We often think that porridge is a good thing for nourishing the stomach, especially when recovering from a serious illness or when the stomach is uncomfortable. Drinking porridge can protect the intestines and stomach and aid digestion. However, we should not forget that while drinking porridge in moderation can nourish the stomach, drinking it every meal can also cause great harm to the stomach.
The reasons why drinking millet porridge often harms the stomach
1. Easy to have malnutrition
Millet porridge is a liquid food and is nutritionally inferior to rice of the same volume. Moreover, millet porridge does not make you feel full for long. Although you may feel full when you eat it, you will soon feel hungry again. Over time, the elderly can suffer from malnutrition due to inadequate energy and nutrient intake.
2. No chewing affects digestion
Drinking porridge does not require chewing, which lacks the activity of teeth and can accelerate the degeneration of the chewing organs in the elderly. There is also a more important reason: the process of chewing is actually a process of digestion. Teeth chew the food particles and stimulate the secretion of saliva. The enzymes in saliva have a preliminary digestion effect on the starch in food. However, for foods like porridge, which are already in a semi-liquid state, they can directly enter the gastrointestinal tract without much chewing or the help of saliva, which can affect digestion.
3. Insufficient saliva secretion
Saliva also has the function of neutralizing gastric acid and repairing gastric mucosa. Drinking porridge naturally does not help protect the gastric mucosa. If a family member is sick and needs to drink porridge for a long time, it is recommended to add some ingredients when cooking the porridge, such as beans, peanuts, high-fiber celery, etc., to increase the opportunity for chewing and improve this problem.
Therefore, patients with gastric diseases should not drink porridge every day. Instead, they should choose easily digestible and absorbable diets, chew slowly, and promote digestion for better health.
Expert advice
1. Do not make porridge the main food all year round
When the stomach is uncomfortable, drinking porridge can nourish it. However, when the stomach is fine, do not always make porridge the main food for a long time.
The stomach has the characteristic of "use it or lose it". If you always eat easily digestible porridge and soft rice for a long time, the stomach's ability to digest other foods will deteriorate.
2. Increase the consumption of whole grains in daily life
It is best to have 1/3 of the staple food made from coarse grains and miscellaneous grains in a day, which is also a healthy recommendation suitable for most people.
When there is no discomfort in the stomach, regularly eating some millet, brown rice, oats, and other high-fiber and slower-digesting grains made into grain rice or mixed staple food can improve stomach function, which is a good choice.
