What are the dietary taboos of Chinese medicine?

It will react with the ingredients of the medicine, reduce the efficacy or even produce toxic side effects, conflict with the properties of the medicine, and conflict with your own constitution and symptoms. Most of the remaining various requirements have no unified basis. The opinions of different schools of traditional Chinese medicine are very different, so there is no need to blindly follow them.

All types of traditional Chinese medicine should be avoided, including strong tea, unripe persimmons, raw hawthorn, and other foods with extremely high tannic acid content. The tannic acid in these foods will combine with active ingredients such as alkaloids and saponins in traditional Chinese medicine to form precipitates that are difficult to be absorbed by the body. This is equivalent to taking the medicine in vain. The excess precipitation may also increase the burden of gastrointestinal metabolism. I met a young man in the clinic before. He drank Astragalus Jianzhong Decoction to treat chronic gastritis. He usually likes to drink tea. He brewed strong tea half an hour after taking the medicine. After half a month of drinking, his stomach pain was not relieved at all. Later, I asked him to stop tea and switch to warm water. Within a week, most of the pain and acid reflux disappeared. If you really can't give up tea, try to leave it at least 2 hours between taking medicine. Drinking lighter tea can also reduce the impact.

Most of the remaining taboos depend on the properties of the medicine, and there is no unified standard. For example, many people have a deep-rooted belief that "you cannot eat radishes when taking traditional Chinese medicine." In fact, only when taking qi-tonifying medicines such as red ginseng, Codonopsis pilosula, and American ginseng, do you need to avoid the depressing effect of raw radish, for fear of deflating the qi that you have added. ； If you have abdominal distension and constipation caused by food accumulation, and radish seeds (that is, radish seeds) are added to the prescribed medicine, eating some stewed radish can help smoothen the qi and eliminate the accumulated food, and there is no need to eat anything.

Of course, there are also red lines that must not be touched. For example, if you are prescribed aconitine-containing medicinal materials such as Fu Pian, Chuan Wu, and Cao Wu, you should not touch alcohol during the entire period of taking the medicine. It is also best not to touch even foods containing a small amount of alcohol such as glutinous rice grains and wine-filled chocolate. I have seen cases from other places before. The patient stewed chicken with scallops at home and added white wine to enhance the flavor. Within half an hour after eating, he felt panicked and numb and sent him to the emergency room for emergency treatment. Aconitine itself has a certain degree of toxicity. Alcohol will accelerate the absorption of this type of alkaloids, and the risk of poisoning will increase several times. This is a hard rule and there is no room for negotiation.

Other taboos actually follow the symptoms, not the medicine. For example, when treating allergic diseases such as eczema and urticaria, you should stop eating mangoes, seafood, and nuts that cause itchiness and rash. I had a girl come to treat urticaria before, and the prescription was correct twice. However, I couldn't help but eat crayfish every day. The rash continued for more than a month. I stopped eating it after watching her, and it disappeared in about ten days.

As for the saying on the Internet that "no Chinese medicine should be spicy or cold when taking traditional Chinese medicine", it is even more unreasonable. If you have a cold caused by the cold wind, and you are prescribed pungent and warm medicine such as ephedra soup to relieve the symptoms, you will get better slowly if you just take it cold and drink it when you go home. If you drink hot ginger soup or eat a bowl of spicy noodles to sweat, you will get better faster.； If you have stomach fire, aphthous ulcers, or tonsil inflammation, you will be prescribed heat-clearing and purgative medicine. Eating some watermelon and pears at room temperature can also help reduce the fire. Only if your spleen and stomach are weak and you have diarrhea when drinking cold water, and you take medicines that warm the yang and strengthen the spleen, you should avoid ice drinks and ice fruits.

In fact, if you really want to talk about taboos, you don’t need to remember so many fancy rules. When you take medicine, just ask the doctor who prescribes it for you. After all, everyone’s prescriptions, physical constitution, and symptoms are different. Others’ taboos may not be suitable for you. There is no need to think about this and avoid that on your own, which will make eating tasteless.