The best recipes for taking Chinese medicine

Everyone knows that you have to pay attention to your diet when taking Chinese medicine. You must take Chinese medicine after meals, and avoid eating spicy and cold foods during the period of taking Chinese medicine. The diet needs to be kept light, and you can eat some porridge and other foods. Patients taking traditional Chinese medicine should follow the doctor's advice on dietary taboos and eat more vegetables, as vegetables can promote gastrointestinal digestion and facilitate the absorption of traditional Chinese medicine.

Generally, when taking Chinese medicine, there are some dietary taboos depending on the important ingredients. Generally, there are spicy foods, alcohol and raw and cold foods. There is no special need to avoid vegetables, so you can use it normally, unless the doctor specifies that the food cannot be eaten. So there are no specific vegetables that you cannot take. When eating vegetables, you must blanch the food or not eat raw and cold vegetables.

1. What vegetables can you eat while taking Chinese medicine?

When taking Chinese medicine, you can eat most fruits and vegetables, but you need to decide if there is anything you should avoid based on the properties of the medicine and the type of disease it is treating.

It is not advisable to eat radish when taking Chinese medicine (except for taking qi-regulating and phlegm-resolving medicines), because radish has the effects of helping food and breaking up qi. Especially when taking tonic Chinese medicines such as ginseng, eating radish will reduce the effect of the tonic and cause it to lose its tonic effect and fail to achieve the therapeutic purpose.

Patients with digestive tract diseases such as hepatitis and chronic gastroenteritis should avoid taking garlic when taking spleen-strengthening, stomach-warming and stomach-regulating medicines. Garlic contains allicin, which can stimulate the gastrointestinal mucosa and cause congestion of the mucosa, and the Chinese medicine they take will not be able to effectively play its therapeutic role. You cannot eat chili peppers when taking Chinese medicine, especially when you have a fever. It is even more inappropriate to eat chili peppers when taking medicine for clearing heat and cooling blood or nourishing yin and reducing inflammation. Chili peppers can reduce the efficacy of the medicine, making the treatment ineffective or weakening the efficacy. When taking Chinese herbal decoctions and pills, avoid eating raw, cold, or greasy foods.

Because raw and cold foods stimulate the gastrointestinal tract and affect the gastrointestinal absorption of drugs, greasy foods are difficult to digest and absorb, and greasy foods mixed with drugs can further hinder the gastrointestinal absorption of the active ingredients of the drugs, thereby reducing the efficacy. In addition, people with furuncle and skin diseases should avoid eating saltwater fish, shrimp, crab, mutton, beef and other foods; people with edema should avoid eating salt; hepatitis patients should avoid eating spicy, hot and greasy foods; when taking Schizonepeta, avoid eating fish, shrimp and crab; when taking Asparagus cochinchinensis, avoid eating carp; when taking Atractylodes macrocephala, avoid eating garlic, etc.

2. What are the taboos of taking Chinese medicine?

1. When taking Chinese medicine decoctions and pills, it is not advisable to eat raw, cold, or greasy food. Because raw and cold foods not only stimulate the gastrointestinal tract, but also affect the gastrointestinal absorption of drugs. Greasy foods are difficult to digest and absorb, and greasy foods mixed with drugs can hinder the gastrointestinal absorption of the active ingredients of drugs, thereby reducing the efficacy.

2. Never drink strong tea when taking Chinese medicine, because tea contains tannic acid. If taken at the same time as Chinese medicine, it will affect the body's absorption of the active ingredients in the medicine and reduce its efficacy.

3. Never eat radish while taking Chinese medicine, because radish has the effects of helping digestion and breaking up gas. Especially when taking tonic Chinese medicine such as ginseng, eating radish will not only reduce the effect of the tonic, but may also affect the tonic effect of the medicine.

4. Patients with digestive tract diseases such as hepatitis and chronic gastroenteritis should never eat garlic while taking spleen-strengthening, stomach-warming and stomach-regulating medicines. Because garlic contains allicin, which can irritate the gastrointestinal mucosa, making the Chinese medicine taken unable to effectively play its therapeutic role.