Diet taboos for double eyelid surgery

What you must avoid are "foods that can dilate blood vessels and aggravate swelling/bleeding" and "foods that can induce allergies in you." As for whether you should avoid the soy sauce, beef and mutton and other "fat foods" that are reported on the Internet, it all depends on your personal physique and the advice of the surgeon. There is no need to blindly follow the trend and avoid starving.

Last year, I accompanied my best friend to undergo a total incision. She read the Little Red Book for three days before the operation and made a page full of taboos. She even packed the soy sauce and stuffed it at her parents' house in advance. On the third day after the operation, she couldn't help but eat half a box of spicy braised duck heads. Most of the swelling had gone away, but the next day it was as swollen as when she just came off the operating table. The incision was irritated by sweating, and the redness took a whole week to disappear. It took less than half a month to recover compared to people who had the surgery at the same time. I am not saying this to scare people. It is true that many people put their energy in the wrong place and struggle for a long time on irrelevant taboos, but instead step on real minefields.

Let’s talk about the most controversial issue of “hair growth” first. In fact, there is a big difference between the views of Chinese and Western medicine on this issue. According to the traditional Chinese medicine system, it is believed that spicy or allergenic foods such as beef, mutton, seafood, mango, and pineapple can induce wound inflammation and aggravate redness and swelling. It is recommended to avoid them for 1-2 weeks after surgery. ； However, the general clinical view of Western medicine is that as long as you do not have allergies, irritation, or acne reactions when eating these things, you are encouraged to eat more. High-quality protein can help the incision heal faster, which is better than drinking white porridge every day that cannot keep up with the nutrition. The doctors from the Ninth Hospital that I had contacted before would even take the initiative to ask patients to eat more steamed fish and lean beef after surgery, as long as it was not spicy. To put it bluntly, you don’t have to take sides. If you usually get angry after eating hot pot and your mouth is sore, then don’t touch it during this period. If you eat seafood all the time, it’s okay. It’s perfectly fine to eat it normally. Instead, you need to be careful about allergens that cause itchiness and redness when you eat them. I saw a girl who was allergic to mangoes and forgot to eat half of them after the operation. Her whole face was swollen like a pig’s head, and even the incisions were pulled out of shape. It took almost half a month to recover.

Let’s talk about soy sauce, which is the most misunderstood. Until now, many organizations will specifically advise not to eat soy sauce for fear of leaving black scars. In fact, there is really no evidence-based basis for this statement. Pigmentation in skin incisions is mainly related to ultraviolet radiation and wound inflammation. The food pigments in soy sauce will be metabolized after entering the human body and will not deliberately deposit on your eyelid incisions. I have at least a dozen friends who had double eyelid surgery and ate braised vegetables normally. None of them left black scars. On the contrary, two of them went to the beach to play without sunscreen after the sutures were removed. The redness of the incisions took less than half a year to fade away. Of course, if you are particularly anxious, it’s okay to add less soy sauce. There is really no need to worry about eating one bite every day to affect your mood.

There are only a few things that are truly non-controversial and should be avoided by everyone, so don’t take any chances. The first thing is spicy and irritating things. You should really avoid touching them in the first two weeks. Capsaicin will dilate blood vessels. The wound that has stopped bleeding may ooze blood again, and the swelling that has gone away will rebound immediately. Moreover, eating spicy food and sweating can easily contaminate the incision and may even cause inflammation. Then there are all alcoholic drinks, whether they are beer, red wine or low-alcohol fruit wine. On the one hand, alcohol will dilate blood vessels and increase swelling. On the other hand, if you take cephalosporin anti-inflammatory drugs after surgery, severe reactions between alcohol and cephalosporins can even be life-threatening. This is really not a trivial matter. Oh, by the way, there are also foods that are too hot that are easily ignored. Freshly cooked porridge and steaming hot pot will cause the steam to reach your eyes and aggravate swelling. Just try to eat warm and cool foods in the week before.

My sister did the three-point method last year. In the first three days after the operation, she ate warm lean meat porridge, steamed eggs, and occasionally some stir-fried vegetables and steamed seabass. She avoided soy sauce and beef. Except for no spicy food or wine, she ate the same as usual. When the stitches were removed in a week, 80% of the swelling had gone away. The nurses asked her if the ice compress every day was so effective.

In fact, there is really no need to turn dietary taboos into shackles. In the final analysis, double eyelid surgery is just a minor surgery. As long as you keep your mouth shut for the first two weeks and don't touch the red lines that you must avoid, put aside uncomfortable things you usually eat for the time being, and eat and drink the rest. If you keep up with nutrition, your recovery will be faster. If you are really unsure about what you can and cannot eat, just ask the surgeon casually during the review. It is much more reliable than searching online for a long time and getting various opinions.