Experts tell you why modern people are particularly prone to illness

Xue Changyong is the chief physician of the Nutrition Department of the PLA General Hospital and the chairman of the Clinical Nutrition Branch of the Chinese Nutrition Society.

Fan Zhenglun is the former director of the Ancient Books Research Office of China Traditional Chinese Medicine Press and a researcher at the Beijing Cui Yueli Traditional Medicine Research Center.

1. If you love to use the air conditioner but don’t sweat, you will get sick sooner or later

It is often said that if the summer is not hot and the winter is not cold, you will get sick sooner or later - what does this mean?

In winter, Qi and blood are stored, and nutrients are stored to prepare for next year's growth. When it is cold in winter, the pores are blocked, which helps to draw blood inward. When it is hot in summer, the pores are open, which helps to move blood outward. If you often turn on the air conditioner at this time, your metabolism will be blocked and you will get sick.

In rural areas, many centenarians live in bungalows, because bungalows are warm in winter and cool in summer, and these elderly people can absorb the earth's energy and live longer. To cool off in a bungalow, I don’t recommend using air conditioning. It’s best to use a fan, any size you like.

Nowadays, everyone lives in high-rise buildings and has to use air conditioners, but the wind from air conditioners is so strong that it penetrates your bones. Young people with strong yang energy may not feel it, but gay men over 32 and lesbians over 28 will feel the chill penetrating into their bones if they stay in an air-conditioned room for too long. "Avoid evil winds and treacherous gales at their proper times." The hot wind in winter and the cold wind in summer are both winds that are different from the seasonal winds. They are called treacherous gales and are particularly harmful to your health.

In summer, a person's Qi and blood flow from the inside to the outside. The Qi and blood outside become increasingly vigorous, while the Yang Qi inside becomes relatively insufficient. So at this time you should use some medicine like American ginseng to assist your yang energy.

When it is extremely hot in the summer and you sweat a lot, you will feel anxious and short of breath, because your yang energy is diffused as you sweat. The Chinese medicine doctor will ask you to take some Shengmai Drink at this time:

Ginseng, replenishes the vital energy

Ophiopogon japonicus, clearing lung qi

Schisandra chinensis, calming the mind

This is a prescription created by Sun Simiao, a great Chinese medicine expert in the Tang Dynasty. It is a very useful prescription for treating summer heat. Drink more Shengmai Yin in summer and you won’t feel tired.

2. Seeds are life force. Eating more grains can nourish life!

Whether a nation mainly eats meat or a nation mainly eats fibrous food, they have to eat grains. Why? Maintaining human life requires not only fat and protein, but also countless vital seeds. Rural children eat the new grain of the year, which is the seeds of the second year. Although these children rarely eat chicken, duck, fish and meat, they grow up very strong. Children in cities now have all kinds of delicious food, but they always eat stale grains and rotten millets, and the children they raise are either fat boys or bean sprouts.

We Orientals mainly eat grains. The stomachs our ancestors gave us to digest fibrous food cannot be changed in one generation. But today, our children use such stomachs to deal with steaks and chicken legs every day. How can they not gain weight?

When it comes to eating, everyone thinks it is simple, but in fact it is not simple at all. Grains are seeds with vitality. The Yellow Emperor's Classic of Internal Medicine states very clearly, "Five grains are for nourishment, five fruits are for assistance, and five animals are for benefit."

Grains are life-supporting food. People must eat grains to stay healthy.

The five fruits are the fruits and vegetables we eat to help you digest;

The five domestic animals are beneficial, and meat has a tonic effect.

Among grains, I would like to particularly emphasize the benefits of eating millet. As we all know, the word "ji" in "sheji" is a synonym for millet. Of all grains, our ancestors offered the best to God. Why offer millet to the gods? According to modern scientific research, wheat and rice are better than millet in terms of nutritional content, and millet is a coarse grain.

But look at millet. Each grain of millet is a grain of life, and a bowl of millet planted in the ground will become a large field. Millet can grow in any barren land and has extremely strong vitality. Why did women drink millet porridge after giving birth in the past? Because millet porridge has a very good nourishing effect. Maintaining life depends on countless vital seeds, so we must nourish ourselves with grains. Among the five grains, the first choice is millet porridge, and do not skim off the rice oil.

The “素” in “vegetables” is composed of the “疏” under the “草” radical, because vegetables have the effect of clearing blockages. When you feel that your intestines are blocked, eating vegetables can help digestion. Looking at meat dishes, it is composed of the “军” under the “草” radical. In ancient times, the characters “晕” and “军” are of the same origin. If you eat meat every day, you will become more confused. If you eat vegetables, you will become more relaxed.

3. Eat a good breakfast and lunch, and take a good nap

Man and nature are a unified whole, and this is true throughout the year as well as in a day:

Midnight is equivalent to the winter solstice, when the yin energy is at its peak;

12 noon corresponds to the summer solstice, when Yang energy is at its peak.

People with weak spleen and stomach must eat well in the morning and at noon, because you can use the natural yang energy to help promote digestion and absorption. Remember to eat less for dinner. Don't make do with just a small meal in the morning and at noon and then have a big meal at night.

Eating too much and too well can easily lead to diseases of affluence. The "Yellow Emperor's Internal Classic" says that "rich food will cause big carbuncles on the feet." If you eat too much meat and fish, you will develop carbuncles, sores and ulcers caused by diabetes.

Diabetes was called "xiaoke disease" in ancient China. Ordinary people rarely got it, only rich people suffered from it. If people eat too well and cannot digest the food, they will develop internal heat and symptoms of diabetes. "The swallows that used to fly in front of the halls of the Wang and Xie dynasties now fly into the homes of ordinary people." Our lives now are similar to those of the emperors in the past. We eat good food every day, so it is easy to cause high blood sugar and blood lipids.

Some elderly people usually make do with what they have when their children are not at home. They eat leftovers from the morning and lunch. When the children come home in the evening, they cook a good meal. The children eat with relish and the elderly want to eat too. The children also say, "You've been tired for half a day, so eat a few more bites." So the elderly eat a few more bites. As a result, they call 120 in the middle of the night.

Why is this? If you eat too much in the morning and at noon, your heart energy can borrow from the natural yang energy, but it cannot do so at night. The spleen and stomach belong to the earth, and the heart belongs to the fire. The relationship between earth and fire is like that of son and mother, and fire produces earth. The heart is the mother, and the spleen and stomach are the sons. When the mother is happy, her heart energy is scattered and her strength is weak. If you eat more food, the food needs to be digested, and the spleen and stomach have to work harder. However, the spleen and stomach are weak, so they have no energy and need to borrow energy from the mother. Chinese medicine says this is called the son stealing the mother's energy. My mother is already very weak. If you add more burden to her, won't she get sick in the middle of the night?

The Chinese people especially emphasize that the elderly should take a nap at midnight and noon. These are two very important hours:

12:00 to 1:00 midnight: This is the Zi hour, when the Yin energy is at its peak and the Yang energy is just beginning to grow.

11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.: It is noon, when Yang energy is at its strongest and Yin energy is just beginning to emerge.

The Yin and Yang energies can only rise when they are born, and only when they rise can they be transformed, collected and stored. If you transform it when it is born, you will not be able to find the feeling. Therefore, midnight and noon are particularly important for the elderly. Many people in ancient China ate two meals a day, not because there was a lack of food. 9 to 10 in the morning is the best time for the spleen and stomach, and 2 to 3 in the afternoon is the best time for the small intestine. Therefore, it is recommended that the elderly should take a nap and eat two meals a day, which is extremely beneficial to their health.

4. Health should not be too mechanical

"Milk contains hormones, which can be degraded by eating tomatoes; tomatoes contain residual pesticides, so you can take atropine; if you take atropine, be careful of bioalkali poisoning, so eat some lentils; lentils are also toxic! Drink milk, which can neutralize the toxicity of lentils..." This is a joke circulating on the Internet.

Many people are like this. They worry that this contains hormones and that contains pesticides, so they can't eat this or drink that.

In fact, health cannot be too mechanical. It is enough to stick to the right general direction.

Just like if you want to go from Beijing to Shanghai, just go south, you can take a plane, take the high-speed rail, drive, or even walk. The goal is the same and you can reach it, just the methods are different.