Diet taboos for spleen and stomach dampness and heat

Don’t eat heavy foods that are heavy in oil, salt, and sugar, don’t drink ice-cold foods, and don’t eat glutinous rice and thick tonic foods that are sticky and indigestible. Most people are repeatedly unable to get rid of dampness and heat because of these three things.

I once met a young girl who had just graduated from the clinic. She had a typical spleen and stomach. Her mouth was yellow and the tongue coating was coated with slurry. She said her bad breath was so bad that she dared not talk to her colleagues. After taking the medicine for two weeks, she felt better, but then she relapsed. After questioning, I found out that she had to buy a cup of iced milk tea every day after get off work, and had butter hot pot with friends on weekends. It was like taking medicine while constantly stuffing "hot and humid ingredients" into her body. It was strange that it was so good.

Many people say they should avoid spicy food when they hear dampness and heat in the spleen and stomach. In fact, there are always different views on this in the industry. You see, the humidity in Sichuan and Chongqing is high all year round, and the locals eat spicy food all the time. However, the incidence of spleen and stomach dampness-heat is not much higher than in other areas. The real thing to avoid is not the spicy food like fresh chili and ginger, but the spicy food wrapped in thick butter and added with a lot of MSG. Salt-heavy and spicy foods, such as spicy hot pot, butter hot pot, and spicy crayfish, when this combination of oil and spicy food enters the spleen and stomach, it is like covering the already stuffy spleen and stomach with a thick plastic sheet. The moisture cannot escape, and the heat is stewed inside, which will only accumulate and become heavier. If you usually eat two or three slices of millet as an appetizer, it will help remove dampness and promote qi, so there is no need to stop eating.

More hidden than the spicy taste is the pitfall of the sweet taste. The high-sugar fruits such as full-sugar milk tea, chiffon cake, durian and mango that young people now love to drink, and even the rock sugar and honey that many people like to add when cooking porridge, are all "accelerators" of dampness and heat in the spleen and stomach. Sweetness itself has a greasy quality, and when mixed with the dampness in the body, it is like a sticky mass of sugar in the spleen and stomach. The longer it is held in the mouth, the more intense the heat becomes. Many people clearly do not eat spicy food, but their mouths still feel bitter and sticky, and their faces are full of oil when they touch them. It is probably because they have eaten too much sweets. There is also a common misunderstanding here: many people think that "fruit is healthy" and eat watermelon to reduce heat when it is hot and humid. It is okay if it is at room temperature and eaten in small amounts. However, if you take a bite of iced watermelon just taken out of the refrigerator, the spleen and stomach that are working hard to transport moisture will be "frozen", the moisture cannot be discharged, and the heat will be stewed in it, which will aggravate the symptoms. Of course, not all cold foods are off-limits. According to the view of the febrile disease school, if the heat symptom is particularly severe, to the point of sores on the mouth and tongue, painful yellow urine, and constipation for several days, eating a small amount of pears and watermelon at room temperature can indeed help clear away the heat, and there is no need to completely fast.

There is another taboo that many people don’t notice, which is sticky and difficult-to-digest foods. For example, the meat dumplings at the Dragon Boat Festival, glutinous rice balls during the first lunar month, the donkey rolls that are usually eaten, and the donkey hide gelatin cake that many people love to eat, and the thick stewed white fungus soup with a lot of sugar. These things are particularly difficult to transport. When the spleen and stomach are hot and humid, your spleen and stomach are like a washing machine that is spinning and almost overloaded. If you stuff it with a pile of thick clothes full of water, it will get stuck. There was an old patient who had been undergoing treatment for almost a month, and his tongue coating was almost clean. After the Dragon Boat Festival, he couldn't help but eat two pork belly rice dumplings, and he was tired of it for another week. His tongue coating was exactly the same as before, and he regretted it.

Finally, let me mention a pitfall that many people have stepped on: I heard that I wanted to get rid of dampness, so I boiled red bean and barley water and drank it every day. However, after drinking it for half a month, the dampness and heat were not relieved at all. Instead, my stomach became sour. First of all, we need to understand that if you have severe dampness and mild heat, barley can indeed help to remove dampness. However, if you have severe heat, drinking a large amount of cold barley water will damage the spleen, not to mention that many people will add several spoons of rock sugar when cooking. It is no different from drinking sugar water, but the more you drink, the heavier it becomes. There is also wine, whether it is white wine or ice beer, which itself has moist and hot properties, especially ice beer, which has triple buffs of dampness + heat + cold. People with dampness and heat in the spleen and stomach will have to wait for at least three days if they touch it once.

In fact, there is no need to regard taboos as scourges. The core principle is not to add extra burden to the already tired spleen and stomach. Occasionally, it’s okay to have a craving for hot pot or a sip of iced drink. In the next day or two, just eat some porridge and side dishes to calm your spleen and stomach. Don’t make yourself anxious because of one more bite. Nourishment of the spleen and stomach is inherently a slow effort. Taking your time is better than anything else.