What to eat in the late stage of lung cancer and how to adjust the diet

For lung cancer patients, because chemotherapy may be used during treatment, it can cause great damage to the body. In the subsequent process, diet is also a point that cannot be ignored. A reasonable diet can maximize the nutritional supplement for the patient.

Dietary conditioning methods for lung cancer patients

(1) Improve nutrition: Lung cancer patients who do not have difficulty swallowing should be free to choose their food. Without affecting treatment, they should eat more protein and carbohydrate-rich foods, such as lean meat, chicken, duck, rabbit, fish, shrimp, soy products and various cereals. Generally, there is no restriction on food intake to ensure good nutrition and create good conditions for surgery.

If the nutritional status is poor, it is difficult to tolerate the trauma of surgery, postoperative healing is slow, and infection is prone to occur, which is extremely unfavorable for surgical recovery. This requires improving the quality of diet before surgery.

(2) Providing an elemental diet : Lung cancer patients should take an elemental diet in addition to three meals a day half a month before surgery. Elemental diets contain various nutrients necessary for the human body. Because they are complete in nutrients, they can meet the needs of the body and can be absorbed in the upper small intestine without digestion. They can be taken orally or through tube feeding. In addition to supplementing protein nutrition, elemental diets can promote muscle protein synthesis when sufficient calories are supplied. When the calorie supply is insufficient, branched-chain amino acids can also provide more heat energy.

There are many types of elemental diets, which can be taken orally or through a tube. When using, start with a low concentration, generally 5% and gradually increase the concentration. If there is no diarrhea or vomiting, it can be gradually increased to 10% to 20%. If taken orally, be careful to drink slowly. If drinking too fast, diarrhea and vomiting may occur easily because the elemental diet is a hypertonic solution. Pay attention to the appropriate temperature to prevent diarrhea caused by excessive cold. If you take 100 grams of elemental diet every day, you can increase your calories by 400 kcal and protein by 16 grams. At the same time, it increases the body's immunity and enables it to tolerate surgery.

(3) Postoperative diet: After surgery, the diet should be determined according to the patient's condition. Some patients can eat on the second day after surgery, but they should start with clear liquids. The food should be light, soft, and easy to digest and absorb, because the surgical trauma will cause the digestive system to function.

Obstacles, so don't rush into food selection and supplementation. Start with the simplest food, and then transition to semi-liquid food and normal food if there is no adverse reaction to the gastrointestinal tract. Within one week after the operation, in addition to consuming clear liquid or semi-liquid food, you should also supplement elemental food to replenish the body's nutrients. When you can eat normally again, stop eating elemental meals. Whether before or after surgery, you should eat more fresh vegetables and fruits, such as green, yellow, and red vegetables, mushrooms, black fungus, asparagus, lemons, red dates, etc., because fruits and vegetables are rich in vitamin C, which is an anti-cancer substance that can block the formation of cancer cells.