What foods shouldn’t be eaten together according to traditional Chinese medicine? It depends on your body
Chinese medicine practitioners and professors share their basic guidelines on what food pairings to avoid, such as mango and shellfish or crab with tea. Every week, Talking Points gives you a worksheet to practise your reading comprehension with exercises about the story we’ve written.
French fries go with ketchup, and tomatoes go well with eggs. Most of us know what foods fit with each other – but have you ever wondered what shouldn’t be eaten together?
Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has many ideas about how different food combinations can affect your health. TCM divides people’s body types into nine constitutions. TCM doctors can use your body’s constitution to figure out what foods can improve your health.
The two most common body types are the hot body constitution and cold body constitution. These are related to the opposing energies, yin and yang, which must stay in balance – for example, if you have too much yin, you need more foods with yang.
Those with a cold body constitution often feel cold and tired, struggle to fall asleep, and may get diarrhoea easily. They usually do not have enough yang.
People with a hot body constitution often have warm hands and a dry tongue, and they might sweat a lot at night. They do not have enough yin.
According to TCM, people with different body constitutions benefit from different food combinations.
“When we talk about what food to eat and not to eat, we really need to think about our different constitutions. For example, if this person is yang type, they probably should eat more yin food,” said Dr Kevin Yue Kin-man, an associate professor at the School of Chinese Medicine at Hong Kong Baptist University.
He added that most Hongkongers had a hot body constitution because of the city’s damp, warm weather.
Based on these ideas, here are some common food combinations that people should be aware of.
What hot body constitutions should avoid
Pairing beef and chestnut, two “warm” foods in TCM, could be harmful for hot body constitutions.
Dr Ma Jianying, an assistant professor at Baptist University’s School of Chinese Medicine, explained: “Combining them together is like adding oil to fire, heating up the body … which will cause different kinds of heat symptoms.”
The professor added that according to TCM, your body might struggle to digest beef with chestnuts and to take in nutrients when these foods are paired up.
Mangoes are also considered a “hot” food, so people with hot body constitutions should eat less of it. This will help prevent heat-related problems from getting worse – for example, eczema, acne or other skin issues.
“Mango fruit has a damp and hot nature in TCM theory,” said registered Chinese medicine practitioner Novena Xie, adding that eating mango with shellfish could make the effects on the body even worse.
“People with allergic skin conditions should avoid this food combination because it will greatly increase the dampness in the body and act as a stimulant for skin allergies.”
What the cold body constitution should avoid
Watermelon and green beans are both cooling foods, but this pairing could be too cold for some.
“For people with a cold body constitution, this food combination should be avoided because together they create a very strong cooling effect and may cause dizziness and digestive issues,” Xie said.
Another set of cold food groupings to avoid include having crab with tea or persimmon.
Xie explained: “Crab meat is a very cold type of food in TCM theory, and persimmon fruit is also cold in nature. Most people should avoid eating this food combination, as it can be hard on the digestive system.”
“Only those people with very strong yang energy, the … hot body constitution, are able to eat this type of food combination.”
According to Dr Ma, the warnings against this pairing might be reflected in Western science as well. Tea and persimmon contain tannins, which have been found to make protein harder to digest. So when tea and persimmon are eaten with crab, which is rich in protein, we might experience indigestion.
When you eat the wrong combination
If you end up having one of these potentially harmful food pairings, you will know that something is wrong if you experience discomfort, such as diarrhoea or nausea.
According to TCM practitioner Xie, people who experience stomach issues after eating cold food combinations can try drinking boiled ginger water with tangerine peel to help the body warm up again.
As for anyone who might experience mild acne after having too many hot food combinations, they can drink honeysuckle and chrysanthemum tea because this can help reduce the “heat” in the stomach and lungs.
They might also suffer from sore throat and mouth ulcers after eating too much “hot” food.
In this case, Xie recommended drinking mint tea to refresh the body while also cooling down the throat and mouth.
However, Dr Yue emphasised that for anyone who is experiencing severe or persistent discomfort, it is best to consult a registered Chinese medicine practitioner or Western doctor.
via scmp
Original article by admin, if reproduced, please cite the source as: https://www.tcmha.com/medicalguide/what-foods-shouldnt-be-eaten-together-according-to-traditional-chinese-medicine-it-depends-on-your-body.html
相关推荐
-
Which Brand of Liuwei Dihuang Wan Is Good
Liuwei Dihuang Wan is a common traditional Chinese medicine mainly used to treat various symptoms caused by kidney yin deficiency. There are many brands of Liuwei Dihuang Wan available on the market, and the choice of which brand is best depends on individual constitution and needs.
-
Figs are also known as “first fruit of health”? What exactly is the effect of its role
Fig, a common fruit and a crucial medicinal herb, is rich in nutritional components and unique medicinal value, widely applied in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). Revered as a “natural health herb,” figs offer diverse advantages.
-
Figs are a classic Chinese medicine? 5 Benefits!
Whether it is fresh, juiced, or dried figs, its efficacy is similar, according to the taste to choose. If they are fresh figs, they can be eaten after being washed. Anthocyanins are mainly concentrated in the skin of figs, so they should be eaten with the skin, and 120 grams of fresh FIG pulp can be eaten every day.
-
Gout pain is painful, a remedy to help you solve
Patient Message: Male 36 years old, gout for more than 10 years, pain every day, always use painkillers to relieve, not to take painkillers, the pain is unbearable, how to solve it? Gout is usually more common in men, and mostly occurs in the lower limbs. What are the causes of gout? 1, usually willing to eat seafood and drink beer, animal offal, broth, such food purine high, resulting in more uric acid in the body, metabolism does not go out, resulting in gout stones, pain and redness.2, some people…
-
Spring and summer health benefits – mulberry
Chinese medicine believes that mulberry is cold and sour, into the heart, liver and kidney meridian. It can nourish the liver and kidneys, nourish the yin and blood, especially for people with liver and kidney deficiency, essence deficiency and blood deficiency.
-
How to cure chronic rhinitis? Chinese medicine can completely cure the case
How can rhinitis be completely eradicated? I’ve used more than 20 years of clinical experience to give you an analysis. The most important thing is that you have to be able to get rid of your nasal passage, which is connected to your lungs. A while ago, I had a patient with chronic rhinitis for almost 9 years. The problem of rhinitis was solved at once by prescribing a prescription that directly attacked the yellow dragon. The actual fact is that the chronic rhinitis actually belongs to the scope of…
-
[Chinese medicine health] Examine the causes and seek the root cause, comprehensive conditioning! What should I do to maintain my spleen and stomach?
Modern causes of spleen and stomach damage Spleen deficiency is not only the basis for the pathogenesis of deficiency of the body’s positive energy, physical weakness, reduced function and many childhood, middle-aged and elderly diseases, but also the main cause of modern sub-health states and metabolic diseases such as hyperlipidemia, gout, type II diabetes and non-alcoholic fatty liver. I. Inappropriate diet In today’s society, improper diet damages the function of the spleen and stomach, and there are six specific causes as follows. Excessive food consumption The spleen and stomach are…
-
Lily flower tea health way [women often drink better efficacy]
The efficacy of lily flower tea has a very good health effect on the body, but because of its sweet cold quality moist, where wind-cold cough, loose stools, spleen and stomach weakness, cold and damp stagnation, kidney Yang recession are contraindicated.
-
Peanuts Are Not Good for Blood Vessels, Doctor Advises Avoiding Three Types of Food
Examining the contents of a peanut reveals rich monounsaturated fatty acids, polyunsaturated fatty acids, minerals, fiber, and dietary fiber.
-
2 herbal remedies for chronic pharyngitis
Chronic pharyngitis is a diffuse inflammatory disease of the upper respiratory tract. It is called “deficiency fire throat paralysis” in Chinese medicine. Typical symptoms are foreign body sensation in the pharynx, itching, burning, dryness, slight pain, sticky secretions, often attached to the back wall of the pharynx, coughing due to secretion stimulation, nausea and dryness, lighter in the morning, heavier in the afternoon and at night, dryness of the oropharynx, red lips, dry cough without phlegm, red cheekbones in the afternoon, mental fatigue, heat in the hands and feet. Kidney…
