What are the dietary taboos for patients with hemorrhoids?

If we really want to talk about the most clear and clinically recognized dietary taboos, there are actually only two - don't eat overly spicy food and don't drink too much. Most of the other mythical "fat taboos" are misinformation. There is no need to blindly avoid foods that will only drag down the body.

A while ago, I accompanied a relative at home for a hemorrhoid surgery. There was a young man in the same ward who was supposed to be able to walk normally on the fifth day after the surgery. He sneaked out for a meal of spicy crayfish and cold beer. That night, he groaned in pain. The blood in his stool made the whole gauze red. When the doctor on duty came over, he sighed and said that both capsaicin and alcohol would stimulate the perianal blood vessels to expand and become hyperemic. The wounds that had been slowly healing were stretched and cracked, which was equivalent to having suffered the past few days in vain. To put it bluntly, it is not difficult to understand. The venous plexus around the anus is originally like a loose rubber band. It is already in a tight and congested state due to hemorrhoids or after surgery. When stimulated by capsaicin and alcohol, it is equivalent to pulling twice hard, which can easily cause edema and cracking.

Many people always say that you should not eat beef, mutton, seafood, and roosters if you have hemorrhoids. To be honest, I believed this before. It wasn’t until I specifically asked the director of the anorectal department in charge that I learned that this statement has no clinical basis at all. As long as you don’t have allergies or indigestion when eating these foods, it’s perfectly fine to have hemorrhoids or eat them after surgery. On the contrary, the high-quality protein in these foods can help the wound heal faster. My relative ate boiled shrimp and lean beef every day after the surgery, and was discharged from the hospital within a week, much faster than my aunt in the same ward who only drank plain porridge and vegetables every day and had not grown up in half a month.

There are also people who neither drink alcohol nor eat spicy food, but still have hemorrhoids over and over again, probably because they stepped on other invisible pitfalls. In the past two months, my best friend had a very light taste, but when she worked overtime, she always stocked up on salt-baked chicken feet and cookies as a midnight snack. After eating it for three weeks, she became terribly constipated. She couldn't even go to the toilet for 20 minutes and couldn't poop out. Her hemorrhoids swelled like little grapes hanging out, and the pain was so painful that she couldn't even go to work. In fact, high-salt pickled products and high-sugar processed snacks will make the stool dry and hard. They will repeatedly rub the perianal veins during defecation, which is no less lethal than eating spicy food. This invisible thunder is easier to ignore.

Of course, this does not mean that everyone must be completely insulated from spicy food. I have a friend in Chongqing who grew up eating spicy food. Even if he has hemorrhoids, he will not feel uncomfortable even if he eats two bites of slightly spicy noodles. In this case, there is no need to quit. If you suddenly eat too light and lose your appetite and cannot have bowel movements, it will be more harm than good. After all, everyone’s tolerance level is different. You may eat foods that others cannot touch without causing any problems. You don’t have to stick to the list of taboos on the Internet to be intimidated. If you don’t experience perianal swelling or worsening blood in the stool after eating, you don’t need to specifically avoid foods.

I have seen too many people overcorrect when they have hemorrhoids. They dare not eat this or touch that. They eat plain porridge every day until they feel hungry and dizzy. On the contrary, constipation becomes more serious and hemorrhoids heal more slowly. You really don’t need to be so nervous. The core is to avoid large doses of alcohol and spicy food, eat less processed foods that are too salty and too sweet, and drink more water and eat something with dietary fiber. It’s better than anything else.