3 Dietary Habits That Are Harmful to Diabetics
Introduction: For diabetic patients, poor dietary habits can truly be harmful to their health.
Why are more and more people's physical constitutions deteriorating nowadays? Why are diseases so easy to invade our bodies? A major reason is that our own diet is unhealthy, unscientific, and unreasonable. This is especially true for diabetic patients, as poor dietary habits can truly be harmful to their health.
1. Qi Stagnation Constitution: Most Afraid of Skipping Breakfast
Skipping breakfast affects the function of the liver and gallbladder, Fu Yingjie says. The plan for the day starts in the morning. Every morning, the gallbladder is full of bile, ready to be deployed to prepare for digesting breakfast. However, many people remain inactive and skip breakfast. With no food in the stomach, bile excretion is inevitably affected. The liver and gallbladder govern the smooth flow of Qi. Whether the Qi flows smoothly, digestion is good, bowel movements are regular, and emotions are upbeat are all related to the functional state of the liver and gallbladder. If bile cannot be excreted when it should, it will seriously affect the liver and gallbladder's ability to dredge and promote the smooth flow of Qi, promoting or worsening a Qi stagnation constitution. This, in turn, affects the spleen and stomach's transportation and transformation, giving rise to phlegm-dampness, leading to a situation where the more one skips breakfast, the more prone they are to obesity.
Warm Reminder: Individuals with a Qi stagnation constitution have a latent tendency for Qi to be stagnant and unsmooth. They should choose foods that regulate Qi and resolve depression, and regulate the spleen and stomach, such as barley, buckwheat, mushrooms, fermented black beans, bitter melon, radish, onion, and chrysanthemum. They should consume less astringent and sour foods, such as pumpkin, pomegranate, strawberries, starfruit, sour jujube, and lemon. It is also inadvisable to consume too many cold foods and beverages.
2. Yang Deficiency or Blood Stasis Constitution: Most Afraid of Frequently Eating Cold and Raw Foods
The popularization of refrigerators has led many people to develop the habit of eating frozen foods or drinking iced beverages. Fu Yingjie believes that the spleen and stomach digest food with their Yang energy, and frozen and cold foods are most damaging to the spleen and stomach, harming the Yang energy. Blood vessels prefer warmth and dislike cold; they flow when warm and constrict when cold. Therefore, frozen and cold diets also affect blood circulation. Long-term damage to Yang energy inevitably leads to Yang deficiency. If blood vessels are frequently blocked, blood stasis will occur. Those who overindulge in frozen and cold foods, especially women, often have a constitution that is a mix of Yang deficiency and blood stasis.
Warm Reminder: Individuals with a Yang deficiency constitution are often tired and fear cold. They should tonify with warming foods and avoid cooling foods. They should avoid eating raw and cold-natured foods and can eat more warming-natured foods. For example: lychee, durian, cherries, red dates, walnuts, cashews, ginger, chives, chili, pumpkin, carrots, yam, soybean sprouts, lamb, beef, dog meat, and chicken. Individuals with a blood stasis constitution have slow and unsmooth blood flow. They can often eat foods that invigorate blood and dispel stasis, such as peach kernels, rapeseed, and black soybeans. They can drink a small amount of alcohol regularly, eat more vinegar, and also find buckwheat porridge or peanut porridge quite suitable.
3. Phlegm-Dampness or Qi Deficiency Constitution: Most Afraid of Nutritional Excess and Late-Night Snacking
Fu Yingjie explains that for a person, long-term nutritional excess and overeating will most obviously lead to a phlegm-dampness constitution. Nutritional excess has two types: absolute and relative. Absolute excess means the food is too delicious, so one eats a lot. Relative excess means that while the total amount may not seem large, it is excessive in relation to calorie expenditure and basal metabolic rate. For example, rich and greasy or finely processed foods are usually fragrant, visually appealing, and high in calories. Although they are delicious, eating too much affects the spleen and stomach.
The spleen and stomach have limited digestive capacity. When too much food is consumed, the勉强 (勉强 -勉强ly) processed food is like a semi-finished product. This semi-finished product is not easily utilized by the body and thus easily forms phlegm-dampness. This phlegm-dampness under the skin can easily lead to obesity, in the blood it manifests as high blood lipids, and in the liver it becomes fatty liver. Furthermore, Yang energy is stored and rests at night. It should not be mobilized to digest food. If one often eats late-night snacks, it will damage the Yang energy and promote a phlegm-dampness constitution.
Warm Reminder: People with a phlegm-dampness constitution are often overweight, feel heavy and tire easily, and are prone to diabetes, stroke, and cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases. Daily diet should be light-based, and one should eat until about 70-80% full at each meal. Alcohol consumption should be limited, and more vegetables and fruits should be eaten, especially those that strengthen the spleen to drain dampness, and ventilate the lungs to expel phlegm, such as radish, seaweed, Job's tears, winter melon, red beans, and hyacinth beans. Sweet, sticky, and greasy foods should be eaten less. Individuals with a Qi deficiency constitution may be lean or slightly overweight, feel tired and weak, and have a pale complexion. They can often eat japonica rice, glutinous rice, millet, yam, potatoes, red dates, mushrooms, tofu, chicken, beef, and dog meat.