Mung Beans Counteract Medicine? Traditional Chinese Medicine and Mung Beans Are Not Enemies
Core Tip: When taking traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), can you eat mung beans? The answer is not a simple yes or no; it depends on the type of illness you have. For example, if you suffer from heat-related and excess syndromes such as heatstroke, sore throat, cough with yellow phlegm, mumps, dry mouth, bitter taste, skin infections, urinary tract infections, or constipation, drinking mung bean soup while taking TCM can double the effectiveness.
Most people may believe that mung beans counteract the effects of medicine and thus should not be eaten when taking TCM. In fact, whether you can eat mung beans while taking TCM depends on the nature of your illness (whether it is heat-cold, deficiency-excess) and the properties of the TCM being taken. It cannot be generalized. However, if you are unsure about your condition and the properties of the TCM, you should not take mung beans with your TCM without a doctor's permission.
As the temperature gradually rises, mung beans, known for their heat-clearing, detoxifying, summer-heat-relieving, and body-fluid-generating properties, are becoming increasingly popular. There are many ways to eat mung beans, and mung bean soup is a refreshing summer drink suitable for all ages. However, there is a folk saying that "you cannot eat mung beans when taking TCM, lest it counteract the medicine." As a result, those taking TCM tend to avoid mung beans. So, is there any truth to the saying that "mung beans counteract medicine"?
In fact, mung beans themselves are a type of traditional Chinese medicine with the effects of clearing heat and detoxifying, relieving summer heat and generating fluids, and promoting urination to reduce edema. According to the "Compendium of Materia Medica," "Mung beans have a sweet and cold nature, are non-toxic... they can counteract the poisons of all medicinal herbs, metals, and stones." This means that mung beans can neutralize the toxicity of metals, stones, arsenic, and various plant and animal poisons in medicines. Therefore, strictly speaking, mung beans counteract the toxicity in drugs and foods, not the medicinal effects themselves. Folk remedies also often use mung bean soup to treat drug or food poisoning. So, when taking TCM, can you eat mung beans?
The answer to this question cannot be generalized; it depends on the type of illness. For example, when suffering from heat-related and excess syndromes such as heatstroke, sore throat, cough with yellow phlegm, mumps, dry mouth, bitter taste, skin infections, urinary tract infections, or constipation, consuming mung bean soup (congee) or mung bean cakes while taking TCM can have a synergistic effect, achieving twice the result with half the effort.
Furthermore, the detoxifying effect of mung beans comes from the fact that their proteins, tannins, and flavonoids can bind with organophosphate pesticides, mercury, arsenic, and lead compounds to form precipitates, reducing or neutralizing their toxicity and making them less easily absorbed by the gastrointestinal tract. Therefore, patients with pesticide poisoning can drink mung bean soup or take ground raw mung bean powder with water while taking TCM to enhance the therapeutic effect. However, because mung beans are cold-natured, they are not beneficial for those with a weak spleen and stomach or a yang-deficient constitution. For instance, if you have deficiency-cold syndromes such as chronic gastroenteritis, cold pain, numbness, or difficulty in movement in the limbs and joints, abdominal pain, diarrhea, or dysmenorrhea, you should avoid eating mung beans while being treated with TCM. Otherwise, it will not only reduce the efficacy of the TCM but also worsen the condition.
Whether you can take mung beans while on TCM also depends on the properties of the TCM itself. When taking heat-clearing herbs such as Coptis, Scutellaria, Phellodendron, Isatis, Banlangen, Calculus Bovis, Honeysuckle, or Gypsum, you can take them with mung beans, as they can work synergistically. However, when taking warm-tonifying herbs such as Ginseng, Astragalus, Cinnamon, Aconite, Clove, or Galangal, or warm-channel-dispelling-cold herbs such as Ramulus Cinnamomi, Dried Ginger, or Asarum, you should not take mung beans without a doctor's permission, as it may reduce the drug's efficacy and affect the treatment outcome.