An increasing number of girls are dieting, eating very little at each meal. This not only results in low energy intake but, over time, can also lead to blood deficiency, which are the main causes of cold hands and feet in winter.
Winter Cold Hands and Feet: Pay Attention to These 4 Lifestyle Taboos
1. Avoid Eating Meat
Most people believe that cold hands and feet are caused by a deficiency of yang energy, so they try to nourish themselves. Lamb and dog meat are considered excellent winter supplements. However, such "nourishment" not only fails to be effective but can also worsen the condition.
The reason for many people's yang deficiency is often a weak spleen and stomach. Even if they eat nutritious foods, especially hard-to-digest ones, the nutrients cannot be absorbed, making it difficult to replenish yang energy and transport it to the extremities, leading to cold hands and feet. Additionally, these patients often experience symptoms such as poor appetite, sallow complexion, and loose stools.
For these patients, the spleen and stomach should be regulated first before undergoing a warm nourishment. It's important to note that "nourishment" doesn't mean eating meat, but rather maintaining a balanced diet. One should eat more whole grains and easily absorbable foods like fish and shrimp. Congee made with Chinese yam and lotus seeds can also help with regulation. If stewing meat, you can add Chinese herbs like hawthorn, dried tangerine peel, cardamom, and angelica to aid digestion and strengthen the spleen and stomach.
2. Avoid Dieting
Dieting is a major cause of cold hands and feet in women. Nowadays, more and more girls are dieting, eating very little at each meal. This not only results in low energy intake but, over time, can also lead to blood deficiency, causing fatigue and weakness. These are the main reasons for cold hands and feet in winter.
Women with qi and blood deficiency can eat more blood-nourishing and spleen-strengthening foods. It is also effective to eat some warming and blood-enriching foods in winter, such as beef and mutton, ginger, red dates, and brown sugar water. Additionally, one can eat fewer foods with yin-nourishing effects, as Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) believes in "seeking yang within yin." Furthermore, people in this group might consider eating yin-nourishing, spleen-strengthening, and dampness-eliminating foods like Ophiopogon japonicus, coix seed, and Chinese yam.
3. Avoid Spicy Foods
Hot pot and mala tang are dietary choices for many people, who think how wonderful it would be to eat a spicy hot pot on a cold day. However, eating more spicy foods during this season, especially for people in the north, not only fails to dispel cold but can also deplete body fluids. Spicy seasonings like chili, pepper, mustard, garlic, green onions, and curry, which are pungent, warm, and aromatic, can promote blood circulation. Logically, they should be perfect for dispelling cold. However, spicy foods are very harmful to the gastrointestinal tract. TCM believes that the spleen governs the four limbs, and for individuals with a weak constitution and cold hands and feet, the spleen and stomach function is generally not good. Eating chili to dispel cold is like "robbing Peter to pay Paul," so it is not recommended.
4. Be Alert to Poor Emotional Health
High mental stress and emotional instability can definitely lead to physical weakness, which may manifest as symptoms of qi deficiency and blood stagnation, followed by cold hands and feet. These patients are often due to emotional suppression, depression, or sudden mental stimulation, combined with factors like a drop in temperature or the body getting cold, which leads to an aversion to cold and cold limbs. This is especially common in women during special physiological periods like menstruation, pregnancy, and postpartum due to physical weakness. In addition, these women often have symptoms such as irritability, anxiety, bloating in the two ribs, and dysmenorrhea, and many have a history of emotional distress.