Pneumonia and dietary taboos

There are no absolutely universal dietary taboos for pneumonia patients. The core principle is to avoid foods that will aggravate respiratory tract irritation and increase digestive burden, and give priority to supplementing food ingredients that are beneficial to mucosal repair and immunity improvement. It is said on the Internet that "you can't touch hair" and "you can only drink white porridge" are misunderstandings. Specific taboos should be adjusted based on the stage of disease, personal constitution and underlying diseases.

Speaking of the most controversial point of "fading food", traditional Chinese medicine theory does recommend that in the acute stage of pneumonia, avoid food that "moves wind and produces phlegm" such as mutton, goose, and seafood, for fear of aggravating the heat syndrome and prolonging the course of the disease. This view is particularly well accepted among the elderly. I met a 58-year-old aunt during a follow-up visit in the respiratory department. She coughed for three weeks after the mycoplasma pneumonia subsided. After asking her, I found out that her family was afraid that she would eat "fat foods" and even stopped eggs and milk. She drank millet porridge with pickles every day. During the reexamination, her albumin was 0.8g lower than the normal value. Her immunity could not keep up, and mucosal repair was naturally slow.

But from the perspective of modern clinical nutrition, as long as you are not allergic to these ingredients, this kind of high-quality protein is an urgent need during the recovery period of pneumonia. The synthesis of immune cells and the repair of damaged respiratory mucosa all rely on protein. If you drink white porridge every day, you will have enough carbohydrates but no protein at all. It is like a soldier on the front line without bullets. How can you fight against the remaining pathogens? Later, I asked the aunt to eat two hard-boiled eggs every day, add a cup of warm milk, and eat steamed fish twice a week. Within 10 days, she came back for a follow-up check. Her cough was basically gone, and all indicators were normal.

Of course, you can't eat everything casually. There are some foods that will definitely cause trouble. No matter what your physique or stage, you should try to eat as little as possible. For example, when your fever has just subsided and your throat is still so sore that you can't speak, don't eat spicy or salty food, such as hot pot, pickled radish, or salted duck. The first bite will make your throat tremble with pain. It will also stimulate congestion and edema of the respiratory mucosa, and your cough will definitely become worse. There are also those sweet cream cakes and full-sugar milk tea. Last week, a 17-year-old girl went to drink a cup of full-sugar bubble milk tea with her classmates just after she was discharged from pneumonia. She coughed all night and stayed up all night. When she came to the clinic, she said that she felt that phlegm was blocked in her chest and she could not cough it out. This is because high sugar will increase the viscosity of airway mucus. The phlegm that could have been easily coughed up now sticks to the tracheal wall, which is of course uncomfortable.

There is another point that everyone is quarreling over: Can pneumonia be treated raw or cold? Many people say you should never eat cold food, but I don’t think it’s necessary to be so absolute. There was a young man whose mouth felt bitter when he had a fever and couldn't eat anything. He wanted to drink iced yogurt and asked me if he could drink it. I saw that his gastrointestinal condition was normal and he had no diarrhea, so I asked him to take it out and let it sit for 5 minutes before drinking it again. He drank less than half a cup that day, but his appetite increased. He also ate less than half a bowl of vegetable noodles at night. But if you usually have diarrhea when you eat cold food, or if you have gastrointestinal symptoms of vomiting and diarrhea when you have pneumonia, then you should definitely avoid cold food. Warm food is more suitable for you.

I have also seen many people go to the other extreme, thinking that pneumonia requires a lot of supplements. They stew ginseng chicken soup and eat bird's nest fish maw as soon as the fever subsides. In fact, it is really unnecessary. When pneumonia occurs, the function of the spleen and stomach is still weak. This kind of high-nutrient-dense tonic food will actually increase the burden of digestion. There used to be an uncle who had a filial son. He made him stew wild ginseng soup every day just after he was discharged from the hospital. As a result, he had nosebleeds and constipation after three days of drinking. The cough was worse than when he was discharged from the hospital. This is a typical case of deficiency and lack of supplements.

In fact, in the final analysis, the dietary taboos for pneumonia are really not as complicated as those posted online. You don’t need to compare them one by one with the long list of taboos. The core thing is that you feel comfortable eating, will not aggravate symptoms such as sore throat, cough, and diarrhea, and at the same time can provide enough nutrients to the body. Of course, if you have basic diseases such as diabetes or kidney disease, you still need to adjust your diet according to the doctor's advice, and don't try blindly on your own.