, and dried fried melon seeds and fried peanuts.

In addition to direct irritation to the airway, there are also some foods that are not noticeable but can quietly aggravate the symptoms of asthma. The most typical ones are foods that are prone to flatulence, such as eating too many soybeans, whole broccoli, or drinking carbonated drinks. The belly will bulge and the diaphragm will push up. The lung expansion of patients with COPD is originally limited. Now the breathing space is squeezed out, making people feel suffocated even when sitting, let alone walking.

Another point that many people don’t notice is that you should not eat too many foods that are high in added sugar and saturated fat, such as fatty pork belly and milk tea and cream cakes. When these foods are metabolized, they will produce more carbon dioxide. We COPD patients have a hard time expelling carbon dioxide, which is equivalent to adding extra work to the already exhausted lungs, and the frequency of breathing will naturally be higher.

As for many people asking whether you can eat seafood and whether you can eat beef and mutton, there is actually no unified answer. If you don’t have any reaction or allergies after eating these things, you can definitely eat them. On the contrary, this kind of high-quality protein can help you strengthen your respiratory muscles and have more strength to expel phlegm when you cough.； But if you are allergic and get a rash or cough violently after eating seafood, you must avoid it and don't insist on eating it.

When I usually chat with patients who follow up, I often say that you don’t need to make eating like a task, and you don’t need to memorize so many complicated lists. Just remember the core points: don’t eat too exciting things, don’t eat until your stomach is full, and avoid eating greasy, oily, and salty foods. This is better than anything else. Last time, there was a 68-year-old aunt who always liked to drink sweet porridge with a lot of sugar. After hearing this, she changed to drinking multi-grain porridge without sugar, with some light stir-fried vegetables. When she came for a follow-up checkup half a month later, she said that her usual breathing less often, and climbing two floors was not as strenuous as before.