Some cancer patients have too many “rules”, they can’t eat this or that; while some patients dare to eat whatever they can eat. Unbeknownst to them, both attitudes are detrimental or even harmful to the treatment and recovery of patients. The rational diet of lung cancer patients should pay attention to the following points: 1. The taboos of cancer patients should be different from evidence, from person to person, and from treatment method to treatment method. Some people mistakenly believe that cancer cells have a stronger ability to take in nutrients than normal cells, so if they eat more high protein, it will be beneficial to cancer cells, but if there is not enough nutrition, the immune function of human body will be at a lower level and the ability to fight cancer will be further weakened, instead, it will be beneficial to the development of cancer cells and the quality of life will be reduced. For example, without certain protein supply for chemotherapy patients, it is difficult for white blood cells and hemoglobin to recover. Therefore, we believe that: the avoidance of food should not be too strict and the recipes should not be too narrow, and the diet with high protein and high vitamin should be the mainstay to make up for the excessive consumption of tumor and improve the immune function, anti-cancer ability and survival quality of human body. 2.Rational choice of diet Avoid eating foods containing carcinogenic substances, such as pickled vegetables and meat containing nitrite, moldy, smoked, corrupted and unfresh foods containing food additives, and crops with serious pesticide pollution. Foods that are conducive to toxin excretion and have detoxifying effects, such as mung bean soup (porridge), adzuki bean soup, winter melon, watermelon, etc., should be consumed frequently. You can also choose foods with anti-tumor effects, such as shiitake mushrooms, mushrooms, ganoderma lucidum, cordyceps, fungus and silver fungus; lettuce, capers, cauliflower, loofah and pumpkin in vegetables; apricots, pears, prunes, kiwi, loquat and pomegranate in fruits; lotus roots, lilies, water chestnuts, garlic, radishes, asparagus, carrots and tea leaves in leaves and roots; chickens, ducks, geese, carp, turtle, sea cucumbers, silkworm pupae, beech and so on in animals. The animal category includes chicken, duck, goose, carp, turtle, sea cucumber, silkworm pupae, royal jelly, etc. 3.Strive to improve appetite The main psychological reactions of patients with middle and late stage lung cancer are anxiety and depression, which can lead to different degrees of loss of appetite, so first of all, we should do a good job in psychological care, help patients to build up confidence, relieve patients’ mental worries, provide a quiet and neat eating environment, leave the bed as much as possible and sit at the dining table for meals. Before the meal, you can drink a small amount of wine (with low alcohol content) or give herbal medicine to open the stomach and wake up the spleen. After the meal, give fruits, etc. Second, the diet should be diversified, with multiple recipes, avoiding monotony, with balanced nutritional composition, paying attention to the structure of the diet, not partiality, and avoiding always eating one kind of food day after day. Pay attention to the sensory properties of food. More efforts in color and aroma. Third, if nausea when eating, then a few drops of ginger juice in the mouth before the meal; or acupuncture Nei Guan, or gastric reassurance Nei Guan acupuncture injection, or take the Chinese medicine to lower the rebellion and stop vomiting. Fourth, keep the bowels open. Constipation, the internal Qi does not work, the stomach is out of harmony, it does not think about eating. Eat more coarse fiber foods such as asparagus, celery, bananas, if necessary, give laxatives or Chinese medicine to retain the enema. Fifth, pay attention to do not too hungry and too full, do not eat sticky and thick flavor easy to produce waste gas products, so as to avoid loss of appetite. 4.According to the function and taste of food, discriminate food. Food, like medicine, has four gases and five tastes, so diet should be selected according to the coldness, heat and coldness of the disease, and the deficiency should be supplemented and the reality should be diarrhea. According to clinical manifestations, lung cancer patients can be divided into yin deficiency and heat toxicity, phlegm and dampness blocking the lung, qi stagnation and blood stasis, and qi and yin deficiency.
Yin deficiency and heat toxicity type: clinical manifestations include low fever and night sweating, dry cough with little sputum, or blood in sputum, disturbed sleep, chest pain and shortness of breath, thin pulse, red tongue and thin yellow coating. They should consume fishy grass, yellow flowering cabbage, duck, lotus root, asparagus, lily, banana, sugar cane, American ginseng, lotus seeds, fungus and turtle, etc., which have the effect of clearing heat and detoxifying.
Phlegm and dampness blocking lung type: clinical manifestations are coughing and coughing with phlegm, chest pain and shortness of breath, fatigue, slippery pulse, dull or fatty tongue, white and greasy coating. Such patients should not eat sticky, thick, spicy and dry things, but should eat foods with the effect of strengthening the spleen and resolving phlegm, detoxifying and clearing the lung, such as rice kernel, lotus seeds, radish, corn, long cylinder beans, etc.
Qi stagnation and blood stasis: clinical manifestations include coughing, chest tightness, chest distension and pain, constipation, dry mouth, blood in the sputum, thin and astringent pulse, vivid tongue or petechiae, thin yellow moss, such patients should consume foods with the effect of regulating Qi, resolving stagnation, activating blood and detoxifying the lung, such as eggplant, wood ear, hairy vegetables, celery, water chestnut.
Qi and Yin deficiency: clinical symptoms include weakness and fatigue, shortness of breath, lazy speech, dry mouth, knotted stool, cough with little phlegm, pale red tongue, or fat body, thin white moss or little moss, such patients should consume foods with the effect of nourishing Qi and Yin, such as grapes, pears, mulberries, rice kernel, edamame, American ginseng, yam, snapper, black fish, etc.
Clinically, the appropriate food should be given according to different symptoms. For example, for cough with thick and yellow sputum, give codonopsis clarified liquid to boil snow pear, stewed honey and stir-fried asparagus. For those who have cough with thin phlegm, they can take chicken soup with 100 minerals and fried dried tofu with almonds; for those who have lung cancer with blood stasis and pain, they can take peach kernel porridge, braised asparagus with three shreds, sliced pumpkin with soy sauce and gua pou cake; for those who have lung cancer with cough and hemoptysis, they can take bird’s nest soup and rabbit stewed with lily of the valley. In conclusion, a reasonable diet has positive significance for cancer patients to better accept anti-tumor treatment, improve the immune function of human body, improve the quality of survival, prolong life and recovery.