When taking traditional Chinese medicine, it is important to pay attention to dietary restrictions, also known as "avoiding certain foods." Avoiding certain foods is a characteristic of traditional Chinese medicine treatment. The purpose of avoiding certain foods is to avoid harm and maximize the effectiveness of the medication. Medical professionals have always attached great importance to this aspect, and relevant information can be found in medical books such as the "Huangdi Neijing." Practical experience has proven that avoiding certain foods is reasonable and requires attention. In addition to the general requirement of avoiding spicy, grilled, fatty, and pungent foods, the following aspects should also be emphasized:
1. It is advisable to consume fewer legumes, meat, raw and cold foods, and other difficult-to-digest foods in order to reduce the gastrointestinal burden on patients and to not affect their recovery. Patients with spleen and stomach deficiency should especially avoid these foods. For patients with heat-related diseases, it is recommended to avoid or consume fewer alcoholic beverages, spicy foods, fish, and meat. Alcoholic beverages and spicy foods have a heating effect, while fish and meat have a greasy, heat-producing, and phlegm-producing effect, which can worsen the illness by assisting the pathogenic factors. When taking medicine for relieving the surface and promoting rashes, it is advisable to consume fewer raw and cold foods and acidic foods, as both cold and acidic foods have a constricting effect that can affect the effectiveness of the medication. When taking warm tonics, it is advisable to consume less tea because tea has a cooling effect that can reduce the efficiency of warming and tonifying the spleen and stomach. Before and after taking sedative and hypnotic drugs, it is not advisable to drink tea, and these drugs should not be taken with tea.
2. When taking medication for clearing heat, cooling blood, nourishing yin, it is not advisable to consume spicy foods. Patients diagnosed with heat syndrome (such as constipation, reduced urine output, dry mouth, dry lips, sore throat, dry and red tongue, peeled coating, etc.) will worsen their symptoms by consuming spicy foods, thus counteracting the effects of heat-clearing and cooling blood medicine (such as gypsum, honeysuckle, forsythia, gardenia, rehmannia, moutan, etc.) and nourishing yin medicine (such as dendrobium, adenophora, ophiopogon, anemarrhena, scrophularia, etc.).
3. When taking medication such as licorice, poria, black plum, balloon flower, coptis, and evodia fruit, it is advisable to avoid consuming pork. When taking Rehmannia and Polygonum multiflorum, it is advisable to avoid consuming onions, garlic, and radishes. When taking Salvia miltiorrhiza and Poria, it is advisable to avoid consuming vinegar. When taking Atractylodes and White Atractylodes, it is advisable to avoid consuming peaches and plums. When taking Poria cocos and Fructus Evodiae, it is advisable to avoid drinking tea. When taking Schizonepeta, it is advisable to avoid consuming seafood such as shrimp and crab. When taking Magnolia officinalis, it is advisable to avoid stir-frying and frying legumes. When taking ginseng and Codonopsis pilosula, it is advisable to avoid consuming radishes because radishes have a digestive, phlegm-dispelling, and gas-relieving effect, while ginseng and Codonopsis pilosula are tonifying medicines, and the effects will cancel each other out.
4. Patients with symptoms such as bitter taste in the mouth, dry throat, restlessness, constipation, high blood pressure, fatigue, palpitations, and hyperthyroidism should generally avoid consuming high-fat, pungent, and spicy foods such as ginger, garlic, chives, onions, mutton, dog meat, and pepper. Patients with spleen and stomach deficiency with cold limbs, loose stools, low blood pressure, and bradycardia should avoid consuming watermelon, winter melon, radish, mung bean, pear, sugar cane, honey, and soft-shelled turtle, which are cold, cooling, nourishing, and slippery foods. Patients with aversion to cold, fever, headache, constipation, yellow urine, oral ulcers, and abscesses and tumors should avoid consuming bamboo shoots, bean sprouts, luffa, chives, eggplant, shrimp, crab, snails, and clams.
