“Can I eat spicy food? Then, what are the common misconceptions that cancer patients should not have so many worries about their diet and what are the common misconceptions that can help cancer patients? Myth 1: The more nutritious you eat, the faster your tumor will grow? We often encounter very thin patients who are mainly vegetarian and seldom eat meat and eggs and other foods. The patients or their family members will say, “Some friends say you can’t eat too nutritious food when you have tumor, otherwise it will lead to bigger tumor, so we don’t let you eat meat?” But in fact, the growth of tumor cells has nothing to do with how much nutrition the patient eats. Cancer cells are robbing normal cells of nutrients until the person dies, and even if the patient is malnourished, the cancer cells still grow. According to the results of the American Cancer Society study, cancer patients should increase their dietary calories by at least 20%, and there is no evidence that increasing nutrients in the human body will make cancer cells grow faster, but many patients have survived for a long time because of adequate nutrients. In clinical work, the most attention is paid to patients’ nutrition. Patients with good nutritional status are significantly better in terms of treatment tolerance and prognosis than those with poor nutritional status and wasting. The saying that cancer cells can be “starved to death” is not based on science at all. Myth 2: It is inevitable for cancer patients to continue to lose weight during treatment, so there is no need to care too much? There are several reasons why cancer patients continue to lose weight during treatment: 1. When receiving radiation and chemotherapy, weight loss will be caused by side effects such as mouth ulcers, nausea and poor appetite; 2. Cancer cells compete with normal cells for nutrients and the body consumes energy to fight against tumors; 3. Cancers in the digestive system such as esophagus and stomach affect nutrient absorption. Generally speaking, if the treatment is effective and the tumor is controlled, even if there are some side effects, the weight will recover quickly after the side effects disappear, especially for digestive system tumors, this performance is especially obvious; if the patient loses weight during the treatment process, the cause must be considered, and the side effects caused by the treatment need to be reduced by some ways If it is due to digestive tumor that affects the absorption, the nutrient intake can be improved by supplementing enteral nutrients on the basis of normal diet. Research shows that 50% of patients have lost weight when cancer is confirmed. Tumor cells affect human metabolism and it is inevitable to become thin. Myth 3: Meat will encourage cancer cells, so it is better to eat vegetarian? Many patients or family members believe that “eating fish, chicken, beef, etc. is not good for health”, and these information are usually obtained from the internet, some patients or friends. For example, some post-operative patients believe that fish and chicken are “hairy” and will cause wounds to not heal, so they eat a vegetarian diet for a long time after surgery, resulting in insufficient calorie and quality protein intake and insufficient essential components for tissue cell repair, which will cause wounds to not heal, while the continued decline in immunity will also increase the chance of infection. Therefore, we remind patients that “meat will not accelerate the growth of tumor cancer cells”. In addition to eating more vegetables and fruits, vegetarian cancer patients should supplement whole grains, beans, eggs and milk to have a balanced diet, which can help the body recover health as soon as possible. Myth 4: Cancer patients should eat as light as possible, and it is better to eat less greasy food? Balanced nutritional intake is the basis for maintaining a healthy body. Even a light diet needs to be supplemented with other essential nutrients for the organism, while fats and oils contain essential fatty acids for the human body and good fats and oils. For example, olive oil, bitter tea oil and other fats with high unsaturated fatty acids, fish containing omega-3 fatty acids and nuts should be consumed by cancer patients, which is helpful to enhance immunity. Myth 5: Cancer patients should not eat “spicy” food. Spicy food has become a habit in many places in China, but the incidence and mortality rate of tumor is not higher than other regions. Many patients have appetite only when they eat spicy food, and after they have tumor, they are asked to completely avoid eating because of such misunderstanding. In this way, the tumor itself and radiotherapy will cause loss of appetite, and then change the eating habits of spicy food will often make the patients have no appetite, which will not do any good to the patients’ recovery. Myth 6: It doesn’t matter if you can’t eat as long as you can take nutrition injection? For patients who can eat normally, try to get nutrient-rich and balanced food from normal diet, and for patients with restricted eating and metabolic disorders and digestive and absorption disorders, special medical food with in-field nutrition formula for cancer patients can be used. Many patients will ask doctors to give nutrition solution after hospitalization, thinking that intravenous supplementation for a few days will make the body better and it is okay not to eat, while in fact, the source of nutrition in human intestine is mainly absorbed by food entering the intestine, if they do not eat for a long time, the intestinal mucosa will atrophy and cause dysbiosis of intestinal flora, thus also prone to infection, therefore, as long as they can eat, they must try to intake nutrients through normal way. Supplementation can be carried out with enteral nutrition preparations. Nutrients such as fatty milk amino acids given intravenously are often difficult for the body to absorb and are more often consumed in the form of energy, even in the form of ordinary drips, which are not as good as drinking sports drinks to replenish energy. Even the complete nutrients (carbohydrates, amino acids, fat emulsion, electrolytes, vitamins, trace elements) in the special medical food farm can be maintained to improve the nutritional metabolism of patients who are critically ill and unable to eat, but after the patient’s body improves and can eat normally, it is also necessary to eat more normal food from which to obtain nutrients to enhance intestinal function.