It’s autumn and winter again, and the topic of winter tonic often comes to mind at this time. In clinical practice, I often encounter post-operative breast cancer patients asking, “Doctor, can I take tonic?” and “Doctor, how can I take tonic? “Doctor, how can I take tonic?”, “Doctor, how can I take tonic?” “Doctor, should I take medicine or food?” And so on. Before answering this question, I tend to ask: “Why do I need to supplement? What is the purpose of the tonic?” . If you ask me this question, everyone will say that the purpose of “tonic” is to enhance nutrition, immunity, resistance to diseases and recovery from diseases. Breast cancer is the most prevalent malignant tumor among women in China, and there have been a lot of studies confirming that the development of breast cancer is closely related to diet. Diets high in fat, alcohol and low in fiber, and high in estrogen are all risk factors for breast cancer. As stated in the Nei Jing, “The food of grain, meat, fruit and vegetables should be nourished to the fullest, and no excess should be made to hurt its proper function.” Therefore, when it comes to the issue of breast cancer “supplementation”, we have to start with diet. The primary principle of diet for postoperative breast cancer patients is balanced nutrition and appropriate diet. When we talk about tumor patients, we will first think of “deficiency”; when we think of “deficiency”, we have to “tonic”, we will think of chicken, duck, fish, ginseng, cordyceps, etc. This concept is biased. This concept is biased. The diet of breast cancer patients should be nutritious, diversified and balanced, with a good mix of meat and vegetables, coarse and fine. As stated in Nei Jing, “Five grains are nourishing, five fruits are helpful, five animals are beneficial, and five vegetables are sufficient”. Blindly taking supplements may be too much, or even harmful and affect recovery. If the patient is weak, we must ensure the intake of protein, you can eat more fish and shrimp, eggs, duck meat, etc., but less high-fat, high cholesterol food. Patients with poor appetite can eat some appetizing foods such as hawthorn, radish and kumquat to increase the patient’s appetite. Cabbage, cabbage, kale, asparagus, kelp, nori, tomatoes, edible fungi (shiitake mushrooms, mushrooms), fungus and other foods contain anti-cancer ingredients, so you can eat more of them appropriately. Fresh fruits such as watermelon, kiwi, apricot, apple, pear and strawberry are rich in vitamin C, vitamin B and other vitamins and trace elements, which also have certain anti-cancer effects. Foods such as yam, rice kernel, jujube, jellyfish, loofah and rose hips have the effect of benefiting qi and nourishing blood, regulating qi and dispersing knots, which help consolidate the effect of treatment to facilitate the recovery of the disease. The cooking method also needs to be paid attention to, using more steam, boiling, stewing and less frying, deep-frying, smoking, baking and pickling. Patients receiving radiotherapy often have symptoms such as dry mouth and dry tongue, which is considered by Chinese medicine as a manifestation of radiotherapy that consumes yin and injures fluid, and can be taken with almond milk, pear, umeboshi, lotus root, banana, olive, water chestnut and other fruits and vegetables, as well as the fresh fruit juice we mentioned earlier. Patients receiving chemotherapy should have a light diet during chemotherapy. In case of intravenous chemotherapy, it is better to eat 2-3 hours before chemotherapy, the food has been basically digested and emptied during chemotherapy, and the meal can be eaten later after chemotherapy to reduce nausea and vomiting and other symptoms. When taking chemotherapy drugs orally, it is better to take them half an hour after meal, and the digestive tract reaction will be lighter. What are the foods that should be avoided by post-operative breast cancer patients? Besides the fried, deep-fried and smoked foods we mentioned above, you should also avoid chicken, turtle and eel, and eat less milk, soy milk, soy products and red meat (beef and lamb, etc.), which have more estrogen or estrogen-like ingredients. In addition, there are often relatives, friends and colleagues who come to visit the patients after they get sick and give them various health food products, many of which contain estrogen or estrogen-like ingredients, which are also to be avoided by post-operative breast cancer patients, such as: American ginseng, pollen, placenta, royal jelly, propolis, bird’s nest, hash oil, protein powder and various female health products.