Dietary adjustment during breast cancer chemotherapy

Chemotherapy is one of the important methods for treating breast cancer. Dietary conditioning during chemotherapy is of great significance for ensuring that breast cancer patients get adequate nutrition, improving the body's disease resistance, and promoting patient recovery.

1. Before chemotherapy

Breast cancer patients should have a balanced diet before chemotherapy. They should eat rice or pasta, 600-800 grams of vegetables and fruits, 50-100 grams of fish, one egg, 50-100 grams of soy products, and 25 grams of oil every day. Note that they should eat a low-fat, high-carbohydrate, high-vitamin and mineral diet the day before chemotherapy.

2. During chemotherapy

During chemotherapy, while chemotherapy drugs kill cancer cells, they will inevitably damage normal cells to a certain extent, resulting in toxic side effects such as decreased immune function, decreased white blood cell count, gastrointestinal mucosal ulcers, and hair loss. During this period, high-quality protein should be supplemented, such as milk, lean meat, fish, etc. Eating more red dates, red beans, river crabs, eels, beef, etc. will help increase white blood cells. A reminder: try not to eat the food that patients usually like to eat within 24 hours of the start of chemotherapy, because eating at this time will affect the patient's feeling about this food in the future. For patients with obvious vomiting, chewing some raw ginger can have an anti-emetic effect.

3. After chemotherapy

Patients who have undergone chemotherapy for breast cancer are relatively weak. Their diet should be mainly to strengthen the body and replenish the deficiency, and should also be easy to digest. For patients with anorexia, ginger can be used to stimulate appetite; those who have lost a lot of weight should be given an appropriate elemental diet; yogurt can be used instead of milk to avoid abdominal bloating; eat more black foods, such as black sesame, black rice, black beans, black dates, etc. Chinese medicine believes that black can enter the kidneys, replenish the kidneys and marrow, and improve blood counts; eat more foods rich in anti-cancer ingredients and have anti-cancer effects, such as cabbage, kale, garlic, onions, etc.