What are the dietary taboos of Chinese medicine?

Either it conflicts with the properties of the traditional Chinese medicine itself and affects the effect, or it is inconsistent with the disease syndrome you want to treat and delays recovery. Most of the statements that "you should never eat cold/spicy/seafood when taking traditional Chinese medicine" are generalizations.

Two weeks ago, I met a little girl who just went to college at the outpatient clinic. She had a cold, cold, and coughed up yellow phlegm. She soaked Pangda Dahai and Luo Han Guo as water at home, and went to eat butter hot pot with her roommate. After drinking for three days, her cough became worse. I called in to ask if the medicine was not working. I asked Her diet was ridiculous. Her situation was not at all in conflict with medicine and food. It was because the pungent and heat-boosting foods she ate, such as spicy butter and roasted seeds and nuts, were completely opposite to the heat syndrome she wanted to treat. Even if she didn't take traditional Chinese medicine, eating this way would turn a small cold into bronchitis.

In terms of taboos that really conflict with the properties of the medicine itself, the most widely circulated one is that you cannot eat radishes when eating ginseng, but this statement is still quite controversial. Most of the older generation of Chinese medicine practitioners believe that ginseng, Codonopsis pilosula, and American ginseng can replenish qi, while white radish and green radish can lower qi and eliminate stagnation. One supplement and one laxative are equivalent to eating in vain. Some colleagues around me have done controlled observations on a small sample, giving the same dose to two groups of patients with similar levels of qi deficiency. For Codonopsis pilosula, one group ate radish normally, and the other group avoided it completely. After two weeks, there was no significant difference in the improvement of qi deficiency between the two groups. There were even a few patients who took ginseng to relieve bloating and could not sleep. I would also take the initiative to let them eat some fried diced radish to reduce the bloating, and they recovered faster than just taking medicine.

There are also people who dare not touch mung bean soup once they drink traditional Chinese medicine. They say that mung bean is the antidote, which is actually a misunderstanding. Mung bean itself is a medicinal material that has the same origin as medicine and food. Its cool nature can clear away heat and detoxify. If you are taking medicines for treating heat syndrome such as coptis, forsythia, and honeysuckle, drinking warm mung bean soup can actually help the medicine to take effect. Only if you have a weak spleen and stomach and have diarrhea every day, are you taking medicines that warm yang such as aconite and dried ginger, and drink ice mung bean soup every day, the medicine will be almost offset, or even worse.

I have also met many patients who need to adjust their Qi and blood after surgery. When I heard that they should avoid taking Chinese medicine, they stopped eating eggs, milk, and beef. They drank white porridge and vegetables every day. After half a month, their complexion became sallow, and their hemoglobin was even lower than before the surgery. It made people angry and funny. In fact, most of the so-called taboos on hair products are for conditions such as eczema, sores, and allergies. If you have no history of allergies and are dealing with debilitating problems, eating some high-quality protein can actually help your body recover. You always rely on the nutrients of white porridge, and no amount of traditional Chinese medicine can have an effect.

Of course, that doesn’t mean that all taboos are arbitrary. There are a few points that you should try to avoid no matter what kind of traditional Chinese medicine you drink. For example, try not to take strong tea with medicine, especially within an hour after taking medicine. The tannic acid in strong tea can easily combine with the alkaloids and proteins in traditional Chinese medicine to form a precipitate that cannot be absorbed. At best, the efficacy of the medicine will be reduced, and at worst, it will stimulate the gastrointestinal tract and cause stomach upset. ； There is also alcohol, whether it is liquor or beer, do not drink it with traditional Chinese medicine. After all, medicines are metabolized by the liver, and drinking alcohol will increase the burden on the liver. If you eat medicinal materials that are slightly toxic in nature, such as aconite and toad venom, it may even increase the risk of toxicity.

In fact, the dietary taboos for taking Chinese medicine are really not that complicated. When you are not sure, just ask the prescribing doctor. There is no need to search a bunch of online taboos by yourself, which will actually delay the progress of recovery.