With the arrival of an era of abundant warmth, people are consuming more calories while expending fewer. The excess calories accumulate in the body, leading to chronic obesity. To prevent obesity, it is crucial to maintain a reasonable diet and reduce caloric intake.
In terms of diet, it is advisable to select foods and medicinal substances that tonify Qi and strengthen the spleen, transform phlegm, and eliminate dampness, which have certain weight loss effects, such as Bai Zhu (White Atractylodes), Dang Shen (Codonopsis), Fu Ling (Poria), Huang Qi (Astragalus), duck meat, carp, eel, Chen Pi (Dried Tangerine Peel), and Yi Ren (Job’s Tears). It is important to limit salt, spicy foods, and sweets, while increasing the intake of fiber-rich foods.
The recommended dietary therapy recipes are as follows:
Huang Dou (Yellow Soybean) Porridge
50 grams of yellow soybeans and 100 grams of rice.
Remove the shells from the yellow soybeans, and cook them with rice until soft, then season to taste.
Qing Dou (Green Pea) Porridge
50 grams of green peas and 100 grams of rice.
In a cleaned pot, add an appropriate amount of water, cook until soft, and season to taste.
Chi Dou (Red Bean) Porridge
100 grams each of red beans, brown sugar, and glutinous rice, and 6 grams each of osmanthus sugar and rose sugar.
Soak the red beans and glutinous rice overnight, wash them, place them in a pot, add an appropriate amount of water, and cook until soft. Then add brown sugar, osmanthus sugar, and rose sugar, mix well, and consume in portions.
Shan Zha (Hawthorn) Tea
10 fresh hawthorn berries (or dried hawthorn) and 10 grams of white sugar.
Mash the fresh hawthorn and mix with sugar, add an appropriate amount of water, boil for 10 minutes, strain the juice to drink as tea, and consume regularly.
Dong Gua (Winter Melon) Porridge
150 grams of fresh winter melon, 100 grams of rice, and a little oil and salt.
Wash the winter melon, peel it, cut it into small pieces, and cook it with rice in an appropriate amount of water until it becomes a thin porridge. Add oil and salt to taste, and consume in the morning and evening.
Selected from “Family Medicine”
2017 Issue 5, Page 40
(Dang Gui, Wang You)