The history of dietary therapy for tumors in China dates back to the era of the Nei Jing 2000 years ago.
From a modern point of view, the role of diet therapy is understood as follows.
First, to ensure the nutritional supply of the organism to meet the needs of treatment and recovery.
Second, to identify the evidence and administer food to improve the symptoms with the treatment.
The third is to consolidate the therapeutic effect, enhance immune function and prevent recurrence.
There are three major principles in cancer diet therapy.
First, reasonable, uniform, comprehensive and adequate nutrition is an important material basis for cancer treatment.
Secondly, evidence-based diet can play a good supplementary therapeutic role.
Third, food administration with evidence is beneficial to recovery.
1. Reasonable, even, comprehensive and adequate nutrition
Nutrition is an important material foundation for cancer treatment and recovery.
As the saying goes, “before the army and horses move, food and grass come first”. A good nutritional status plays a supportive role in physical fitness and immune function, so that patients can easily withstand surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Reduce the adverse effects caused by treatment, reduce the emergence of infection and complications.
According to statistics, among 3,000 patients, the survival period of those who did not lose weight was about one time longer than that of those who lost weight. If lung cancer patients lose 18% of their body weight and cannot recover, their chemotherapy effect is unsatisfactory; if the weight loss is corrected, 50% can have certain efficacy.
According to the recommendation of “Dietary Nutrient Reference Intake for Chinese Residents” put forward by China Nutrition Association in October 2000, the daily caloric energy per capita for male light labor force is 10.3 kJ (2400 kcal), protein is 75g/day, of which high quality protein supply accounts for more than 1/3, accounting for 10%-15% of total caloric energy. Fat accounts for 20%-30% of the total caloric energy; carbohydrates account for 55%-60% of the total caloric energy.
The Chinese Nutrition Society has even proposed six dietary guidelines: food should be varied.
Daily food composition should include 5 major categories.
(1) cereals, potatoes, dry beans to supply sugar, protein, B vitamins, etc.
(2) Animal foods to obtain protein, fat, inorganic salts, vitamin A and B group, etc.
(3) Soybean and its products to obtain protein, fat, dietary fiber, inorganic salts and B vitamins, etc.
(4) Vegetables and fruits to obtain dietary fiber, inorganic salts, vitamin C and carotenoids, etc.
(5) for caloric food, such as vegetable fats, sugar and wine. However, fats and oils should be in moderation, coarse and fine should be matched, salt should be limited (preferably not more than 5 grams per day, and cancer patients should limit salt-cured foods), sweets should be eaten sparingly, alcohol should be consumed in moderation (cancer patients should ban alcohol), and three meals should be reasonable.
Generally speaking, cancer patients need more nutrition than normal people to make up for the consumption of the disease. For patients with normal weight, their nutrition should be increased by 20% compared with normal people, and for underweight patients, it should be increased by 50% or even more, and the increased part should be based on high-quality protein and multivitamins.
A reasonable diet for cancer should also prohibit smoking, alcohol, spicy and stimulating foods and salt-pickled foods, and advocate the eating habits of chewing slowly, eating regularly and quantitatively, and eating with pleasure.
2.Eating with evidence
Modern scientific research and clinical data show that vitamins A, B, C, D and E, trace elements N, selenium, iodine, zinc, copper, sulfur and polysaccharides in fungal foods are all beneficial to cancer prevention and treatment. It is also true that food therapy can be seen clinically as an adjunct to other therapies.
For example, poria polysaccharides contained in poria can counteract the inhibition of cobalt 60 on mouse cells, enhance the phagocytic activity of macrophages, lung cancer patients apply poria polysaccharides with radiotherapy, its toxic side effects decreased, radiotherapy effect improved.
Silver fungus polysaccharide can resist the immunosuppression of cyclophosphamide, 6MP, 5-Fu and mitomycin, and protect the cardiac muscle and hematopoietic system.
Shiitake mushroom polysaccharide can induce the production of interferon, enhance immunity, improve physical fitness, and reduce chemotherapy-induced bone marrow suppression.
Food therapy should be used as an adjunct to symptomatic treatment.
For example, peanuts, persimmons, capers, roots, dates, and umeboshi can be used to stop bleeding.
From the point of view of the hemostatic mechanism, the coagulation effect of peanuts is manifested in anti-fibrinolysis and promotion of bone marrow platelet production, shortening the bleeding time.
The hemostatic effect of lotus root is mainly manifested in enhancing platelet function and shortening the bleeding time, while dates rely mainly on vitamin C, and umeboshi relies on its astringent effect. Foods with the same hemostatic effect can be used to enhance their efficacy if they are used in an evidence-based manner. This is true for hemostasis, as well as for the dietary treatment of various other symptoms.
3.Discriminating food
(1) Food for disease identification can enhance the target and receive twice the effect with half the effort. For example, monkey mushroom polysaccharide and Cordyceps polysaccharide are both edible mushroom polysaccharides that can fight against tumors, but the former is suitable for digestive system, while the latter is more effective for lung and kidney cancer. If the two are used in exchange of diseases, the efficacy will be reduced accordingly.
(2) Food for disease identification can help improve the immune function of patients and achieve the purpose of supporting the righteousness and eliminating the evil. The connotation of tumor food therapy with immunotherapy is also based on the research of modern nutrition, physiology, food chemistry and modern immunology.
Wheat, rice kernel, rice bran bark in cereals; snapper, snake, pangolin in meat; almond, fig, umeboshi, melon, pecan, water chestnut in fruits; shiitake mushroom, carrot, seaweed, gourd, lentil, asparagus in vegetables, etc. have been confirmed by pharmacology to have the effect of improving immunity.
For example, β-hemicellulose in wheat inhibits S180 tumor cell line by 85%-100%, and the polysaccharide it contains can stimulate the reticuloendothelial system and improve the ability of shrinking hosts to respond to cancer cell-specific antigens.
The phytoagglutinin contained in malt can also inhibit Ehrlich ascites cancer. Rice kernel contains amino acids, sugars, can inhibit Ehrlich ascites cancer, Yoshida sarcoma, and can enhance the body immunity by regulating the function of gastrointestinal tract. The polysaccharide compounds contained in rice bran bark can inhibit S180 tumor cell line, Ehrlich ascites carcinoma, and enhance the function of reticuloendothelial system.
The lignin contained in carrot can improve the humoral immunity, kill the S180 tumor cell line, and the carotene contained in it is the internationally recognized cancer prevention food. According to the United States tumor research clinical pharmacological observation, eating carob can reduce the incidence of lung cancer by 40% than those who do not eat it.