In clinical practice, I often encounter tumor patients or their families asking me: “Should I avoid eating in this disease? What should I avoid?”. In fact, this question is asked by almost every tumor patient. In fact, this question, which is asked by almost every tumor patient, has a great difference between doctors and patients, and is often “justified by the public and justified by the private”. In foreign countries, the word “cancer” and “crab” are expressed by the same word (cancer), so their cancer patients do not eat crab and shrimp; in Chinese folklore, scaly fish, pork, animal offal, shrimp and crab are considered as “hairy things”, and tumor patients should not eat them. In addition, dog and mutton are hot to promote the growth of tumor and should be avoided; there is chicken, it is said that chicken is easy to grow tumor, cancer cells in the “chicken blood” easy to grow, so you can not eat chicken, I have seen a list of contraindicated foods for tumor patients, there are more than 100 kinds, look carefully. The author has seen a list of contraindicated foods for tumor patients, which amounted to more than 100 kinds, and looking at it carefully, it seems that only rice, vegetables and so on can be eaten by tumor patients, so there is this argument “to strictly avoid eating, chicken, duck, fish all meat can not be eaten, eat vegetarian best, starve to death tumor.” I don’t know, after the taboo, the patient is losing weight, I don’t know if the tumor starved to death, but the patient’s body is worse than a day, almost starved to death. Therefore, too much “taboo” is harmful to tumor patients. In the broad sense, many tumors are related to diet, so from the aspect of tumor prevention, we should pay attention to avoid eating, for example, not to eat foods containing carcinogens (such as foods contaminated by aflatoxin); in addition, bad eating habits are also related to tumor development, for example, eating foods with high fat content and low fiber content is generally considered to be related to the development of colon cancer and breast cancer. For example, the frequent consumption of foods high in fat but low in fiber is generally considered to be related to the development of colon cancer and breast cancer. If you adjust your diet properly and change some bad eating habits, it is possible to prevent tumors. The taboo that people usually talk about is a narrow sense of taboo, that is, whether the tumor will grow or recur because of eating certain foods after suffering from the tumor, and therefore, we should avoid eating these foods. So is there any kind of food that will cause tumor growth or recurrence after eating it? Is there? No, there is not. The recurrence of tumor is often encountered, and there is no basis for the recurrence of tumor caused by eating a certain food. For example, chicken is considered in Chinese medicine literature as a food that can nourish the weakness and warm the middle, benefit the five organs, cure the weakness of the body after illness and the weakness of the spleen and stomach, and is a great tonic for the vital energy. In the folklore of anti-cancer “prescriptions”, many of them are using chicken and eggs, mushroom chicken stew has been rumored to be the ‘secret recipe’ for liver cancer, the whole scorpion eggs, eggs of cheliput, eggs cooked with walnut twigs are also regarded as anti-cancer “prescriptions “. Therefore, the rumor that eating chicken will be “hair” is not justified. The Chinese medicine has always considered seafood as ‘soft and firm’ food, and can be beneficial. Common medicines for the treatment of tumors, such as seaweed, kombu, seahorse, sea pumice, oysters, squid bones, etc., are seafood. Crab is also traditionally considered by Chinese medicine to have the effect of removing blood stasis and activating blood circulation, which is an important medicine for treating tumors. The “secret recipe” for cancer caused by crab is also spread among the people, such as the use of crab claws and shells to treat breast cancer. Therefore, there is no theoretical basis and no clinical evidence for the saying that chicken and seafood should be avoided. So, is there no problem of avoiding food for tumor patients? They can eat anything they want? Is there no scientific basis for the saying of avoiding food? Similarly, this view is also unscientific. Since ancient times, there has been the saying that medicine and food have the same origin. Han Dynasty? Zhang Zhongjing “Jin Kui Essentials” cloud: “the taste of food, there are appropriate with the disease, there are with the body for the harm. If appropriate is beneficial to the body, harm will become a disease, this causes danger, the case are difficult to treat.” It means that the food should be suitable for the disease in order to help the treatment of the disease; on the contrary, it can make the disease worse. Food, just like medicine, also has four gases: cold, hot, warm and cool, and five tastes: acid, bitter, sweet, pungent and salty. Therefore, tumor patients should avoid certain foods according to different conditions. According to the theory of Chinese medicine, different tumor patients belong to different types of evidence, and the scope of taboos varies from one type to another. No matter what kind of cancer, it can be divided into the following common types of evidence, and different taboos. Qi stagnation, which is a common type of tumor. The main manifestation is abdominal distention and fullness. Sometimes it can also be abdominal pain. This kind of abdominal pain is characterized by the irregular location of pain, sometimes it is a ‘scurrying pain’ that runs around without obvious pressure pain. Sometimes it manifests as discomfort and fullness in the chest, or chest tightness. The scope of avoidance for qi stagnation includes various foods that are not easily digestible, foods that can induce gas and bloating, greasy or fried foods, etc. Patients should eat light, easily digestible foods. The diet can also be adjusted to smaller and more frequent meals. With blood stasis, this type also presents with abdominal pain. The pain of blood stasis is often more intense, while qi stagnation is often a hidden pain. The pain of blood stasis usually has significant pressure pain and often refuses to be touched by others. There may also be chest pain, or pain in other areas, the nature of which is all over the pain. At the same time, a dull tongue with petechiae on the tongue is often seen. The scope of avoidance for such patients is roughly the same as when there is qi stagnation, including all kinds of greasy foods, fried foods, etc. Instead, they should eat foods that have blood-activating effects, such as crabs, and hawthorn and the like. Dampness, tumor patients have thick and greasy tongue coating, indigestion, poor appetite, chest and abdomen stuffiness and discomfort, and in case of lung cancer, they can also see a lot of phlegm and white phlegm, which can also be called phlegm-dampness. Therefore, one should avoid eating foods that help dampness, i.e. foods that can aggravate “dampness”. Such as too sweet, too heavy oil food, as well as tea, alcohol, of course, should also avoid eating all kinds of indigestible food. This is also a kind of “real evidence”. Avoid tonic, but also avoid cold food, like watermelon, Sydney, white duck and so on. Damp-heat, characterized by both “damp” and “heat”. Both have the characteristics of dampness and stagnation, and the signs of ‘heat’. The tongue coating is yellow and greasy, and the tongue is red. The pulse is slippery and fast, called “slippery count”. The symptoms can be multifaceted. In the lungs, there may be cough, yellow and thick sputum. Or there may be jaundice. The urine may be short and yellow and red, or the stool may be fishy or with pus and blood. There can be bandages, mostly yellow and fishy, or vaginal bleeding, etc. The scope of avoidance at this time should include hot and fragrant dry foods in addition to those mentioned above in dampness and stagnation. For example, chicken, mutton, dog meat, pepper, chili and so on. The main symptom of heat is fever. This includes cancerous fever, which is commonly referred to as cancerous fever. The patient is afraid of heat, sweating a lot, sometimes also some afraid of wind and cold, and the pulse is counted and strong. At this time, hot foods are inappropriate and cooler foods should be consumed. These are common actual symptoms. From the point of view of Chinese medicine, actual evidence is not suitable for tonic, and each of the above types of identification is not very suitable for tonic. For example, red ginseng, Korean ginseng and wild ginseng are hot in tonic medicine, which are not suitable to be applied at this time and should be avoided. There are also some tumor patients who show “deficiency evidence”, so they should mainly take tonic food. Deficiency of qi and blood is characterized by weakness, pale face, pale tongue, thin and weak pulse. This is often after the symptoms of bleeding, or after chemotherapy, when the red and white blood cells are low, or after surgery. Food to nourish qi and blood (such as chicken, pig liver, party ginseng) and avoid cool food (such as water chestnut, winter melon, watermelon, etc.) are the main ingredients. Yin deficiency is more common in advanced tumors, or after radiation therapy for head and neck tumors. It often manifests as a red, vivid tongue, or a flaking, flowery flaking tongue, or a bare red tongue without moss. It also often feels self-induced internal heat, dry mouth, and heat in the hands and feet. Foods to be avoided include hot, fragrant and dry foods. Foods that nourish Yin should be the mainstay. Yang deficiency, which is more common in the case of gastrointestinal tumors. The patient feels weak, has thin stools, a relatively light tongue and soft pulse. Foods that strengthen the spleen and warm the yang, such as barley, mutton, walnuts, cinnamon and so on, should be the mainstay. When several kinds of deficiency and real evidence are mixed, the scope of avoidance can be adjusted with reference to the above. In conclusion, the avoidance of food for tumor patients should vary from disease to disease, from person to person, and from treatment to treatment, not to generalize what can and cannot be eaten mechanically. We should respect the practice of previous people and some traditional taboos, but we should oppose the practice of overly demanding taboos, and even faking it so that patients are at a loss. After all, food is food, not medicine, a small amount of food within the range of taboos, generally will not have too much change.