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Which eating habit is easy to cause diarrhea, Chinese or Western?
June 28, 2011

Dear,

Which eating habit is easy to cause diarrhea, Chinese or Western?

- Observations from an American living in China

An American gentleman has lived in China for more than three years. At the beginning he was curious. Why the Chinese restaurants look dirty but eating there seldom cause diarrhea?

He observed that there are no fridges in farmer markets. Meat and vegetables are littered without proper packages. In small restaurants, no clean decoration; the cookware and the knife are old; the chef cut the meat and vegetables at the same chopping board.

He also observed that Chinese people never eat or pick up food by hands. They even use chopstick to pick peanuts. When you buy roasted chicken/duck, the vendor will give you a pair of plastic gloves so that your hands won't touch the food.

Chinese people seldom eat raw food including vegetables. When the dishes are sent to your desk, most of them are fully cooked and hot. The meat is cut into small pieces in the kitchen, and are fully cooked back and forth in the wok. more over , Chinese people drink cooked water. While in western countries, the meat is cooked in big block. The customers cut it themselves when eating. But it may be still in raw inside the meat.

He said he only got diarrhea one time because of eating for these three years in China. But he got diarrhea at least once or twice a year when he was in the states.

So he got a conclusion to prevent diarrhea: 

a. Avoid touching food by hands. Everyone knows that there are lots of bacteria on our hands. No one can guarantee we can wash away all of them.

b. Eat cooked food and drink cooked water. Stir fried cooking maybe better than cooking in oven. Food is constantly stirred, so each part is fully cooked. Nothing can kill the bacteria more than the fire.

c. We western maybe over  sterilization.

How do you think his observation? I think, at least, we shouldn't pick up food by hands. When the kids pick up food by hands, Chinese parents always alert "Dirty! Use your teaspoon"

 

Sincerely

Anna



 

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June. 28,2011

Issue #28

Table of Content:

1. Causes of disease: Pathogenic factors in TCM(I)

Causes of disease in TCM: 6 abnormal climatic factors, 7 emotions, improper diet, over strain,etc., secondary pathogenic factors.

2. How to drink tea right

To drink tea right, firstly you should know the tea's property, cold or warm nature.

If you have heat inside your body, you should drink tea with cold nature.

If you always feel cold, or feel stomach cold pain, then black tea or dark tea is your good choice.

See more details......

3.The best food in Summer

The best drink, best fruit, best congee in summer? Which is the best food to prevent UV radiation?

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4. The Best Green Tea: Longjing (Dragon well) Tea available now

As promised to some friends, I visited the plantation of Longjing village, in which the world's best green tea is planted there. That's a wonderful beautiful place......

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1.Causes of disease: Pathogenic factors in TCM(I)

Causes of disease refer to various pathogenic factors. In TCM they are classified into four categories:

a. Exogenous pathogenic factors:

  •    6 climatic factors: pathogenic wind, cold, summer-heat, dampness, dryness, heat (fire);
  •    pestilence

b. Endogenous pathogenic factors:

  •    7 emotions: joy, anger, anxiety, contemplation, grief, fear, terror;
  •    improper diet: starvation and overeating, unhygienic food, food partiality-partiality to cold or hot food, partiality to the flavors;
  •    overstrain: overwork, over-rest.

c. Secondary pathogenic factors:

  •    Phlegm and rheum
  •    Blood stasis

d. Other pathogenic factors:

   Various traumatic injuries: injuries due to physical and chemical factors, injuries caused by insects and animals.

We'll discuss these in the following issues.

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2. How to drink tea right

Last winter I saw a video from ABC news. It was a health program. The so called "twin dieticians" were introducing how to prevent cold. One method is to drink hot tea. The host asked them " green tea or black tea?" They answered both (could warm up you).

That's not correct.

Green tea is cold nature, which means it has cold energy. If you drink hot green tea, the heat will fade quickly while the green tea's cold energy begins to cool off your body. So the more you drink green tea, the more you feel cold in winter. The danger is that if you are in menses period and drink strong green tea, you'll produce lots of blood blocks.

To drink tea right, firstly you should know the tea's property, cold or warm nature.

Below is the property of typical Chinese teas you can find in the market.

Green tea: cold nature. Clearing away heat, removing fat. Anti-aging, preventing cardiovascular disease and cancer. lowering bad cholesterol. Allaying inflammation, etc..

Jasmine tea: cold nature. Almost the same as green tea with Jasmine fragrance.

Black tea: warm nature. Protecting stomach. Removing fat. Promoting urination and production of body fluid. Eliminating inflammation. Detoxification.

Oolong tea: neutral, a little cold. Reducing blood lipid. Anti-aging, anti-cancer.

Chrysanthemum tea: Cold, clear away liver heat.

Dark tea, including Pu'er tea: Warm nature. Removing fat on the abdomen.

Secondly, you should know yourself.

If you have heat inside your body, you should drink tea with cold nature.

If you always feel cold, or feel stomach cold pain, then black tea or dark tea is your good choice.

If you feel angry, or hot in eyes, or vertigo, dizzy, or head stuffy, drinking Chrysanthemum will help you to reduce these symptoms.

If you have big belly you should drink more dark tea.

Anyone can drink oolong tea except woman in her menses period.

Please check here for more about tea:

http://www.healthy-chinese-recipe.com/lose-weight-food-tea.html

 

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3. The best food in Summer

a. Best Drink: Green Tea.

From TCM view, green tea is cold nature. It clears away heat, cooling down your body.(Hot green tea is best).

The green tea leaves contain potassium, so it relieves thirst as well as tiredness.

Studies show that drinking tea can reduce one-third of skin damage caused by sun exposure such as sunburn, slack or rough.

b. Best Fruit: Watermelon.

Watermelon clears away pathogenic heat and promotes urination. It can be an assistant treatment for any diseases caused by summer heat such as heatstroke, thirst, vexation, etc..

c. Best food that prevents UV radiation : Tomato.

Taking 40g tomato sauce or equivalent fresh tomato can reduce 40% risk of skin damage. Scientists think it's the lycoypene who plays the role.

d. Best Congee: Mungbean Congee.

Mungbean can purge summer heat and remove toxin. Always drinking mungbean soup can prevent cancer and reduce high blood pressure.

e. Best food that removes dampness: Job's Tears (Chinese pearl barley: Yi Ren).

In deep summer, especially in southern part of the world, the weather is heat and humid, plus the function of our spleen becomes very weak, many people have dampness retention in the body. The symptom is : stuffy headache, sleepy, especially after a meal. Eating job's Tears soup can relieve this symptom.

 

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4. The Best Green Tea: Longjing (Dragon well) Tea available now

As promised to some friends, I visited the plantation of Longjing village in March, in which the world's best green tea is planted there. I collected some Longjing teas and setup relationships with local tea farmers. Usually tea farmers in Longjing area pick tea before April 4. (After this day it becomes warm, bugs begin to appear and pesticide will be used.) They will run out of tea stock end of August.

Longjing village already existed for more than one thousand years. There are more than 800 people and 800 acres tea gardens in the village. The two mountains in northwest of the village prevent the cold wind while the brook in the south goes into the river. All these provide a unique environment to tea growth. No wonder Longjing tea was treated as tribute tea in ancient China. That's a very beautiful place! Take a look at the pictures here

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Hi, ,any suggestion,idea to my newsletter? Welcome and appreciate

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