How to treat a cold constitution and what are the dos and don'ts of dietary conditioning

In daily life, people often feel cold body, cold stomach, cold hands and feet, etc. These are all symptoms of cold constitution. In the field of traditional Chinese medicine, cold constitution belongs to yang deficiency constitution, and the conditioning method should focus on warming and replenishing Yang Qi. Among the conditioning methods for a cold constitution, dietary conditioning is the method that many people would choose.

1: Foods such as wine, chili peppers, onions, pepper, coffee, and strong tea are hot and belong to Yang. Once they enter the human body, they can easily cause heat and dampness, aggravating the disease. In addition, Chinese medicine believes that wine is a "pure Yang poison, with the same nature as fire", which can easily cause dampness and heat. Therefore, patients with chronic hepatitis and cirrhosis should avoid spicy and stimulating foods when nourishing the liver in spring.

1: In spring, it is easy to induce internal heat and generate liver fire, or cause the body's body fluids to leak out. You can eat some foods that can clear internal heat and nourish the liver, such as buckwheat, coix seed, shepherd's purse, spinach, water spinach, celery, chrysanthemum seedlings, lettuce, eggplant, water chestnut, cucumber, mushrooms, etc. These foods are cool in nature and sweet in taste, can clear internal heat, moisturize the liver and improve eyesight.

1: Spicy and sweet foods are beneficial to nourishing the liver and protecting the spleen; while sour foods have a astringent effect, which is not conducive to the generation of yang energy and the release of liver qi, so it is advisable to reduce sour foods in the diet in spring. The first choice of sweet foods are cereals such as glutinous rice, black rice, sorghum, millet, and oats; vegetables and fruits such as sword beans, pumpkin, lentils, red dates, longan, walnuts, and chestnuts; meat and fish such as beef, pork tripe, crucian carp, carp, sea bass, grass carp, and eel.

1: Apples, pears, bananas, etc. are easy to choose fruits. The temperature rises in spring and the climate is relatively dry. Fresh fruits have the effect of clearing away heat, promoting salivation and quenching thirst, so you should eat more fresh fruits, but it is not easy to eat too much sour fruits in spring.

1: Eating a moderate amount of warming and nourishing foods can help the liver qi, such as chicken, venison, mutton, dog meat, etc., and Chinese medicine believes that "among the five animals, chicken corresponds to the liver", so you should drink more chicken soup in spring.

1: To nourish the liver in spring, you need to follow the rising energy of spring and eat more foods that warm and replenish yang energy, especially in early spring when there is still some winter chill left. You can choose to eat leeks, garlic, onions, konjac, kohlrabi, mustard greens, coriander, ginger, onions, etc. These vegetables are warm in nature and spicy in taste, which can not only dispel wind and cold, but also inhibit and kill bacteria that breed in humid environments.

There is a distinction between cold and hot constitutions. A cold constitution is a yang deficiency constitution, which is mostly found in women. Women with a cold constitution should eat more warm foods and less cold foods, and pay attention to keeping warm in autumn and winter.