Q: Dietary advice during treatment

For Chinese medicine, the adjustment of diet and lifestyle during treatment is of positive significance for treatment. However, clinically, foods that many people think are healthy are actually unhealthy or not suitable for particular health situations from the perspective of traditional Chinese medicine. Here is a brief list of some dietary considerations during treatment.

Generally speaking, during the treatment period, the diet should be relatively light, avoid overeating, avoid a lot of cold drinks, functional drinks, carbonated drinks, fried and other unhealthy foods, and stimulating foods such as chillies and alcohol.

In general, we do not recommend substituting milk, drinks, tea, coffee or alcohol for regular water intake; water intake should be sufficient to ensure that you do not feel thirsty and should not be consumed in large quantities.

If the patient is treated for cold/flu, meat and seafood should be avoided as much as possible.

If the patient has damp-heat, phlegm, allergies, skin issues and other problems, they should avoid milk, cheese, seafood, lamb, chicken, seafood, durian, leeks, longan, nuts, Pizza, burgers with fried meat, etc., which tend to produce phlegm or fire or are difficult to digest.

If the patient has Yang deficiency, poor spleen and stomach, and a chill feeling in the body, cold water, cold food, fruits and other cold and hard-to-digest foods should be avoided. Be sure to note that salads and juices are not healthy foods for such patients, and try to eat fully-cooked vegetables and meat.

For patients with weak heart function, coffee and tea are not recommended. Any food/drink with bitter taste are not recommended.

The above is just a general description, and doctors will have specific recommendations for different patients.