What are the dietary taboos for drinking Chinese medicine?

The current consensus between traditional Chinese medicine practice and modern clinical research is that the core dietary taboos for drinking Chinese medicine are to avoid foods that are contrary to the properties of the medicine and conflict with the patient's own symptoms. There are not so many one-size-fits-all "absolute fasting" items spread online. Most taboos are dynamically adjusted according to the prescription and personal condition.

Last week, I met a little girl in her early 20s at the outpatient clinic. She came specifically to treat uterine cold dysmenorrhea. I prescribed her a prescription to warm the yang and dispel the cold for a week. However, during the follow-up visit, she said with a slumped face that it was of no use at all. In the past two days, my aunt was still in pain and breaking out in cold sweats. I asked her carefully. Only then did she realize that she couldn't help but eat half a piece of iced watermelon every day and drink a cup of iced milk tea before going to bed. It was like drinking medicine here to "burn the stove" in her lower abdomen, and pouring "cold water" into her stomach every day with iced drinks. Not only did the effect of the medicine cancel out, but she also accumulated more coldness. But don’t think you can’t drink anything cold when drinking traditional Chinese medicine. I once had a high school student who suffered from heat sores and his throat was so swollen that it hurt to swallow saliva. He was prescribed a blood-cooling medicine to clear away heat and detoxify. I also specifically told him to eat some cool foods such as ice pears and fresh lotus roots in moderation to help clear away internal heat and get better faster.

There are also many people who say that you should not eat radishes when taking traditional Chinese medicine, but this is actually only half correct. If you drink tonics containing qi-tonifying ingredients such as ginseng and astragalus, the qi-destroying effect of radish will indeed offset the efficacy of the medicine, so try not to take them. ； But if you have qi stagnation due to food accumulation, a bloated stomach that beats like a drum, or excessive phlegm that cannot be coughed up, and you are prescribed a prescription to regulate qi and eliminate stagnation, eating some stir-fried radish can help smooth your qi and help you recover faster than just taking medicine.

As for the taboo foods that everyone often talks about, it also depends on the situation. I once had a patient with chronic eczema. After taking medicine for three weeks, the rash was basically gone. He was so craving for spicy crayfish that he relapsed that night, with a red rash on his eyelids. During the treatment period for this kind of skin disease, allergic disease, sores and swelling, it is necessary to avoid foods such as seafood, mango, durian, and spicy alcoholic drinks that can easily aggravate the inflammatory reaction. ； But if you just take medicine to relieve spleen and stomach qi deficiency, and you are not allergic to seafood, eating steamed seabass twice a week to supplement high-quality protein will help your spleen and stomach recover, so there is no need to avoid it at all.

Of course, there are some general tips. No matter what type of traditional Chinese medicine you drink, try not to take it with tea, milk tea, or coffee. The tannic acid in tea and the alkaloids in coffee can easily combine with the drug ingredients to form a precipitate that is difficult to absorb, affecting the efficacy of the medicine.； Try to eat less fatty braised pork and fried foods, otherwise the spleen and stomach will have to work hard to digest these high-fat foods, and the absorption rate of the active ingredients of the medicine will naturally decrease. If you are really not sure what you can and cannot eat, just ask the doctor who treats you when prescribing medicine. He knows your condition and the properties of the medicine best, and the advice he gives will definitely be much more reliable than the general contraindications searched online.