Doctors traditionally have different views on whether to avoid eating after suffering from cancer. The author once saw a leaflet which listed dozens of foods to be avoided, and it seems that only congee and vegetables can be eaten. Others do not advocate abstaining from eating, and believe that you can still eat the same diet as usual. What should we do? Let’s first discuss the meaning of taboo. In fact, there are two meanings of avoiding food. One is that certain foods may be related to the development of cancer and therefore need to be avoided in the diet; the other is that certain foods may cause cancer recurrence and metastasis and must be avoided. Wang Zaiguo, Department of Surgical Oncology, Dongguan People’s Hospital Usually, it is thought that taboo is the way of Chinese medicine, and there is no taboo in Western medicine. But in fact, modern medicine has conducted long-term and in-depth discussions on the relationship between diet and cancer, and many foreign experts have proposed “healthy diet”, “diet for cancer prevention” and so on. From this meaning, it is necessary to avoid eating. There is another meaning – is there any kind of food that can cause the recurrence and metastasis of cancer. This is the most important concern of cancer patients and their families. According to the author’s own experience and having consulted no less than ten experts in Chinese medicine for cancer treatment, honestly, I have not seen any patient whose cancer metastasis or recurrence was caused by eating a certain kind of food. On the contrary, we often see patients who do not eat a lot of things, but the cancer still recurs or metastasizes; some patients do not pay attention to avoiding food, but there is no metastasis or recurrence. In other words, it is necessary for cancer patients to pay attention to “avoiding food”, so how should they avoid food? First, let’s discuss some of the so-called foods that need to be avoided in the public. Chicken As far as I know, the saying that cancer patients should not eat chicken only spread in the 1970s and later, before that, few people mentioned this saying. On the contrary, according to the anti-cancer prescriptions collected in Shanghai in 1958, many of them included chicken. For example, there was a local recipe called stewed chicken with mushrooms, which used mushrooms from Zhangjiakou – mushrooms and chicken together to treat liver cancer. In fact, in Chinese medical texts, chicken has always been considered a great tonic for vital energy. In one of the earliest Chinese medicine books, Shennong Ben Cao Jing, chicken is listed as a “superior product”. In a famous Chinese medicine prescription book, Sheng Hui Fang, it is written that chicken is used to treat “choking and hiccups”. Nowadays, “choking and hiccups” include cancer of the cardia and esophagus. Chicken products are also often used in the treatment of cancer patients. There is a famous recipe called Wuji Baifeng Pill, which can be used for gynecological cancer and male patients with weakness and declining white blood cells. Chicken internal gold is also commonly used in cancer clinics to grind down hardness and eliminate accumulation. Chicken is sweet and warm in nature, which can nourish the middle and benefit the qi, replenish the essence and increase the marrow, and nourish the five organs, so it is a good food for those who are weak due to cancer. Of course, it should be noted that chicken is warm in nature and should not be eaten when you have fever, internal heat of yin deficiency or indigestion. Crab In many folk remedies, there are also records of crab being used to treat cancer. For example, crab shells are dried and powdered to treat breast cancer. According to traditional Chinese medicine books, crab has the effect of “breaking blood”, and many cancer patients have “blood stasis”, so crab is a suitable food for them. Crab is rich in nutrition and has a tonic effect. Many cancer patients have the so-called cancerous appetite loss symptoms, so eating crab is beneficial. However, crab is cold in nature, so it is suitable for patients with hot symptoms, but not for patients with cold symptoms such as fear of cold and loose stools. In addition, the crab is greasy and difficult to digest, so avoid eating it when you have poor digestion. Seafood Seafood is a very wide range of food. At present, the search for anti-cancer drugs from marine organisms is a focus of exploration. From the perspective of Chinese medicine theory, there is no basis to avoid seafood. Most of the seafoods have the function of “softening hardness” and “eliminating obstruction”. Therefore, seafood is commonly used in cancer prescriptions, such as seaweed, kombu, sea pumice, sea clam shells and so on. Among the seafood, jellyfish softens the firmness and is used together with water chestnuts, which is a famous formula for softening phlegm and is also suitable for patients with cancer. In addition to softening the firmness, sea cucumber also has a tonic effect, replenishing the vital energy and nourishing both yin and yang, which was also commonly used in the medical prescriptions of the Qing Dynasty. In addition to softening the firmness, light vegetables also have a tonic and hemostatic effect. All these should be very suitable food for cancer patients. Moreover, most of these foods are not nourishing and do not hinder the appetite. Therefore, not every cancer patient needs to avoid these so-called taboo foods. People who are already suffering from cancer are always afraid of recurrence and metastasis, so psychologically they always listen to rumors, which is a different discussion from the theory and medical practice of Chinese and Western medicine.