It’s New Year’s Eve, family reunion, visiting friends and relatives, eating and drinking are naturally indispensable. So, when gastric cancer patients face the delicious food on the New Year’s Eve dinner table, can they really only watch other people feast on the food and eat congee and small dishes by themselves? Of course not, if gastric cancer patients have proper control, they can also enjoy a “Spring Festival on the tongue”.
Pre-operative patients
Some patients cannot undergo surgery before Chinese New Year due to various reasons. Patients with early staging can have a normal diet like their family members, while patients with mid-stage cancer are recommended to have a semi-liquid diet. The principle of eating is to choose light and easy to digest, high energy and high protein foods. It is also important to eat foods rich in vitamins and trace elements.
It is advisable to choose nutritious and easily digestible foods for main meals and side dishes. Avoid eating raw and spicy food or rough and indigestible food to prevent the surface of tumor from breaking and bleeding due to food stimulation. Of course, do not eat baked, roasted, smoked and fried foods. Don’t eat moldy, expired and high-salt food. Some patients are diagnosed at a later stage and even have symptoms of incomplete gastrointestinal obstruction, so they should eat according to the specific conditions under the guidance of the specialist. For patients who have complete gastrointestinal obstruction at the time of diagnosis, fasting and hospitalization are recommended.
Postoperative patient Q&A
1.What can I eat?
In the early stage after gastric cancer surgery, patients are often weak. In general principle, in order to adapt to the current situation of digestive tract reconstruction, patients should choose light and easy-to-digest foods with high energy and high protein. At the same time, foods rich in vitamins and trace elements should also be consumed. It is advisable to choose nutritious and easily digestible food for main meals and side dishes, and avoid raw food. Initially, two weeks after gastrectomy, you can eat a semi-fluid diet, such as noodles, wontons, millet and red dates porridge, egg custard, etc. Gradually, you can eat soft rice and egg custard. Gradually eat such as soft rice, dumplings, wontons, green leafy vegetables, freshly squeezed orange juice, etc. Gradually increase to add fresh vegetables and fruits, meat, fish, eggs, milk and soybean products.
2.Can I eat seafood?
Most of the coastal patients have the habit of eating seafood, cooked seafood chewed slowly is allowed to eat, sashimi is not advocated to eat, some tight meat, difficult to chew, not easy to digest seafood is also not advocated to eat. Especially the whole gastrectomy patients, because there is no role of stomach acid these foods are difficult to digest.
3.Can I eat idiopathic food?
Often patients’ families ask if eggs are “hairy” and can be eaten? There is no clinical evidence that eggs and other foods increase the incidence or recurrence rate of gastric cancer. Eggs are rich in proteins and amino acids, which are conducive to the improvement of nutrition, especially egg custard, which is a non-crumb semi-liquid, and is less likely to cause complications such as digestive tract obstruction. Therefore, the so-called “hair products” can be completely safe and practical.
4.Can I take tonic products?
There is a wide variety of supplements on the market, but supplements or health products cannot replace medicines for any diseases. They can regulate certain physiological functions and improve the physiological state, but cannot correct the pathological state or treat any disease. Some supplements can be used for gastric cancer patients to play a certain “supporting role” (auxiliary role), improve the quality of life and nutritional status, but they have no anti-cancer effect, cannot kill cancer cells and cannot replace anti-cancer drugs. If patients take too many supplements, they may also suffer from liver function damage and elevated transaminases. Patients must pay attention when selecting supplements, as some so-called “scientific information” propagates that certain health products have preventive and curative effects and mislead patients.
5. Can I drink alcohol?
During the Chinese New Year, family reunion and happiness, a small drink will increase the festive atmosphere, but in the early stage after gastric cancer surgery, patients within 3 months are advised not to drink alcohol, and a small amount of alcohol is not allowed; after 3 months, patients can drink a small amount of alcohol, and it is recommended to drink red wine, yellow wine and other low alcohol, generally a small amount is appropriate depending on their condition. Patients with complications such as reflux esophagitis, residual gastritis and dumping syndrome are advised not to drink alcohol in drops.
What foods should I pay special attention to?
In principle, except for patients who are taking medications and need to abstain from eating as prescribed by the doctor, excessive abstinence from eating is not advocated to avoid affecting the nutritional balance. After gastric surgery, the digestive function of the stomach is reduced, so during the recovery period, try not to eat foods that are likely to cause intestinal adhesions, such as glutinous foods with high viscosity (dumplings, rice dumplings), green bananas, persimmons, mushrooms, konjac, etc. Raw vegetables are not easy to digest, so they should be cut into small pieces before cooking and chewed fully when eating. Coarse grains, nuts, dried beans and vegetables with a lot of coarse fiber (such as bamboo shoots, celery, garlic), gas-producing foods (such as turnips, white potatoes, onions, carbonated drinks, beer, etc.) and stimulating foods are not suitable in the early stage of recovery.
How much is the best amount to eat?
After gastrectomy, the volume of stomach is obviously reduced, semi-liquid or general food of about 50g per meal is appropriate, and liquid food of about 100ml is appropriate, depending on the individual situation, which varies from person to person, and the dietary needs of patients of different weights are different. It should also be noted that there is a great difference in the amount of diet between the South and the North, and patients from all over the world should make appropriate adjustments to the above recommended food intake according to their own conditions. Generally speaking, it is enough to eat eight points of fullness, and simply speaking, it can be based on the patient’s own feeling, so that there is no discomfort such as fullness after eating. Once there is nausea, bloating and other discomfort after eating, the diet should be reduced or stopped. After the symptoms disappear and the condition improves, start eating again.
What should I eat?
It is very important to eat gradually and in small portions. After major or total gastrectomy, the gastric capacity becomes smaller or the intestine replaces the stomach, which affects the stomach’s food intake and digestive function. Because only a small part of stomach remains after radical resection of gastric cancer or after total gastrectomy, the capacity of eating is obviously reduced compared with the original one, and only increasing the number of meals can make up for the lack of food and meet the body’s demand for nutrients. However, after gastric cancer surgery, the weight generally decreases to different degrees compared with that before surgery, so patients do not need to eat too much in a hurry to recover the original weight quickly. Especially when enjoying food, you must avoid overeating.
Remember: Eat less, chew more, and swallow slowly
Patients should develop good eating habits, eat at regular times, eat regularly and quantitatively, and insist on eating less and more meals, preferably more than six meals a day. Except for individual cases, drink as regularly and quantitatively as possible. Eating less and more meals is not only good for digestion and absorption, but also can increase the total caloric energy intake and prevent weight loss. If you eat once every two hours, it can prevent the occurrence of hypoglycemic syndrome. Small and multiple meals is an important diet system for gastrectomy patients. After gastric cancer surgery, the grinding function of stomach is lacking, so the chewing function of teeth should play a more important role. When patients eat coarser and less digestible food, they should chew slowly when eating and eat at the speed that best suits them. However, this speed varies from person to person and can change depending on the procedure or the food, as well as over time.
Look out for healthy people
Don’t do this to your stomach
In addition, nitroso compounds or their precursors, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, aflatoxins and other carcinogens can cause cancer, and these carcinogens can exist in certain foods and enter the body through diet to induce gastric cancer. Baked, baked, smoked and fried foods contain a large amount of carcinogenic PAH compounds, which greatly increase the possibility of stomach cancer, such as: salted meat, salted fish, salted vegetables, smoked, fried and baked sausages and hams. Heavy smoking and alcohol consumption can increase the risk of cancer. Don’t eat moldy and expired food. High-salt foods can destroy the gastric mucous membrane barrier and prolong gastric emptying time, which indirectly promote carcinogenic substances to enter the gastric mucous membrane and lead to cancer.