When the year-end festive season comes around, it’s hard to avoid the inevitable feast of rich, greasy, and meaty dishes. However, this season of excessive indulgence can be harmful to your health. Uncontrolled bingeing may cause bloating and indigestion.
Here are a few tips to survive the New Year binge:
Firstly, try massaging the zusanli acupoint to improve digestion and relieve bloating.
The zusanli acupoint is particularly effective for strengthening the immune system and treating digestive problems. These benefits have been validated by modern scientific studies of the acupoint using acupuncture.
The zusanli point lies along the stomach meridian. It is located about four-finger widths below the knee-cap, and one-finger width outwards from the bony ridge of the shin bone.
Alternatively, drinking roasted barley tea can improve digestion and whet the appetite. According to traditional Chinese medicine, malt barley aids digestion and is beneficial for the spleen and stomach.
Roasted Barley Tea Recipe
Ingredients:
– 15 grams of malt barley
– 2.5 grams of hawthorn berries
– Chinese rock sugar
Instructions:
1) Toast malt barley in a large skillet over medium heat, or in an oven for 20 minutes at 350°F. The barley should be a rich medium brown after toasting.
2) Combine roasted barley, hawthorn berries and Chinese rock sugar in a pot.
3) Bring the ingredients to a boil, and simmer for 20 minutes. Serve hot.
Besides roasted barley tea, consuming radish after a heavy meal can relieve intestinal gas and bloating.
For home-cooked dishes, try adding tangerine peel, hawthorn berries, barley, or shen qu (Massa fermentata or medicated leaven) to the dishes. These ancient traditional Chinese herbs are said to cure indigestion.
Keep these tips in mind to survive the festive period!
Dr Hu Naiwen
Dr Hu Naiwen is a traditional Chinese physician at the Shanghai Tong De Chinese Medicine Hall in Taipei City with over 30 years of clinical experience in traditional Chinese medicine.
He is the first Chinese physician and the fifth person in the world to cure a patient’s maxillofacial melanoma. He has also used traditional Chinese methods to help patients with bleeding in the brain to recover within minutes.
Currently, Dr Hu runs his own health programme on NTD Television, the largest global Chinese television station, and has a special column and hotline on Sound of Hope Radio Station. Dr Hu has also travelled around the world to deliver speeches introducing Chinese medicine to a wide audience.
His motto is, “To prevent diseases before they happen; to recover quickly without taking large quantities of drugs should diseases happen.”
