How to eat during chemotherapy for breast cancer? Nutrition should be adequate

Many breast cancer patients need to undergo a certain period of chemotherapy after surgery. While chemotherapy kills tumor cells, it also brings some side effects, such as decreased immunity, nausea, vomiting, loss of appetite, decreased white blood cell count, etc., which affect the normal progress of chemotherapy. Therefore, during chemotherapy, you should pay attention to diet conditioning, restore your physical fitness, and enhance your immunity, so as to successfully complete chemotherapy.

1. Nutrition should be adequate

Breast cancer patients are generally weak. During chemotherapy, they should increase their protein and sugar intake appropriately, eat less high-fat and high-cholesterol foods, especially ensure protein intake, eat more lean pork, beef, chicken or fish, avoid fried foods, eat less pickled foods, and strictly prohibit the consumption of irritating condiments. Pay attention to the variety of diet, the combination of meat and vegetables, acid-base balance, and pay attention to the color, aroma and taste of food. Anorexic patients can eat some hawthorn, radish, kumquat and other stomach-strengthening foods to increase their appetite.

2. Eat some fresh fruits appropriately

Fresh fruits such as watermelon, kiwi, apricot, apple, pear, strawberry, etc. are rich in vitamin C, vitamin B and other vitamins, and have certain anti-cancer effects. Jujube not only contains hawthorn acid and other anti-cancer ingredients, but also has a therapeutic effect on chemotherapy-induced leukopenia and thrombocytopenia. Therefore, breast cancer patients can often eat jujube during chemotherapy.

3. Eat more foods rich in anti-cancer ingredients

Studies have shown that the following types of food have certain preventive and therapeutic effects on breast cancer patients.

a. Cabbage, Chinese cabbage, kale, etc. contain the anti-cancer substance indole-3-carbinol, which can prevent carcinogens in the body from inducing tumor cells and inhibit tumor growth.

b. Garlic, onion, etc. contain allicin, which can block the synthesis of nitrosamines. They also contain ingredients such as vitamin C and vitamin A, which can play an anti-cancer role.

c. Tofu, soy milk, soybean sprouts and other bean products are rich in phytoestrogens, which can competitively inhibit the effects of estrogen in the body and have an anti-cancer effect.

d. Asparagus contains histones, which have been shown to effectively control the growth of breast cancer cells. In addition, foods such as kelp, seaweed, and tomatoes are rich in anti-cancer ingredients, and regular consumption has certain benefits for breast cancer patients.

4. Reasonably arrange the time of diet and chemotherapy

Chemotherapy can often cause digestive tract reactions such as nausea and vomiting, so a reasonable diet should be arranged during chemotherapy. On the day of chemotherapy, the diet should be light and delicious; intravenous chemotherapy is performed on an empty stomach, so you should eat 3 hours before chemotherapy, when the food has been basically digested and emptied. After chemotherapy, eat dinner later to reduce symptoms of nausea and vomiting.

When taking chemotherapy drugs orally, it is better to take them half an hour after a meal. When the blood drug concentration reaches its peak, the patient is already in an empty stomach and the digestive tract reaction will be milder. When vomiting due to chemotherapy, you can hold ginger slices in your mouth, which can help stop vomiting.