What are the dietary taboos for COPD?

The most core dietary taboos for patients with COPD can actually be classified into several categories, but there is no absolute "fasting list". The core is to avoid foods that will irritate the airways and increase the burden of breathing. The specifics must be adjusted based on personal tolerance.

Last week, I met Uncle Zhang, who has been suffering from the disease for 12 years at a COPD follow-up point in the community. A while ago, he followed the trend and went to eat ice-cooked lamb and shabu-shabu with ice soda on a hot day. He started coughing within two hours of returning home, and then he was so breathless that he couldn't walk. He was sent to the emergency room overnight. His condition had been stable for almost a year, but it took him half a month to recover. The essence is that the airways of patients with COPD are much more sensitive than ordinary people. When food that is too cold or too hot is taken into the mouth, temperature stimulation will directly induce airway spasm, just as the originally narrow tube suddenly shrinks again, and ventilation naturally cannot keep up.

Many family members always feel that the patient is physically weak, so simmering fatty soups and adding lots of sugar to make nourishing porridge will actually be detrimental to the patient's health. Eating too much high-sugar and high-fat foods will, on the one hand, make the phlegm thicker and stick to the airways and make it difficult to cough it out. On the other hand, the body will produce more carbon dioxide when metabolizing such foods. COPD patients have difficulty expelling carbon dioxide. It is equivalent to a person who can only carry 10 kilograms of things, but is suddenly stuffed with 15 kilograms of work, and his breathing will be exhausted. You should also avoid foods that are too salty. Eating too much salt will cause the body to retain water, which will swell the airway mucosa and block the already narrow airway, making breathing even more painful.

Many people say that patients with COPD should not touch "foods" such as seafood, beef and mutton at all. In fact, this point is still controversial clinically. If you are allergic and get a rash or worsen your cough and asthma after eating shrimps and crabs, you must strictly avoid it. ； But if you don’t have a history of such allergies, eating some steamed fish, shrimp, and lean beef and mutton in moderation can supplement high-quality protein, improve immunity, and reduce the probability of acute attacks caused by colds. There is no need to be one-size-fits-all.

There is another point that many people have not noticed. You should also eat less foods that are easy to produce gas, such as carbonated drinks, a large amount of sweet potatoes, soybeans, etc. If you eat too much, your stomach will bulge, which will push up the diaphragm. The lungs cannot fully expand in the first place, and the space will be smaller and the breathing will become more severe. There was a 70-year-old patient who loved roasted sweet potatoes. He ate half of a piece in one go. He couldn't lie down, sit or stand all afternoon. He didn't feel comfortable until he passed the gas.

In fact, you really don’t have to follow the online list. For example, if you really want to eat something cool when it’s hot, it’s okay to take a few sips of room-temperature watermelon. Just don’t pour cold beer and ice Coke. Everyone’s tolerance is different, so pay more attention to your reaction after eating. If you cough more severely or breathe longer after eating something, just avoid it next time. Flexible adjustment is much more useful than sticking to taboos.