How to eat after gastric cancer surgery for gastric cancer patients? What to eat, what can and cannot be eaten, and whether supplements can be eaten?
I. Patients who have not undergone surgery
Patients with early staging can eat the same general diet as their family members, while patients in the middle stage are recommended to eat mainly semi-liquid diet. The principle of eating is to choose light and easy to digest, high energy and high protein food. 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 late and even have symptoms of incomplete gastrointestinal obstruction, so they should eat under the guidance of the specialist, they can eat a liquid diet. For patients with complete gastrointestinal obstruction at the time of diagnosis, fasting and hospitalization are recommended.
II. Patients after gastric cancer surgery
1.What can be eaten?
In order to adapt to the current situation of digestive tract reconstruction, patients should choose light and easily digestible food with high energy and high protein in the early stage after gastric cancer surgery. In order to adapt to the current situation of digestive tract reconstruction, patients should choose light, easy-to-digest, high-energy and high-protein foods. Nutritious and easily digestible foods should be chosen for main meals and side dishes, and raw foods should be avoided. 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 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. In particular, the whole gastrectomy patients because there is no role of stomach acid these foods are difficult to digest.
3, “hair” of the food can eat?
Often patients’ families will 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 patients’ nutrition, especially egg custard, which is semi-liquid and not 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 to the selection of supplements, some so-called “scientific information” to promote certain health products have preventive and curative effects, misleading patients.
5.Can I drink alcohol?
During the Chinese New Year festival, family reunion is a joyous occasion, so 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, such as red wine, yellow wine and other low alcohol, and generally a small amount is appropriate depending on their own condition. Patients with complications such as reflux esophagitis, residual gastritis and dumping syndrome are advised not to drink alcohol.
6.What can’t I eat?
In principle, except for patients who are taking medication and need to follow medical advice, we do not advocate excessive abstinence from food, so as not to affect the nutritional balance. After gastric surgery, the digestive function of the stomach is reduced, so during the recovery period, try not to eat food that can easily cause intestinal adhesions, such as sticky food (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 thoroughly when eating. At the early stage of recovery, coarse grains, nuts, dried beans, vegetables with high coarse fiber (such as bamboo shoots, celery, garlic), gas-producing foods (such as radish, white potato, onion, carbonated drinks, beer, etc.) and stimulating foods are not suitable.
Dietary factors are most closely related to the development of gastric cancer. It has been identified that 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 number 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 or 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.
7.How much to eat?
After gastrectomy, the volume of stomach is obviously reduced, so it is appropriate to have semi-liquid or general food of about 50 g per meal, and liquid food of about 100 ml, depending on individual situation, and the dietary requirements of patients with different body weight are different. At the same time, it should be noted that there is a great difference between the dietary amounts of the South and the North, and patients in each region should make appropriate adjustments to the above recommended food intake according to their own conditions. Generally speaking, it is enough to eat eight minutes full, simply speaking, the patient’s own feeling prevails, in order to eat without fullness and other discomfort. 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.
8.How to eat?
It is very important to eat gradually, and to eat less and more often. After partial or total gastrectomy, the stomach capacity becomes smaller or the intestine replaces the stomach, which affects the stomach’s feeding and digestion function. After radical resection of gastric cancer, only a small part of stomach remains or after total gastrectomy, the capacity of eating is obviously reduced, so only by increasing the number of meals can we make up for the lack of food and meet the body’s demand for nutrients. However, after gastric cancer surgery, weight generally decreases to different degrees compared with that before surgery, so patients do not need to eat too much in order to recover their original weight quickly. Especially when enjoying food, patients should avoid overeating.
9.Less food and more meals
Therefore, patients should develop good eating habits, eat at regular times, eat regularly and quantitatively, insist on eating less and more meals, and it is better to eat more than six meals a day. Except for individual cases, drink as regularly 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 every two hours, can prevent the occurrence of hypoglycemic syndrome, a small number of meals is an important diet system for patients with gastrectomy.
10.Chew and swallow slowly
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 coarse and indigestible food, they should chew slowly and eat at the speed most suitable for them. However, this speed varies from person to person and may change depending on the surgical procedure or food, as well as over time.
By paying attention to the above points, patients with gastric cancer can also enjoy the delicious food on the tongue and have a happy and warm Spring Festival. For more health science knowledge, please scan and pay attention to WeChat public number “Dr. Huang Hua” and leave message online.