Generally, patients with tetanus should eat light and easily digestible food primarily, and avoid eating strong, spicy foods such as ginger, garlic, and chili peppers, and should also avoid drinking alcohol.

Because drinking alcohol and eating these strongly stimulating foods can cause blood vessels to dilate and blood circulation to speed up, which makes it easy to absorb toxins and worsen the symptoms of tetanus. Furthermore, spicy foods and drinking alcohol can cause local swelling and severe redness at the wound site, resulting in pain, or lead to infection of the wound, affecting the healing of the wound.