General Dietary Restraints and Taboos

The food and beverage we consume daily - whether it is of hot or cold properties - should be chosen according to a person's constitution and condition. Inappropriate intake will lead to extreme energy excess inside the body and disturb the yin yang balance. The Chinese have a long history in dietary practice and have accumulated much experience in taboos. Some of the common contraindications are summarized below.

General food and food incompatibilities

Adverse effects result from these combinations which give rise to an accumulation of wind evils, relapse of disease, skin sores or even stagnation of qi (vital energy).

Dietary restraint in certain health conditions

A basic principle in TCM is that when a person suffers from a certain disorder or takes medication, he should avoid certain foods. For example, a person suffering from generalized body swelling should refrain from salty food, and a person suffering from diarrhea should avoid a greasy diet. It refers to two aspects:

Certain kinds of illnesses mean certain foods should be refrained from. For example, if suffering from:
	Liver disorder, avoid pungent and hot food
	Heart disorder, avoid salty food
	Edema (generalized body swelling), avoid salt
	Bone disease, avoid sour and sweet food
	Gall bladder disease, avoid greasy and oily food
	Cold-related disease, avoid fruits and vegetables
	Skin sores and furuncle, avoid fish and shrimp
	Dizziness and insomnia, avoid pepper, chilli pepper and tea.
According to TCM diagnosis, when an individuals has particular disharmony patterns certain foods should be avoided. For example:
	Pungent and hot food such as ginger, chilli pepper and mutton should be avoided by heat syndrome patients. TCM heat syndrome appears in yin deficiency, phlegm and fire accumulation, or body fluid depletion conditions.
	Foods that arouse wind evils and activate qi (vital energy) such as mustard, garlic, crab and egg should be avoided by patients suffering from invasion of exogenous evils, or recovered from throat and eye illness or skin problems.
	Dampness and heat-accumulated patients should avoid maltose, pork, rice wine, cheese and yogurt baked cakes. These foods promote dampness and heat production inside the body.
	Patients with asthenia syndromes caused by spleen deficiency, major disease or labor, should avoid cold or cool food such as watermelon, plum, crab and clam.
	Pregnant women, or patients suffering from blood disorder or hemorrhoids, should avoid pepper, black soy bean, chestnut, sweet basil or wine. These foods promote blood circulation and cause adverse effects.

Many of the dietary restraints or food taboos have also been adopted by Western medicine. The basic principles of nutrition represented in this article are a good reference for our daily life

References