With the improvement of living standards, obesity has become a problem of great concern. How to help obese individuals regain a slim and healthy body through safe, effective, and painless weight loss methods has become an urgent need. Clinical practices in recent years have shown that skillful use of Chinese medicinal cuisine is one of the effective weight loss methods, and it is easily accepted by people. Because medicinal cuisine integrates medicine and food, the medicine borrows the flavor of the food, and the food enhances the efficacy of the medicine, it turns bitter medicines or ordinary foods with weight loss functions into delicious dishes and pastries. This is incorporated into people's daily snacks, allowing obese individuals to achieve the goal of weight loss unconsciously while enjoying delicious food. Therefore, medicinal cuisine for weight loss has become widely popular in recent years.
Modern medical science considers anyone who is more than 20% above their standard weight to be obese. Obese people not only have a bulky body and are inconvenient to move, but they also react slowly. They often suffer from metabolic abnormalities of sugar, fat, water, and salt, and are prone to or can aggravate diseases such as hypertension, coronary heart disease, diabetes, hyperlipidemia, and fatty liver. Traditional Chinese medicine believes that the main causes of obesity are dampness, phlegm, and deficiency of the spleen and kidney yang in the body. The saying "fat people have more phlegm and dampness" is based on this principle. Generally, obese people mostly have irregular diets, or hyperphagia, or a preference for greasy and sweet foods. Over time, this leads to the spleen failing in transportation, the lungs failing in regulation, phlegm accumulating internally, and stagnating in the muscles, thus causing obesity. Therefore, the principle of weight loss should be to strengthen the spleen and promote diuresis, promote digestion and resolve food stagnation, invigorate blood and resolve stasis, and transform phlegm and guide stagnation. Using medicinal cuisine for weight loss is based on the above principles, appropriately selecting food and medicine to make palatable dishes. Common foods and medicines for weight loss mainly include Job's tears, Poria, winter melon, lotus leaf, lettuce, tofu, radish, Jiangbai (a type of bamboo shoot), bitter melon, cucumber, goji berry, hawthorn, kelp, etc.
Medicinal cuisine for weight loss does not require dieting, changing eating habits, and has no pain or side effects. However, the effect is slow, so one must persevere to achieve good results. Here are a few weight loss recipes for selection or reference. I. Braised Winter Melon ≮Gourmet Ingredients≯
500g winter melon, bean paste, soy sauce, clear broth, wet starch, chopped green onion and ginger, monosodium glutamate, and vegetable oil. ≮Gourmet Method≯
Peel and wash the winter melon, and cut it into pieces 3cm long, 2cm wide, and 1cm thick. Add an appropriate amount of vegetable oil to a wok and heat to 140°C (medium heat). Add the chopped green onion and ginger and the bean paste and stir-fry until fragrant. Then add the winter melon, soy sauce, and clear broth. Simmer over low heat until the winter melon is soft, then add monosodium glutamate. Thicken with wet starch, then serve on a plate. ≮Efficacy≯
This dish has the effects of clearing heat and promoting urination, reducing swelling and stopping cough, and promoting urination to transform phlegm. The "Materia Medica for Dietotherapy" says of winter melon: "It is good for those with excess heat to eat it, and it makes thin people thinner; those who want a light and slim body can often eat it." Winter melon has a high water content and contains malonic acid, which can reduce subcutaneous fat and inhibit the conversion of sugar in the eater, thus having a good weight loss effect.
II. Hawthorn and Kelp Shreds ≮Gourmet Ingredients≯
300g soaked kelp, 100g fresh hawthorn, 30g white sugar, and appropriate amounts of green onion, ginger, and cooking wine. ≮Gourmet Method≯
Clean the kelp, put it in a pot with green onion, ginger, cooking wine, and water. Bring to a boil over high heat, then simmer over low heat until tender. Remove, drain, and cut into thin shreds. Remove the pits from the hawthorn and also cut into shreds. Mix the kelp shreds with white sugar, place in a dish, sprinkle with hawthorn shreds, and then sprinkle with another layer of white sugar. ≮Efficacy≯
Kelp is cold-natured, and eating it often makes people lose weight. Hawthorn has the effects of resolving stagnation, refreshing the mind, preventing heatstroke, and increasing appetite. Therefore, this dish has the functions of clearing heat and stopping cough, dissipating nodules and promoting urination, and resolving food stagnation. Regular consumption has the effect of lightening the body and strengthening health.
III. Poria Tofu ≮Gourmet Ingredients≯
500g tofu, 30g Poria powder, 40g pine nuts, and appropriate amounts of carrot, shiitake mushroom, egg white, fine salt, cooking wine, clear broth, and starch. ≮Gourmet Method≯
Press the tofu to remove excess water. Clean the shiitake mushrooms and cut the carrot into diamond-shaped thin slices. Beat the egg white until frothy. Cut the tofu into small cubes, sprinkle with Poria powder and fine salt. Then arrange the tofu cubes flat, spread with egg white, and top with shiitake mushrooms, carrot, and pine nuts. Steam in a steamer over high heat for 10 minutes, then remove. Pour the clear broth, fine salt, and cooking wine into a pot, bring to a boil, add starch to make a white sauce, and pour over the tofu. ≮Efficacy≯
This dish has the functions of strengthening the spleen to transform dampness, preventing and reducing obesity, and lowering blood sugar. It is suitable for moderate obesity and diabetes patients. However, it is not suitable for those with yang deficiency obesity and should be eaten with medicinal cuisine to supplement yang.