Hepatitis dietary taboos

1. Do not drink any alcoholic beverages； 2. Must not eat moldy or spoiled food. ； 3. Do not take any tonics, health products, or folk remedies with unknown ingredients without the guidance of a doctor. These three factors are clinically seen as the most common causes of hepatitis exacerbation and even progression to cirrhosis and liver cancer. There is no room for luck.

I have been in the hepatology department for almost 8 years. The most regrettable case I have ever seen is a 32-year-old young man with chronic hepatitis B. After three years of antiviral therapy, his viral load has turned negative and his liver function is as stable as a normal person. In the summer, he drank skewers and drank cold beer with friends for half a week. In the end, his jaundice developed to the point where his eyes turned yellow. His transaminases soared to more than 1,200 and he was hospitalized. It cost him nearly 20,000 yuan to restore his liver function. When it comes to wine, some people will definitely argue, “Didn’t it mean that drinking less red wine to fight oxidation is good for your health? Can I just take one sip at a time? ”Objectively speaking, there are indeed sporadic studies mentioning that low-dose resveratrol in red wine has anti-inflammatory effects, but as long as it is alcohol, it must be metabolized by the liver. Even just 10g of alcohol will put an extra burden on the liver cells that have already been damaged by inflammation. The current global mainstream liver disease clinical guidelines require all hepatitis patients to abstain from alcohol. There is really no need to risk your health just for one drink.

After talking about wine, I have to mention another thing that is more harmful to the liver than alcohol: aflatoxin in moldy food. This thing is a clear first-level carcinogen. For people with underlying liver diseases, the risk of cancer is dozens of times higher than that of ordinary people. The last time I saw an aunt who had been cured of hepatitis C, she couldn't bear to throw away old corn with mildew spots at home. She ground it into cornmeal and made porridge for two months. During the follow-up CT scan, a small nodule was found on her liver. She was so scared that she cried for several days. Fortunately, the final puncture revealed a benign hyperplasia nodule. Many people also ask, "Can I cut off the moldy areas and eat the rest?" ”To be honest, aflatoxin has long spread into the entire food tissue. Just because it can’t be seen by the naked eye doesn’t mean it’s not there, especially bitter nuts, ground-pressed peanut oil that has been stored for more than half a year, and spotted sweet potatoes. Throw it away when it’s time to throw it away. Don’t end up paying tens of thousands in medical expenses for a few yuan.

As for the people who take medicine randomly, there are even more people who fall into the trap. Many people think that if their liver is not good, they need to take supplements. They search online for liver-protecting prescriptions and then take the medicine themselves, or buy them at home after hearing what their friends say about health products that nourish the liver. The one who impressed me the most was a 40-year-old patient with fatty liver. He heard that Panax notoginseng nourishes the liver, so he bought Panax notoginseng that no one cares about and soaked it in wine at the vegetable market. After drinking it for less than two months, he developed hepatic veno-occlusive disease. His ascites swelled up to the point where his stomach looked like he was six months pregnant. It took half a year of treatment to get better. I have to say something objectively here. This is not to say that traditional Chinese medicine and dietary therapy are useless. The conditioning prescriptions prescribed by the Traditional Chinese Medicine Department of regular tertiary-level hospitals after syndrome differentiation can be used. However, you must not blindly search for folk remedies on the Internet or buy "ancestral liver protection medicines" with unknown ingredients. Even if you take antipyretics and antibiotics for colds, it is best to tell the doctor in advance that you have hepatitis and avoid medicines that put a heavy burden on the liver.

Oh, by the way, there is another question that has been asked 800 times: If you have hepatitis, can you eat spicy food or oil at all? Not really. As long as you don’t have gastric ulcers or hemorrhoids, it’s okay to eat spicy food normally. Capsaicin is metabolized by the kidneys and has nothing to do with the liver, unless you eat low-quality spicy oil with illegal additives. If you are a patient with steatohepatitis, you should definitely avoid milk tea, fried chicken, fatty meats and other foods that are high in oil and sugar, but you don’t have to eat every bite. Last week, a patient with fatty liver disease told me that he had not eaten fried chicken for three months, and his liver function was not improved after a follow-up test. When I asked him, I found out that he drinks sugary porridge every day and eats stir-fried vegetables with a lot of oil, which are higher in calories than fried chicken. Occasionally eating a piece of fried chicken to satisfy your craving, as long as your overall calories are under control, is easier to stick to than suppressing your appetite every day.

Hepatitis patients who have progressed to the stage of cirrhosis should be careful: don’t eat anything that is too hard or sharp, such as fish with thorns, hard-fried crispy rice, and nuts that have not been chewed. I have seen several old patients eat two pieces of fried rice cakes or chew a rib during the New Year, and then they ruptured the varicose veins at the bottom of the esophagus and stomach. Bleeding from the gastrointestinal tract directly sent them to the emergency room, which is very dangerous.

Don’t overdo it. I have seen many patients who are afraid of burdening their livers and only drink white porridge with vegetables every day. In the end, they develop hypoalbuminemia and ascites, which is not conducive to liver cell repair. In fact, in addition to sticking to the three red lines mentioned at the beginning, eating eggs, drinking milk, fresh lean meat, fruits and vegetables on a daily basis to ensure balanced nutrition is more effective than any folk remedies. After all, nourishing the liver is not an ascetic thing. Eating happily and feeling comfortable will help your recovery much more than worrying about which bite you can and cannot eat every day.