Diet taboos for weak spleen and stomach

First, don’t touch foods that you will definitely feel uncomfortable if you eat them. Second, try to eat as little as possible foods that are clinically recognized as having a high risk of spleen damage. Third, don’t go on a diet or take supplements blindly in order to nourish the spleen. Apart from that, there is nothing that you absolutely cannot eat.

Last week, a 23-year-old girl came to my clinic. She has been suffering from spleen deficiency for three years. She has memorized a two-page list of taboos. She won’t touch ice or fruit, and even white rice is too hard. She drinks millet porridge with steamed yam all the time. The result is still bloating and unformed stools. She has lost 12 pounds, catches colds when the season changes, and her immunity is very poor. She herself felt particularly aggrieved, saying that even though I was so obedient and taboo, why wasn't it okay? Don't you think this is a detour?

Let’s talk about the most quarrelsome question: “Can you eat cold food?” Different schools have different views: the typhoid fever school believes that people with spleen deficiency should avoid cold and cold drinks. Ice drinks and raw pickles can easily damage the spleen yang. People who are usually afraid of cold and have diarrhea when eating cold food should try to avoid it.； However, the febrile disease school also says that if you have spleen deficiency due to heat deficiency, you are prone to dry mouth and dry stools. Instead, you should avoid eating ginger and mutton that are too warm. Instead, eat pears and lilies at room temperature to feel comfortable. From my own clinical experience, there is really no absolute standard. The core thing is to see your reaction after eating - if you have stomach pain and diarrhea after half an hour after eating half a box of iced watermelon, then definitely don’t touch it. ； If you grew up in Guangdong and are accustomed to drinking herbal tea and eating iced coconut greens, and if you have a weak spleen, you can occasionally eat ice cream to satisfy your cravings. There is really no need to feel guilty after taking one bite. Emotional anxiety will do much more damage to the spleen and stomach than two bites of ice.

Oh, by the way, some people ask if fruits can be eaten. Don’t listen to those nonsense about “deficiency of the spleen requires cutting off all fruits.” I have seen patients believe this and not touch fruits for half a year. In the end, they were deficient in vitamins and had rotten mouth. On the contrary, the spleen and stomach transportation was even worse. If you feel uncomfortable eating it cold, steam it and eat it hot. Steamed apples or boiled pears are both fine. If you eat them at room temperature, it’s fine. It’s absolutely fine to eat an orange and an apple a day. You can’t give up basic nutrients just to nourish your spleen, right?

To be honest, the things you should touch as little as possible are actually those things that put excessive burden on the spleen and stomach. Last month, there was an old man who had been suffering from chronic gastritis for ten years. He took care of himself very carefully, but his son took him to Chongqing and ate three meals of butter hot pot. When he came back, he had stomach bloating for half a month, and he also had acid reflux and heartburn that made him unable to sleep. It’s not that you can’t eat hot pot, but this kind of highly processed and heavy-tasting food that is high in oil, sweetness, salt and spicy requires two or three times more effort to transport than ordinary meals. Originally, your spleen and stomach can only carry 20 kilograms of stuff, but if you cram 50 kilograms into it, it will be strange if you don’t collapse from exhaustion. There are also puffed foods, preserves, and prepared dishes with more than a dozen additives, which are high in sugar and salt and contain a lot of artificial sweeteners. People with spleen deficiency have unstable intestinal flora. If they eat too much, they will easily suffer from flatulence and acid reflux, so they should eat less if possible.

Another pitfall that many people fall into is that if they feel their spleen is weak, they have to drink millet porridge, eat yam, or even buy Jianpi Pills and Guipi Pills randomly to supplement their spleen. When you have just suffered from gastritis and your stomach is so bloated that you can't eat anything, drinking porridge for two days can really reduce your burden. If you drink every day, the digestive function of your stomach will be degraded, just like a person who can walk in a wheelchair every day. After a long time, he really can't walk. As for supplements, don’t just take them blindly. If you have recently had a thick and greasy tongue coating, a bitter taste in your mouth, and a bloated stomach, you already have stagnation. If you take supplements, you will block all the garbage in your body. The more you take supplements, the more uncomfortable you will be.

Speaking of which, my own spleen and stomach are not very good. I followed the list on the Internet for half a year, but it didn’t work. Later, I slowly figured out my boundaries: it’s okay to drink iced milk tea once a week, and eat hot pot once every half month. Don’t lie down immediately after eating, just go downstairs and walk for ten minutes. On the contrary, I feel better, and the state of my spleen and stomach is much better than before when I had to follow the taboo every day.

In fact, there really aren’t that many rules and regulations for nourishing the spleen. To put it bluntly, you just need to know where your own speed is, don’t eat too much, and don’t put shackles on yourself. After all, eating a meal happily is more nourishing than any tonic.