If you want to fight fat the TCM way, you should eat
foods to promote a healthy spleen — like Chinese pearl barley, known as Job's
tears — and drink lots of Pu'er tea. Both are also diuretics. A sun top, miniskirt and high-heel sandals - that's
the outfit that catches men's attention and other girls' envy on the streets in
summer. In order to show off their figures in skimpy clothes, girls started
their weight-loss battles months ago, but it's never too late to lose
weight. Drinking slimming tea (a laxative), staying on a
diet, and going to the gym frequently are widely used weight-loss methods. But
eating certain foods or being pierced by fine silver needles may also help you
to get rid of excessive weight. Most people believe that obesity results from eating
too much, which is certainly true in most cases. But it fails to explain why
some people gain weight even though they eat little and drink lots of water
while others keep slim though they eat a big dinner every day. "It is not simply the case that the more you eat, the
more weight you gain," says Dr Zhang Zhongyi, deputy director of the Acupuncture
Department of Yueyang Western and Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital.
"Whether your stomach and spleen work well plays a much more important
role." According to traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), the
spleen, together with the stomach, digest and absorb nutrients (the spleen
function in TCM differs from that in Western medicine). TCM holds that the
spleen is responsible for sending the nutrients from the stomach to all the
organs, and also for expelling excessive body fluid. If the spleen doesn't
function well, excessive body fluid will collect and turn into fat. Fat not only collects on muscles, destroying a nice
figure, but also on organs and in the blood, which can cause health
problems. Fatty liver is common among fat people and can lead
to cirrhosis if patients fail to correct their diet. Links are also found
between obesity and the "three highs" (hypertension, high blood cholesterol and
high blood sugar), which may contribute to cerebral vascular disease. "The function of the organs, including the spleen,
declines with aging. That's why most middle-aged and old people find themselves
gaining weight easily," says Dr Zhang. "As for young people, unhealthy eating
habits may cause malfunction of the stomach and spleen and leads to fat
collection." Not eating regular meals, but having continuous
between-meal nibbles, according to Dr Zhang, is a bad diet habit that causes a
weight problem among many young ladies. Besides, sitting all day long and not
getting regular physical exercise can also lead to body fluid accumulation,
which is typical among office ladies. Dr Zhang suggests taking a five- to 10-minute break
every hour, relaxing, doing some exercises and eating foods that are good for
the spleen and are diuretics as well, such as Pu'er tea. If these methods can't help you reach your ideal
figure, you may try acupuncture therapy. It will help improve the function of
stomach and spleen, and reduce the appetite by piercing fine needles into
certain acupoints. "Acupuncture works well in reducing excessive weight,
yet doesn't seem so effective when girls of normal weight insist on losing
more," says Dr Zhang, "especially when some girls only want their legs
slimmer." Dr Zhang says that generally the normal weight for a
man is his height minus 100, while that for a woman is her height minus 105.
People weighing five kilograms more or less are all within the normal
range. The ingredients listed in the recipes below are
available at major supermarkets, such as Carrefour, City Market, Hualian
Supermarket and Lianhua. Herbal teas Chen Pi tea (Tangerine
peel) Function: Improves spleen and liver function; expels
toxins and fluids (diuretic).
One of the dishes should be
eaten once a day.
Portion: 4 grams chen pi
Pu'er tea
Portion: 10 grams Pu'er tea
Function: Aids
digestion, expels fat, diuretic, laxative.
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