Chinese medicine believes that essence, qi and spirit are the three treasures of the human body, and essence, qi and spirit are all signs of human health. On the contrary, deficiency of essence, qi deficiency and fear of god are the harbingers of disease and aging.
Food such as replenishing essence.
Traditional Chinese medicine believes that essence comes from two sources. One is the innate essence of genetic material, which plays the role of "the root of life"; The other is the acquired essence, which consists of the nutrients of food metaplasia and the essence of breathing nature. It plays a role in supplementing nutrition and maintaining human life activities. There are many ways to nourish sperm, which can be roughly divided into (abstinence) preserving sperm and (tonifying kidney and enriching blood) filling sperm. There is a saying that "those who gain food prosper, those who lose food die." It can be seen that it is very important to eat what supplements the essence.
In food, or in traditional Chinese medicine for both medicine and food, which one has the function of replenishing essence? Because "essence is hidden in the kidney" and "essence and blood are homologous", foods such as tonifying kidney and blood can directly or indirectly supplement essence. Shrimp and other foods: Chinese medicine believes that it is sweet, salty and warm, and has the functions of strengthening yang, tonifying kidney, replenishing essence and promoting lactation. Another example is Misgurnus anguillicaudatus, which is sweet in taste and flat in nature, and has the effects of invigorating the middle energizer, nourishing the kidney and producing sperm. There are also donkey meat, oysters, eggs, leeks, etc. Lycium barbarum, black sesame, black bean, yam, walnut, lychee, Euryale euryale seed, lotus seed, jujube and other dual-purpose Chinese medicines. Eating more of these foods is conducive to prolonging life and strengthening the body. As for the eating method, it can be based on the characteristics of food, such as tea (such as wolfberry tea and jujube tea), vegetables (fried yam) and porridge (lotus seed porridge). ). It should be noted that replenishing essence in Chinese medicine is not completely equal to replenishing essence.
Supplementing qi and other foods
Traditional Chinese medicine divides qi into vitality, defensive qi, ancestral qi and nourishing qi. Among them, vitality is the fundamental energy of human life activities, but the key to protection and nourishment lies in. Li Dongyuan believes that the spleen and stomach are the foundation of life, the stomach is the "granary", the spleen governs transportation and transformation, and one dirty part is the foundation of the day after tomorrow, which can biochemical qi and blood and nourish all bones in limbs. Therefore, to protect and nourish the vitality, we must first protect the spleen and stomach, so as to ensure that the spleen and stomach are not harmed, and secondly, we must pay attention to diet, so as to achieve reasonable nutrition and nourish the body. It can be seen that eating some foods that strengthen the spleen and traditional Chinese medicine that tonify qi is beneficial to health and longevity for qi deficiency or the elderly.
Common foods for invigorating spleen, promoting digestion and benefiting qi are: porridge (nourishing stomach), Chinese cabbage (nourishing spleen and stomach), spinach (moistening dryness and nourishing liver, benefiting stomach and intestines, relaxing bowels), apple (nourishing spleen and stomach), sweet potato (nourishing spleen and benefiting qi), pumpkin (nourishing middle jiao), carrot (nourishing spleen and diaphragm, moistening stomach) and potato. Traditional Chinese medicines with the same origin of medicine and food are: hawthorn, malt, millet sprout, endothelium corneum Gigeriae Galli, yam, white lentils, jujube, honey and so on.
Food such as calming the nerves
The so-called spiritual cultivation mainly refers to paying attention to mental health. In other words, if people only pay attention to strengthening nutrition and don't know how to recuperate, it is difficult to live a long and healthy life. The pace of modern life is very fast, and stress should pay more attention to nourishing the soul. The methods of sustenance are: rest, sustenance, entertainment, eye closure, holding your breath, confusion, adapting to the four seasons and so on. In addition, eating some foods with calming effects is helpful for sleeping and nourishing the heart.
Common foods that help to soothe the nerves are: apples can cure spleen deficiency and excessive fire, tonify the middle energizer and replenish qi, and have a good effect on insomnia caused by deficiency of both heart and spleen, yin deficiency and excessive fire, disharmony between liver and gallbladder or gastrointestinal disharmony. Put a peeled or cut citrus on the bedside table and smell its fragrant smell, which can calm the central nervous system and help you fall asleep. Litchi tastes sweet and slightly sour, and its nature is warm. Compendium of Materia Medica claims that it can "soothe the nerves, improve intelligence and benefit qi". Jujube (for insomnia due to qi deficiency: only 30-60g of jujube is used, and a little sugar is added for decoction, which is taken before going to bed every night), longan (for insomnia due to blood deficiency, 9g of longan meat, 9g of Ziziphus jujuba seed, 0/5g of Gordon Euryale seed/kloc-0), walnut (for insomnia due to neurasthenia, eat some walnuts or walnut jujube every morning and evening). Ziziphus jujuba seeds and lotus seeds also help sleep.
What needs to be emphasized is that we should pay attention to syndrome differentiation and not overdo it when eating foods such as replenishing essence, invigorating qi and calming the nerves, especially Chinese medicine.