Mung bean soup is not suitable for the elderly and children
Mung beans are not only a food but also a traditional Chinese medicine. Mung beans are cool in nature and sweet in taste, with effects of clearing heat and detoxifying, relieving summer heat and restlessness, quenching thirst, and strengthening the stomach. As it is now the hot summer season, people enjoy boiling mung bean soup to drink. But is mung bean soup suitable for everyone? Professor Hu Weiqin says that because mung beans are cool in nature, some people are not suitable for consuming them.
From the perspective of diet therapy, the natural properties of food, such as being warm, hot, cold, or cool, must be consistent with the physical constitution of the consumer to have a health-preserving effect. Therefore, for every food, some people are suitable for it, while others are not. For example, some people who are not suitable for consuming mung bean soup have consumed it at an inappropriate time, leading to their bodies becoming increasingly weak. This shows that while mung bean soup is good, it is not suitable for everyone. Hu Weiqin reminds that although mung bean soup has the effects of relieving summer heat and replenishing qi, moistening the throat and quenching thirst, the following groups of people are not suitable for consuming it.
1. People with a cold constitution (such as those with cold and weak limbs, cold pain in the waist and legs, or loose stools and diarrhea). Eating mung beans can actually worsen their symptoms and may even trigger other diseases.
2. People who are currently taking various medications. The detoxifying effect of mung beans comes from components like mung bean protein, which combine with organophosphates and heavy metals to form precipitates. However, these detoxifying components can also react with the active ingredients of medications, thereby reducing their efficacy.
3. The elderly, children, and people with a weak physique. Because the protein content in mung beans is even higher than that in chicken, large-molecule proteins need to be converted into small-molecule peptides and amino acids with the help of enzymes to be absorbed by the human body. The digestive function of the gastrointestinal tract in these people is relatively poor, making it difficult to digest mung bean protein in a short period of time, and they are prone to diarrhea due to indigestion. Therefore, these people are also not suitable for consuming mung bean soup.