According to Zhu Danxi's "Ge Zhi Yu Lun", he said, "The intestines and stomach should be delicate and narrow, and if they are thick, sticky, dry and hard, sour, salty, sweet, spicy, all kinds of fish, meat, fruits, wet noodles, roast and stir-fry, all should be avoided as they are difficult to digest."
When a child's digestive system is not yet fully developed, hard and stimulating foods, such as fish, barbecue, etc., which are difficult to digest, should be avoided.
One cup of concentrated milk can harm a child
An expert once received a child who had been fed with formula milk and suffered from ischemic necrosis of the small intestine. Because the child had been having diarrhea and not eating well, the mother was worried about the child's malnutrition. She violated the instructions on the formula milk package by using less water and more formula powder, resulting in a bottle of very concentrated milk. As a result, the child cried after drinking the milk, and cried even more when their stomach was touched. The parents knew that the child must be in pain. It was only after a hospital examination that they discovered that the child's small intestine mucosa had been burned by the concentrated milk, leading to dehydration and necrosis.
A child's intestine is very delicate, and the osmotic pressure of concentrated milk is much higher than that of plain water. Foods with strong flavors are generally high in osmotic pressure, such as those with high salt content. When people eat salty foods, they need to drink more water because tissues with high osmotic pressure need to absorb water from tissues with lower osmotic pressure to achieve balance. The same goes for concentrated milk, which draws water out of the intestinal mucosa. When there is more water in a child's intestines, they will first have diarrhea, and then the blood circulation in the entire intestinal wall will be affected, resulting in ischemia of the intestinal wall. There is a disease called "necrotizing enterocolitis in newborns (infants)", and one of the causes is improper feeding of formula milk, especially high osmotic pressure milk. This is a condition caused by artificial overheating.
Elderly people are reluctant to give children biscuits, simply saying "biscuits are too dry, they will cause inflammation in children." Biscuits, because they are dry, absorb water from the gastric and intestinal mucosa, causing a decrease in water content and inflammation. Biscuits are indeed more likely to cause inflammation compared to bread and steamed buns. Additionally, compared to raw peanuts and boiled peanuts, roasted peanuts and fried peanuts are more likely to cause inflammation.
Water in food exists in two forms: one is called "free water," which exists between cells in a capillary condensation state and is weakly connected to food components; the other is called "bound water," which is bound to molecules of nutrients such as proteins in the food through hydrogen bonds.
Free water is easily lost when heated below 100°C, while bound water does not evaporate at 100°C and can only be removed at temperatures of 120-140°C. Peanuts lose bound water during roasting. When we eat roasted peanuts, the peanuts that have lost bound water need to rebind with water in the esophagus and release energy. It is because of this energy release process that roasted peanuts become dry and hot, making them more likely to cause inflammation compared to boiled peanuts. The same principle applies to biscuits, fried potato chips, crispy rice, and other baked foods.
During the drying process of formula milk, most of the bound water in the milk is removed. The reason why a specified ratio of water is used to mix formula milk is to reduce the absorption of water by the intestines when digesting formula milk. If the water ratio is too low, the intestines must absorb more water from local tissue cells, which results in the release of energy. The child's inflammation is actually due to the dehydration and bleeding of the intestines.
Dehydrated foods are more likely to cause inflammation
From this understanding, if you want to avoid inflammation, it is not about what you eat, but how you eat it. For example, both fried fish and steamed fish can cause inflammation, but fried fish is more likely to cause inflammation.
The same Chinese medicine, when used raw or cooked, can have very different effects. For example, fresh ginger is less hot in nature, and fresh ginger is not as spicy as old ginger. The reason why old ginger is spicy is also because it has lost water and becomes hotter. The hottest ginger is dry ginger, which is thoroughly dried and loses bound water. When we eat it, it takes away the water in our body, making it even hotter.
As a medicinal herb, fresh ginger is generally used when there is a cool cold, and a few slices of ginger are added when the medicine is being decocted. After taking it, we will have a slight sweat, and its heat is only this much. Dry ginger can be used for diseases with obvious coldness, such as gastroenteritis, chronic gastritis, gastric ulcers, and indigestion. The most valuable ancient medical book, "Shang Han Lun," contains a formula specifically for treating weak and cold diarrhea, called "Li Zhong Wan." The modern medicine store's "Fuzi Lizhong Wan" is derived from that formula.
Li Zhong Wan is a hot and spleen-warming medicine, which is used to treat cold diarrhea. In the past, it even had a miraculous effect on cholera. If the weakness and coldness of the spleen and stomach are not severe, taking Li Zhong Wan will cause inflammation and sores in the mouth. It consists of four herbs, with ginseng and dry ginger coming before white atractylodes and licorice. The ginger originally served on the dinner table can be seen as a "minister medicine" used for treating illnesses. This shows how hot ginger becomes when it loses water.
The same ginger, which is even hotter than dry ginger, is baked ginger. Baked ginger is made by scalding dry ginger until it swells and the surface turns brown. It can treat even colder diarrhea, bleeding, and excessive menstrual bleeding caused by weak and cold constitution. Baked ginger has a carbonization property, which means it is completely dehydrated. After taking it, it can easily bind water in the intestines and absorb water, causing inflammation in the cold intestines and uterus.
