Diet taboos for bowel cancer

Avoid processed meat products and alcohol that are known to cause cancer, and avoid heavily processed foods that are high in oil, sugar, and salt. Be careful about irritating and difficult-to-digest foods that may increase the burden on the intestines. There are no other foods that you must not eat. Do not overly restrict foods that may lead to malnutrition.

Last week, I met 62-year-old Aunt Zhang at the outpatient clinic. She had undergone a follow-up examination six months after bowel cancer surgery and found that her albumin was almost 20% lower than normal. When I asked her, I found out that she had heard on the Internet that "people with bowel cancer should avoid food." She had stopped eating eggs, milk, fish and shrimp. She drank white porridge with stir-fried cabbage every day, and she felt dizzy even after walking two steps. I have also met a young man who went to the other extreme. He was just discharged from the hospital after early-onset bowel cancer at the age of 28, so he went to eat skewers and drink cold beer with his friends. Within three months, he was back in the hospital because of intestinal obstruction. Neither extreme is advisable.

Let’s talk about the non-controversial things first, the things that are clearly to be avoided. Processed meat products must be the first. The International Agency for Research on Cancer under the WHO has long listed them on the list of Class I carcinogens, which is the same level as formaldehyde and aflatoxin. Whether it is bacon, ham, commercial enemas, or those commonly made in southern homes. Cured fish and bacon, after being smoked, salted, and treated with preservatives, will produce substances such as heterocyclic amines and nitrosamines that can definitely damage the intestinal mucosa. Ordinary people should eat less of them. Patients with intestinal cancer or high-risk groups with polyps or family history are best advised not to touch them. The same goes for alcohol. Whether it is liquor, beer or red wine that claims to be "healthy", as long as it contains alcohol, the acetaldehyde produced by metabolism will directly destroy the intestinal mucosal barrier. Even if you add too much cooking wine in cooking, eating it may irritate the intestines. Avoid it if you can.

At this point, someone may want to ask, can the red meat that everyone often talks about be eaten? In fact, there is still some disagreement among academic circles on this matter. Some epidemiological studies believe that long-term consumption of large amounts of red meat (more than 750g per week) will increase the risk of bowel cancer recurrence. It is recommended to try to replace it with white meat such as fish, shrimp, and poultry. ； However, some clinical nutritionists pointed out that the heme iron in red meat cannot be supplemented by plant foods. Patients with postoperative anemia can eat about 1 tael of lean pork and beef 2-3 times a week, which is conducive to recovery, and there is no need to give up completely. To put it bluntly, it depends on the amount and your physical condition. Don’t eat braised pork all the time, eat something lean, stir-fried or stewed, it’s totally fine.

There are also some "taboos" that are so popular that there is really no need to take them seriously. For example, many people say that people with intestinal cancer should not eat spicy food. It really depends on the person. If you have intestinal sensitivity after surgery and you have diarrhea and abdominal pain after eating spicy food, then you should definitely avoid it. ； But if you don’t like spicy food, and you recover well after the surgery, you won’t feel uncomfortable eating dishes made with fresh chili peppers, so there’s no need to avoid them at all—some studies even show that fresh capsaicin has a certain anti-inflammatory effect, which is beneficial to the intestinal flora. There are also so-called "fat foods", such as eggs, seafood, beef and mutton. As long as you don't have allergies, flatulence, or diarrhea, they are all high-quality protein sources and are much more useful than those "anti-cancer health products" that cost hundreds of dollars a box.

Of course, there are some situations where you need to be careful. For example, in the first three months after surgery, when the anastomosis has not yet fully grown, don’t eat chewy and difficult-to-digest foods such as fried crispy bones, old celery, and tendons with tendons. There are also fried cakes and yuanxiao made from glutinous rice. They are sticky and can easily form lumps and get stuck in the intestines. If you really want to eat, just wait until you recover and take a few sips to satisfy your cravings. There are also milk teas with half a cup of sugar, bread cakes made with shortening, and salty pickles. These things will disrupt the intestinal flora and allow harmful bacteria to multiply wildly. Even healthy people are not good if they eat too much, and patients with intestinal cancer should try to avoid them as much as possible.

Think about it, the intestine is actually like your own little garden. If you feed it alcohol and processed meat every day, the beneficial bacteria in it will definitely not survive.； But if you don’t dare to feed this, you don’t dare to feed that. The garden lacks nutrients and even grass cannot grow, let alone fight cancer cells. I often tell patients, don’t trust those “10 foods to avoid for bowel cancer” lists on the Internet, just remember the six words “fresh, balanced, and comfortable to eat”, which are more effective than any rigid rules - if you have been craving for a strawberry or a mooncake for a long time, as long as you wash it off and eat without discomfort, why can’t you eat it? Eating every day is like being punished, and a bad mood will affect your recovery.

If you are really not sure whether you can eat something, just ask your bedside doctor or nutritionist casually during your next check-up, which is much more reliable than searching blindly for half a day on the Internet for folk remedies.