Breast cancer recovery dietary taboos

Medicinal/edible products containing clear animal-derived estrogens (such as purple river carts, snow clams, and breast enhancement supplements that have not been tested for compliance), foods that are clearly prohibited from being taken together with the therapeutic drugs you are taking, long-term large intake of highly processed, high-sugar, high-fat, and high-salt foods**, and other taboos such as "cannot drink soy milk," "cannot eat seafood, beef, and mutton," and "cannot touch cold foods," most of which have no evidence-based medical basis. Blind taboos can easily lead to malnutrition and slow down recovery.

A while ago, Aunt Zhang, an old patient who had undergone surgery for 2 years, went for a follow-up checkup. She clutched the health posts on her mobile phone and asked the doctor if she couldn't even touch tofu, saying she was afraid that the estrogen in soybeans would trigger a recurrence. She also dug out her food records: white porridge and stir-fried cabbage every day, and she didn't even dare to eat more eggs. The result was that her albumin was 0.8 lower than the normal value. The doctor didn't know whether to laugh or cry, saying that she had a nutritional problem first.

Let’s start with the estrogen-related controversy that everyone is most anxious about. Many people smell the word "estrogen" and dare not even touch soy milk. In fact, the soy isoflavones in soy products are phytoestrogens, which have a completely different structure from human estrogen. The binding force with receptors is only one thousandth of human estrogen. Instead, it has a two-way regulatory effect - when the estrogen level in the body is high, it rushes to bind to receptors and reduce the effect of human estrogen. ； When the level is low, supplementing it a little will not cause estrogen to exceed the standard at all. Guidelines from the Chinese Anti-Cancer Association and the American Society of Clinical Oncology now clearly recommend that breast cancer patients can have a normal daily intake of soy products. A cup of soy milk and a piece of tofu every day is absolutely fine. Of course, there are different clinical opinions here: some doctors will recommend that estrogen receptor-positive and HER2-positive patients try not to eat purified soy isoflavone health products. After all, the dosage is too high and the metabolic effects are uncertain. There is no need to worry about eating normal food-grade foods.

What you really need to avoid are animal gonad products such as Ziheche (human placenta) and snow clams, which contain very high estrogen. There are also breast enhancement pills and whitening pills with unknown ingredients sold on WeChat Moments, many of which secretly add synthetic estrogen. Do not touch these. As for the royal jelly and honey that everyone often asks about, there is indeed a lot of controversy: some studies show that if you eat one or two spoons of royal jelly every day, the estrogen intake is less than that of an egg, which is completely fine. ； Many endocrinologists also advise patients who are taking endocrine drugs to avoid them as much as possible. After all, individual metabolisms vary greatly, so there is no need to take unnecessary risks. In fact, if you take a sip to satisfy your craving, you don’t have to be so scared that you can’t sleep all night. Don’t be afraid of honey. It contains almost no estrogen. As long as you don’t have diabetes, it’s perfectly fine to drink a small spoonful of it every day.

Many people think that they need to take supplements when they are sick. On the contrary, more people fall into this trap than those who take estrogen. The elders in the family always like to stew the thick white bone soup and old hen soup, with a thick layer of oil floating on top, as well as the braised pork belly and cream cakes arranged every day, or the fried chicken and puffed food that you can't help but order. These are not to say that you will relapse after just one bite, but it is easy to eat them for a long time. It can easily lead to weight gain and increased body fat rate - if you think about it, adipose tissue itself secretes a small amount of estrogen, which itself increases the risk of recurrence. Moreover, high sugar and oil can also increase the level of inflammation in the body, making it difficult for postoperative wounds to heal, and side effects are more likely to occur during chemotherapy. I met a 32-year-old patient before. After the surgery, his family spoiled him so much that he kept taking various supplements and cakes every day. He gained 12 pounds in a month. During the follow-up examination, the doctor directly said that if he continues to gain weight like this, the effect of endocrine drugs will be compromised, so he should control his weight first. Of course, sweets are not allowed at all. During chemotherapy, my mouth feels bitter. If I want to eat an orange candy or take a few bites of strawberry cake to satisfy my craving, it’s totally fine. Just don’t eat it every day.

There is another type of taboo that many people don’t notice at all, which is directly related to the medicine you take. If you step on it, it will directly affect the treatment effect. For example, patients who take endocrine drugs such as tamoxifen and toremifene, or patients who take targeted drugs, should try not to eat large amounts of grapefruit (grapefruit) for a long time, as well as grapefruit juice, gummy candies, etc., because the furanocoumarins in grapefruit will inhibit the CYP3A4 enzyme that metabolizes drugs in the liver, causing the drug to be unable to be metabolized normally, and the side effects will increase if it accumulates in the body. Of course, there is no need to be too anxious. If you accidentally eat a piece of grapefruit or drink a sip of grapefruit juice, don’t panic at all. Only eating more than one piece a day for a week will have obvious effects. There is no need to be so scared that you can’t sleep just because of one bite. In addition, don’t take health care products with unknown ingredients. Many Internet celebrity sleep aids and antidepressant products contain St. John’s wort, which can also affect drug metabolism. It’s best to ask your doctor before taking it.

As for the "fat food" taboos that have been mentioned eight hundred times by the elders in the family, such as seafood, beef and mutton, roosters, and carp, to be honest, none of the oncologists I have contacted agree with this statement. My best friend's white blood cells were always low during chemotherapy. The doctor specially asked her to eat more steamed shrimp, lean beef, and egg white to supplement high-quality protein. She ate fried steak twice a week, and her white blood cells were always stable above 4, and she basically never had a whitening injection. The aunt in the same ward believed Fa Wu's advice and only dared to drink white porridge and vegetables every day. Her white blood cells dropped to 2.1, and she finally recovered after taking a white blood injection. Most of these so-called "hair foods" are actually sources of high-quality protein. They are used for post-operative wounds and increased white blood cells during chemotherapy. As long as you are not allergic to these foods, you can eat them normally. They are much more effective than those soups that only have oily ingredients.

In fact, there really aren’t that many rules and regulations when it comes to diet during breast cancer recovery. The core is to be fresh, balanced, and comfortable to eat. Don’t be frightened by the various taboo posts on the Internet and dare not eat this or that. After all, eating happily and being in a good mood will help recovery more than anything else. If you are really unsure whether you can eat it or not, don't make blind guesses. Asking the attending doctor casually during your next check-up will be more useful than reading ten health-preserving articles.