What happens if you eat hot and cold food alternately

The health of diet has always been a concern of everyone. In fact, food is mainly nutritious, which is not only good for the body in all aspects. The weather is very cold in winter, so everyone likes to eat something hot. However, the different eating habits in some areas lead to many people habitually drinking cold drinks while eating hot things, which will cause great harm to the stomach and intestines over time.

90% of clinical cases are caused by stomach cold and dampness

Stomachache is a common problem, but there are many causes of stomachache, among which eating habits are the main cause of stomach problems.

Chinese medicine treats stomach pain differently from Western medicine. Chinese medicine divides stomach discomfort into stomach cold and stomach heat. Zhang Lei, who has qualifications in both Chinese medicine and Western medicine, said that stomach problems are quite common in Singapore, with stomach cold and dampness accounting for the majority. According to his clinical experience, this type of patients accounts for about 90%. The most obvious symptom of people with stomach cold and dampness is greasy white tongue coating, that is, the tongue coating is white and thick and not easy to scrape off.

How to Treat Stomach Pain in Traditional Chinese Medicine

Doctor Zhang Lei said: "Stomach pain is a common disease among spleen and stomach system diseases in traditional Chinese medicine. Traditional Chinese medicine also calls it epigastric pain, which refers to pain in the upper abdomen. In modern medicine, diseases such as gastric ulcer, duodenal ulcer, chronic gastritis, gastric ptosis, gastric neurosis and gastric mucosal prolapse all fall into the category of epigastric pain in traditional Chinese medicine."

The main cause of stomach cold and dampness is related to eating habits, such as irregular diet and preference for eating raw and cold food. Singaporeans generally like to drink an iced drink while dining. This can often be seen in coffee shops and hawker centres. Many Singaporeans eat a bowl of hot food, or spicy food like curry fish head, or other foods with coconut milk while drinking a cold drink. They often eat hot and cold foods together, which can cause stomach cold and dampness over time.

In addition, modern people's fast pace of life, mental stress, and irregular diet have caused the incidence of spleen and stomach diseases to become increasingly high.

For the treatment of stomachache, Chinese medicine uses "regulating qi and relieving pain" as a common clinical method. However, further examination of the cause is required, mainly to distinguish whether it is caused by obstruction of pathogenic factors (cold, heat, food stagnation, etc.) or by organ disorder (liver qi stagnation, spleen and stomach weakness); whether the disease is in the liver or in the spleen and stomach; whether it is a real syndrome (pathogenic obstruction, liver depression, liver fire) or a virtual syndrome (spleen and stomach yang deficiency or stomach yin deficiency); whether it is still qi stagnation or has become blood stasis, etc. for example:

--Stomach pain is manifested as acute onset, fear of cold and preference for warmth, pain is relieved by local hot compress, it is caused by cold.

Treatment method: Use Liangfu Pills with modifications to dispel cold and relieve pain. For mild cases, local hot compress or ginger soup or pig stomach soup can relieve the pain.

--Stomach distension, even pain, belching, acid regurgitation, vomiting of undigested food, pain relieved after vomiting, thick and greasy tongue coating. It is food accumulation.

Treatment method: Use Baohe Pills with modifications to help digestion and relieve stagnation.

--Stomach bloating, pain extending to the flanks, and belching are symptoms of qi stagnation, and are mostly chronic pains.

Treatment method: Soothe the liver and regulate qi with Chaihu Shugan San with modifications.

--If symptoms include continuous stomach pain, preference for warmth and pressure, loss of appetite, fatigue, and pale tongue, it is mostly due to deficiency and cold.

Treatment method: Warm the middle and dispel cold. Use Huangqi Jianzhong Decoction with modifications.