What dietary taboos should you pay attention to when you have pneumonia?

Most of the other taboos include highly irritating foods that will aggravate respiratory tract irritation, high-sugar and high-oil foods that will increase the viscosity of sputum, and foods that you are clearly allergic to. Most of the remaining taboos do not have unified standards, so there is no need to blindly follow the trend.

Not long ago, when I was accompanying my family for a review in the respiratory department, I happened to meet a 29-year-old young man who had just recovered from mycoplasma pneumonia and asked a friend to eat spicy butter hot pot. He coughed and couldn't lie down all night. Originally, the inflammation on the re-examination CT scan had absorbed 60%, but when he checked again a week later, half of it was still there. The doctor said that the spicy food had irritated the airway mucosa that was still swollen. It was equivalent to spreading a handful of chili powder on a healing wound, and it would be repeatedly irritated. In addition to spicy food, the same is true for food that is too cold or too salty. Especially when you have a severe cough, there are many people who can't catch their breath for a long time if they drink a mouthful of iced Coke.

Also, the last time a neighbor’s child got pneumonia, my grandma was distressed. She put two chunks of rock sugar in the rock sugar pear stew. After drinking, the child had phlegm stuck in his throat all afternoon and couldn’t cough it out. He went to the hospital and had two nebulizers to relieve the pain. In fact, food high in sugar and oil will increase the viscosity of respiratory secretions. The phlegm that could be easily coughed up turns into "glue" that sticks to the trachea. If it cannot be expelled, it will easily trap germs, which naturally heals slowly.

Many people say that pneumonia should not touch "foods" and that eggs, seafood, beef and mutton should be banned. This is actually quite controversial. There are two opposite examples around me. An aunt is not allergic to shrimp. After getting pneumonia, she ate two eggs a day and boiled shrimp every other day. She took enough protein and recovered in less than ten days. There is also an uncle who is allergic to seafood. He ate crabs even if he had pneumonia. Not only did he cough badly that night, he also developed a rash, which actually prolonged the course of the disease. To put it bluntly, as long as you are not allergic to these things or aggravate your cough, you can eat them. On the contrary, these high-quality proteins "recharge" your immunity, and drinking white porridge every day is a hindrance.

Some people also ask if they can eat cold food. In fact, there is no absolute taboo. When I had pneumonia, my fever reached over 39 degrees and my throat hurt so much that I couldn’t even swallow water. The doctor also asked me to hold some popsicles in my mouth to relieve the pain. As long as I don’t drink several cups of iced milk tea or eat a lot of iced watermelon at one time, and just eat a small amount of cold food to moisten my throat, it’s totally fine. You don’t have to listen to others who say that eating cold food will make it worse. Everyone’s tolerance level is different.

In fact, you really don’t need to remember a bunch of strict taboos. As long as you don’t feel your cough increases or the phlegm thickens after eating, you don’t need to be too careful about food taboos. After all, eating well and getting enough nutrition is the key to getting better quickly.