If you don't eat on a regular schedule, the first one to object will be your stomach. Some people experience stomach pain frequently, which is caused by not eating on time. To have a healthy body, you must first take good care of your stomach. What foods are good for nourishing the stomach? What are the precautions to take?
Tremella, glutinous rice, and red jujube congee
Foods for nourishing the stomach
Glutinous rice, Jiangmi (glutinous rice), and red jujube congee: Glutinous rice and Jiangmi are sweet, neutral, and non-toxic, entering the spleen and stomach meridians. They have the effects of warming the spleen and stomach, tonifying the middle and replenishing qi, and reducing urination. Red jujube "governs pathogenic qi in the heart and abdomen, pacifies the middle and nourishes the spleen, assists the twelve meridians. It normalizes stomach qi, opens the nine orifices, replenishes qi and body fluids, addresses deficiencies in the body, alleviates severe fright, reduces heaviness in the four limbs, harmonizes all medicines, and long-term consumption leads to a light body and a long life." Cooking these two medicinal and food-grade ingredients together into a congee and consuming it regularly is effective for stomach cold.
Candied ginger slices and candied ginger water: Candied ginger slices are ready-made products sold in supermarkets, inexpensive and more convenient than making them yourself; you can buy them directly as snacks. Candied ginger water is made by slicing ginger and cooking it with brown sugar. It is effective when consumed hot for persistent stomach pain due to cold.
Ginger-processed red jujube and black beans (from "Folk Effective Prescriptions"):
1000g red jujubes, 1000g black beans, 500g ginger (sliced). Wash them and place in a pot with cold water to boil. After cooking, store in a container. For each meal, use a dish to serve five or six jujubes, a few slices of ginger, and a handful of black beans. Heat them in a pot and eat with your meal. Continue for several months to be cured.
Fo-ti fennel pork stomach soup
Method: Place fennel seeds and raw Fo-ti (cut) into a purchased pork stomach. Then sew the stomach shut with thick cotton thread to prevent the fennel seeds from spilling out. Place it in a pressure cooker and simmer for about 30-40 minutes. Once the pork stomach is cooked, it's ready to eat. This can cure very stubborn, chronic stomach ailments. Remember, do not add any seasonings; this is medicine, not food! Not even salt! Dosage: Once a week, it can be cured in 3-7 weeks.
Some people say Fo-ti is for hair, but in fact, Fo-ti enters the liver. It regulates the liver, helps it detoxify, and is a detoxifying agent. Therefore, it is used to inhibit the negative functions of the liver and regulate its function through this method. It has a certain effect for some seborrheic alopecia and some heat-induced white hair, but it must be used in combination. So, if you just make it into shampoo, the effect is very limited.
Precautions for nourishing the stomach
I. Avoid irregular eating habits
When hungry, the high concentration of stomach acid and pepsin in the stomach, without food to neutralize them, can easily cause self-digestion of the mucous membrane. Overeating, on the other hand, can damage the stomach's self-protection mechanisms; excessive expansion of the stomach wall and prolonged food retention can also contribute to stomach damage.
II. Avoid unclean diet
Helicobacter pylori infection is one of the important causes of gastric and duodenal ulcers. In patients with ulcers, the detection rate of this bacterium is as high as 70-90%. After the ulcer is cured, the bacterium also disappears. Ulcer patients can transmit the infection through close contact such as tableware, toothbrushes, and kissing. Unclean food is also one of the causes of infection.
III. Avoid overeating at dinner
Some people tend to concentrate all their daily nutritional intake on dinner, or like to eat late-night snacks or something before bed. This not only leads to poor sleep and obesity but can also stimulate the gastric mucosa to secrete too much stomach acid, inducing ulcer formation.
IV. Avoid wolfing down food
After food enters the stomach, it undergoes storage, grinding, and digestion, turning it into a chyme-like substance before being discharged into the intestines. If you chew poorly and wolf down your food, the food will be coarse, increasing the burden on the stomach and prolonging its stay time, which can damage the gastric mucosa. Additionally, chewing slowly increases saliva secretion, which reduces stomach acid and bile secretion, helping to protect the stomach.
V. Avoid coffee and strong tea
Coffee and strong tea are central nervous system stimulants that can cause gastric mucosal ischemia through reflexes, destroying the protective function of the gastric mucosa and promoting ulcer formation.
VI. Avoid excessive drinking
Alcohol itself can directly damage the gastric mucosa. Alcohol can also cause cirrhosis and chronic pancreatitis, which in turn worsens stomach damage.
VII. Avoid smoking addiction
Smoking can cause vasoconstriction of the gastric mucosa and reduce the synthesis of prostaglandins, which are mucosal protective factors. Smoking can also stimulate the secretion of stomach acid and pepsin, aggravating the damage to the mucosa.
VIII. Avoid滥用药物
Drugs that can easily damage the gastric mucosa are mainly three types: 1) Acetylsalicylic acid drugs, such as aspirin; 2) Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs such as phenylbutazone, indomethacin, and ibuprofen; 3) Hormone drugs such as corticosteroids. Therefore, the use of these drugs should be avoided as much as possible. If they must be taken, the dosage and course of treatment should be controlled, and it is best to take them after meals.
Mountain medicine corn scrawny soup