What not to eat during chemotherapy

For cancer patients, everyone knows that chemotherapy is needed. As we all know, chemotherapy is a treatment method that is very harmful to your health. Therefore, during chemotherapy, patients should pay close attention to their daily diet. Because daily diet is a way to help chemotherapy patients recover their strength quickly. So, do you know what foods patients cannot eat during chemotherapy? Let’s take a look below.

Patients undergoing chemotherapy should not blindly avoid certain foods:

Western medicine does not have any dietary restrictions for cancer patients. It just believes that there is a certain relationship between diet and the incidence of cancer, and foods that can cause cancer should naturally not be eaten. For official cancer patients, in principle, they should eat whatever they want. It is a good thing if it can stimulate appetite and enhance physical fitness. If the patient wants to eat but cannot eat, and is malnourished, the condition will be aggravated over time.

Diet adjustment for chemotherapy patients:

Reasonable diet and nutrition can not only curb the development of cancer, but also reduce the toxic and side effects of drugs. Therefore, regulating diet and increasing nutrition during chemotherapy is one of the important prerequisites for completing chemotherapy. The principles of dietary conditioning are high calories, high protein, high vitamins and appropriate amounts of inorganic salts. The intake of high-calorie foods, such as rice, noodles and whole grains, can ensure the basic needs of the human body, and can also promote the repair of hair, mucous membranes, muscles and other tissues after chemotherapy, and increase the body's immune function. It is generally believed that during chemotherapy, the protein required by patients should increase by 25%-30% compared to ordinary people. In addition, fresh fruits and vegetables can provide more vitamins and inorganic salts, so patients should be encouraged to eat more fruits and vegetables.

When patients experience nausea and vomiting, they can eat small meals frequently and do not drink too much water while eating. If the patient has severe toxic and side effects during chemotherapy, such as abdominal distension and loss of appetite, he or she can eat liquid or semi-liquid diet 5-6 times a day. After the drug reaction disappears, he or she can change to soft food and normal diet. In addition, you can also choose foods with anti-cancer effects, such as mushrooms, yam, garlic, white radish, lily, coix seed, white fungus, etc.

Dietary adjustments for patients undergoing radiotherapy:

Radiation is a hot and toxic substance. During radiotherapy, it often causes common side effects such as stomatitis, dry mouth, sore throat, dysphagia, dry and painful skin, etc. In addition to relying on Chinese medicine to adjust and alleviate symptoms, the diet should be light and nutritious, eat less spicy, fried, and grilled foods, and pay attention to oral hygiene. When the patient has dry mouth and throat, the careful care of family members can reduce or delay the above-mentioned damage reactions. This includes avoiding tobacco, alcohol, and spicy foods, eating less sugar, and gargling frequently with light salt water or mouthwash. You can always have tea or drinks on hand and drink them when you have a dry mouth to warm your mouth and throat; you can also put black plums, watermelon frost, American ginseng and vitamin C tablets in your mouth to quench your thirst or spray throat powder locally.

Adjust your diet according to your physical condition:

That is, syndrome differentiation diet, choosing food according to the cold or hot properties of the body's constitution. If the patient is mainly cold in nature, he should eat less cold food such as cabbage, amaranth, bamboo shoots, cucumber, bitter gourd, pear, watermelon, hard persimmon, orange, etc.; if the patient is mainly yin deficiency and internal heat, he should eat less hot food such as mutton, chili, grilled food, durian, mango, etc.; if the patient has poor spleen and stomach function, he should avoid sticky, cold, slippery, and greasy foods, such as white fungus, ice water, glutinous rice, etc.

Adjust your diet according to the type of tumor:

Patients with gastric cancer should avoid dog meat, smoked and roasted food, spicy seasonings, etc.; patients with esophageal cancer should avoid overheated drinks, alcohol, etc.; patients with liver cancer should avoid hard, fried, spicy food and alcohol; patients with breast cancer should eat less spicy food and avoid greasy food and alcohol; patients with intestinal cancer should avoid alcohol, processed food, and greasy food; patients with lung cancer should avoid tobacco, alcohol, and spicy food; patients with kidney cancer should eat less mutton, dog meat, salty food, alcohol, and spicy food; patients with prostate cancer should avoid foods containing androgens, such as seahorses, deer antlers, leeks, and leek flowers; patients with gallbladder cancer should avoid high-fat, alcohol, and fried foods, and avoid overeating.

It should be noted that even the most comprehensive diet therapy can only play a supporting role, because diet therapy is a supplementary measure but does not have the ability to actively control. To fundamentally change the problem of excessive toxic side effects of chemotherapy, it is necessary to combine professional anti-radiotherapy and chemotherapy drugs. For example, the research on the anti-tumor mechanism of the traditional Chinese medicine Ganoderma lucidum has been relatively mature. Medical-grade Ganoderma lucidum spore powder or highly concentrated Ganoderma lucidum preparations can be used for synergistic treatment with chemotherapy.