Will drinking water make you fat? Are you a "puffy" person? Barley and winter melon seeds strengthen the spleen and remove dampness

Many obese people often complain that they actually eat very little and have been trying to lose weight. They don’t eat much staple food, but they are still gaining weight. Some even joke that “I gain weight even if I drink water.” In fact, obesity is really related to drinking water. Many people become obese because of drinking water. A person's height, weight and body shape are of course determined by genetic factors. For some people, obesity is hereditary. Some of it is also caused by eating meat and drinking cold drinks. Nowadays, many people say that they are obese because they do not exercise enough. In fact, it is not just because of the lack of exercise. More importantly, it is the method of drinking water and whether the water metabolism in the human body is normal.

Modern people work under great pressure, so when they drink water, they often drink cold water, a large glass at a time. Or you can just drink cold drinks, such as ice beer, ice cola, and eat desserts like ice cream. After drinking something cold, the gastric mucosa and blood vessels will immediately contract, and the function of your entire spleen and stomach will decline. The spleen is responsible for transporting and transforming water and moisture, and is the hub of water metabolism.

How does the spleen function? It relies on the power of spleen yang to vaporize water. This is what Chinese medicine calls "the spleen is Yin Earth and begins to function with Yang; the stomach is Yang Earth and feels at ease with Yin." This is the mechanism of Yin and Yang being mutually rooted and complementary. Pouring something cold into a hot stomach all of a sudden is a way to violently damage the spleen yang, just like using a bucket of ice water to directly put out an internal combustion engine. Once the spleen yang is insufficient and the qi is deficient and cannot transport and transform water, phlegm will be produced and the body's water metabolism rate will slow down. If you drink more water and excrete less water, the water will remain in your body and you will become fat, but in fact it is the water content of the intercellular fluid that increases.

People with spleen deficiency and dampness are obese due to phantom obesity. It is not because they gain weight by eating too much staple food, but because they drink water incorrectly. Therefore, fat people should eat less cold food, use air conditioning less, and drink water slowly, just like a drizzle, a little bit at a time, that is best. If you drink too much and exceed the spleen's metabolic capacity, it will cause water retention in the body. As long as your water metabolism is normal and the water you drink and excrete every day is balanced, you will not gain weight suddenly.

Dampness means the imbalance of water metabolism in the whole body, just like the heavy rain that causes disasters in some places. If there is too much moisture in the human body, it will block the circulation of Qi and blood. If the moisture stagnates the skin and makes it deprived of nourishment, the skin on the elbows will become dry, thickened and itchy. This is because the water cannot reach where it should be. By taking medicines that dispel wind and dampness and promote blood circulation, the skin on the elbows becomes moisturized.

People with spleen deficiency and dampness have a sticky mouth, dry mouth and no desire to drink, less urination, a fat tongue, and a pale and greasy tongue coating. Women may also experience increased vaginal discharge and go to the hospital for examination, thinking they have inflammation. However, the condition does not heal after taking anti-inflammatory drugs.

For obesity caused by spleen deficiency and dampness, the most important thing is to pay attention to diet . Some people often stay up late to study or work overtime. What should they do when they are hungry at night? Eat a pack of instant noodles? Needless to say, he gained weight in just one month if this continued. Therefore, it is not recommended to eat foods high in starch and sugar before going to bed. If you are really hungry, what can you eat? Plant protein, such as peanuts, is edible and there is no problem in eating a little. For other foods, we recommend eating cornmeal, millet, red beans, etc., which can be cooked into porridge, all of which have the effect of strengthening the spleen and removing dampness.

The second is to use the air conditioner less, or turn up the temperature a bit . In summer, our sweat pores open and close to breathe, allowing heat to dissipate with sweat to achieve the purpose of cooling down. If it is not allowed to sweat, it will be detrimental to the excretion of water and metabolites. Then the moisture will be trapped inside, and the heat will also be trapped inside. Therefore, it is best to adapt to nature's cold winter and hot summer temperatures and use air conditioning less.

Even if you need to use it, you must keep it at a temperature that will produce sweat when you move, that is, you should not feel hot when you are not moving, but you can sweat slightly when you are moving. At least this temperature is required to keep the pores open and closed. Many fat people are more afraid of heat the fatter they are, and often set the air conditioner to a very low temperature, which makes it more likely to cause internal heat. We once met a person who had to turn the air conditioner to 19 degrees in the summer to feel comfortable. If he didn't turn on the air conditioner, he would immediately feel short of breath.

The third is to do proper exercise . What should I do if someone always says that he is too busy? In fact, you can exercise at any time, such as climbing stairs when you go home or go to work, which is a good exercise. A small amount of exercise is especially needed thirty minutes after a meal. People suffering from gastroptosis should rest for twenty to thirty minutes after a meal before doing some appropriate activities.

In addition, obese people should pay special attention to finding out the cause of their obesity before losing weight, and never lose weight randomly. The obesity caused by the spleen yang deficiency and spleen qi deficiency mentioned above, which leads to the weakening of the spleen and stomach's function of transporting and transforming water, cannot be easily reduced by losing weight. As soon as you go on a diet, the symptoms of spleen deficiency will immediately worsen and your body will develop other problems. We have seen some girls in their twenties who, when they tried to lose weight, not only lost weight but also developed premature beats. Isn’t this equivalent to losing weight and getting sick?

People with spleen deficiency and dampness can also eat coix seed and winter melon seed porridge . Use 10 grams of coix seed, 15 grams of winter melon seeds, and 50 grams of glutinous rice to cook porridge and eat it as breakfast or dinner. Coix seed and wax gourd seeds both have the effect of strengthening the spleen and removing dampness, and have a good effect on obesity caused by spleen deficiency and dampness.

There is also a medicinal diet available. Use 15 grams of yam, 5 grams of lotus seed, 10 grams of coix seed and 50 grams of japonica rice to cook porridge together. If you have difficulty urinating or diarrhea, you can also add 10 grams of white Poria powder to enhance the effect of strengthening the spleen and eliminating dampness. After cooking, add appropriate amounts of salt, MSG and pepper. This medicinal food is more suitable for middle-aged and elderly people with spleen deficiency.

This article is from the book "The Secret of a 99-year-old Chinese Medicine Master's Health Preservation to a Long Life without Disease" by Crown Culture