Can drinking ice water help you lose weight? Or become obese? Wu Mingzhu: Menstrual pain and constipation have four major disadvantages that cannot be avoided

Eating ice and drinking ice water in summer can make you feel cool, but do you still believe that "drinking ice water can promote metabolism, help slim down your belly, and achieve weight loss effects"? Chinese medicine practitioners say that eating too much ice cream can not only damage the stomach and intestines, cause constipation, and menstrual pain, but it can also easily lead to spleen and kidney yang deficiency, and the inability to transport water and moisture, which can lead to obesity due to the accumulation of moisture.

Can drinking ice water help you lose weight? Or become obese? Traditional Chinese Medicine: 4 major disadvantages you can’t avoid

After drinking ice water, the body temperature will slowly increase the temperature of the ice water, and even reach the same temperature as the body. This process requires energy and will naturally increase metabolism. However, it is only a temporary increase in metabolism, because it stops when it reaches body temperature. Unexpectedly, the outside world magnified this short-term effect and interpreted it as: drinking ice water can help lose weight. In fact, it was a "beautiful mistake".

What effects does long-term consumption of ice and drinking ice water have on human health? What does traditional Chinese medicine think? Is it possible to lose weight? Or will you become obese? Chinese medicine practitioner Wu Mingzhu said that Chinese medicine believes that "the stomach likes warmth, not cold", and "the kidneys also like warmth, not cold". Cold food is very harmful to the stomach. The body's qi and blood, as well as the nutrients from grains, are absorbed and transported by the spleen and stomach; the body's metabolic toxins are eliminated by the kidneys, so it is very important to protect the spleen, stomach and kidneys.

Disadvantage 1: Eating ice can cause dampness inside and outside, affecting digestion and stimulating gastrointestinal discomfort

But modern people like to stay up late, stay up late, and don't like to exercise, which makes their spleen and stomach increasingly weak. The direct consequence of this is that the spleen's transportation and transformation functions are affected, and water and moisture accumulate in the body, forming internal dampness. People with internal dampness will easily suffer from physical discomfort once they encounter an environment with high humidity.

For people with internal dampness, drinking a lot of ice water can easily cause constriction of blood vessels in the gastric mucosa, affecting digestion, irritating the gastrointestinal tract, accelerating gastrointestinal motility, and even causing intestinal cramps, leading to abdominal pain and diarrhea. Therefore, it is not recommended to drink large amounts of ice water for a long time to avoid gastrointestinal dysfunction. Generally, patients need to avoid overly cool or cold foods. Eating cold foods for a long time will definitely cause gastrointestinal problems.

Disadvantage 2: Drinking cold drinks can cause cold stomach and slow intestinal peristalsis, which can lead to constipation and obesity

There is a term in Traditional Chinese Medicine called "cold accumulation". Nowadays, people can eat cold drinks all year round, and the spleen and stomach functions are easily affected by cold evil, which accumulates in the intestines and stomach, slows down gastrointestinal motility, and will cause constipation over time. Moreover, cold foods can easily damage the body's yang energy and lead to yang deficiency; cold phlegm stagnation, water accumulation, and blood stagnation will occur, which is of course more likely to cause abdominal or digestive system disorders, and even cause obesity. Therefore, it is not suitable for long-term consumption.

After drinking a large amount of ice water, the pores all over the body will automatically shrink and close, and the body will not be able to sweat smoothly. The heat dissipation effect is reduced and the accumulated fat will increase greatly, especially the visceral fat; so when you eat too much ice, it will damage the stomach, kidneys, lungs and other internal organs, and cause a low metabolism.

Disadvantage 3: For patients with hypertension or coronary heart disease, drinking a lot of cold drinks after exercise may induce heart disease

Chinese medicine practitioner Wu Mingzhu said that if you drink a lot of cold drinks after strenuous exercise, it is more likely to induce cardiovascular disease. For patients with hypertension, coronary heart disease and arteriosclerosis, if they consume a large amount of ice drinks after exercise, it will suddenly stimulate the gastrointestinal tract, cause blood vessels to constrict, and even easily induce cerebral hemorrhage.

Disadvantage 4: Eating too much during menstruation may cause the uterus to become cold, and you may suffer from amenorrhea and menstrual pain

As for women, if they still like to eat ice or drink ice water when their menstrual period comes, they should be careful as it may cause menstrual cramps. Chinese medicine practitioner Wu Mingzhu said that if you eat too much cold drinks, get caught in the rain, use air conditioning frequently, or wear belly-exposing clothes during your menstrual period, it is easy for the uterus to catch a cold, which in turn causes menstrual pain. When cold drinks enter the human stomach, the blood vessels in the female endometrium will also contract strongly, resulting in a sharp decrease in menstrual volume, and even amenorrhea and dysmenorrhea.

Eating ice and drinking ice water for a long time will cause excessive moisture in the body and lead to obesity

Traditional Chinese medicine has unexpectedly discovered that people who eat ice or drink ice water for a long time not only fail to lose weight, but are more likely to become obese due to excessive moisture, which is very troublesome. Because the spleen is the foundation of acquired constitution and the kidney is the foundation of innate constitution, they jointly dominate the body's yang energy and jointly complete the process of gasification and transportation of water and moisture. Eating too much ice cream can easily lead to spleen and kidney yang deficiency, and inability to transport water and moisture. The food and water you eat cannot be warmed and distributed, but instead turn into dampness and overflow into the skin, causing you to look fat. Fat people usually have more phlegm and dampness in their bodies, and are more susceptible to phlegm, stroke and other diseases, so there is a saying that "fat people have more phlegm". Chinese medicine doctor Wu Mingzhu recommends drinking "lotus leaf dehumidifying tea" to avoid moisture accumulation and cause obesity:

【Lotus Leaf Dehumidifying Tea】

Ingredients: half a fresh lotus leaf (cut into shreds), 2 qian of Atractylodes macrocephala, 2 qian of Patchouli, 2 qian of Cymbidium orientalis, and 1 qian of Licorice.

Method: Add the above ingredients to 800cc of water and boil for 20 minutes. Drink as tea.

Function: Clears the heart and relieves restlessness, strengthens the spleen, eliminates dampness and detoxifies.

In general, Chinese medicine aims to strengthen the spleen, eliminate dampness and turbidity, and avoid the accumulation of dampness that leads to obesity. Representative traditional Chinese medicine prescriptions include: Zexie Decoction, Ershu Siling Decoction, Fangji Huangqi Decoction, and Shenling Baizhu Powder combined with Qingxiao Drink.

Can drinking green tea or lotus leaf tea help you lose weight faster? Traditional Chinese Medicine: Not suitable for people with cold body

In order to lose weight in the summer, the media recently reported that some celebrities drank green tea and lotus leaf tea and lost weight quickly. What do Chinese medicine practitioners think? Chinese medicine practitioner Wu Mingzhu said that lotus leaves can clear the mind and relieve restlessness, strengthen the spleen, eliminate dampness and detoxify, and have the effect of relieving heat and dampness. They can be helpful for people with a damp constitution. Whether it is oolong tea, black tea or green tea, tea contains strong antioxidants that can neutralize free radicals in the body and help delay aging. Although green tea is beneficial, because it has not been fermented, it retains more fresh natural substances, such as tea polyphenols and caffeine, and it also contains high levels of chlorophyll, which can cause greater irritation to the gastrointestinal tract.

Therefore, green tea and lotus leaf tea are relatively cold in nature in traditional Chinese medicine, and are not particularly suitable for people with weak constitution, frail body, or older age. Generally speaking, taking lotus leaf tea or green tea to lose weight still needs to be done in moderation and should be targeted at specific physical conditions. It is not suitable for everyone.