To lose weight, dehumidify your body first! Should you choose white yam to strengthen your spleen? Purple yam?

Are you overweight and can’t lose weight? Replace half of the white rice in each meal with yam. It will not only reduce the intake of sugars, but also improve edema-type obesity, fatigue, general weakness, skin eczema and acne, and excessive leucorrhea in women caused by a damp constitution. However, which one is better for removing moisture, the common white yam or purple yam? Please continue reading.

Chinese yam is a must-eat for removing dampness and resisting obesity. Chinese yam is commonly used in traditional Chinese medicine.

"Dampness" is the source of all diseases and all evils. Taiwanese people live in a hot and humid environment all year round due to the subtropical island climate. In addition, they like to eat raw, cold and icy foods, often stay up late, and do not like to exercise. As a result, moisture accumulates in the body and cannot be eliminated. Over time, it will lead to edema and obesity.

How to eliminate moisture in the body and eliminate edema and obesity? Traditional Chinese medicine, which emphasizes the homology of medicine and food, believes that eating more "yam" on a daily basis is a good idea. However, the common types of yam include white yam, purple yam and Huai yam. Which one is better for removing moisture and reducing weight?

TCM practitioner Ye Ruduan said that the Chinese medicine prescription uses dried and sliced ​​yam, but it, white yam and purple yam all belong to the Dioscorea family, and their ingredients are basically the same, and the effects of strengthening the spleen and eliminating dampness are not much different.

Yam replaces part of white rice, high fiber helps lose weight

From a nutritional perspective, yam mainly contains water and carbohydrates. Among the six major categories of food, it belongs to the whole grain root tuber. It contains a variety of essential amino acids, vitamins A, B1, B2, B6, C, niacin and minerals calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, iron and zinc. In addition, it also contains saponins, mucus, allantoin, cellulose, etc., which can provide the human body with a variety of essential nutrients.

Wen Zhaoming, a nutritionist at Daqian General Hospital, said that every 100 grams of yam contains about 87 calories, which is about half the calories of white rice, but the fiber content is 2.4 times that of white rice. For those who want to lose weight, yam can replace part of the white rice to reduce the total sugar intake.

In addition, studies have shown that yam has stomach-strengthening and intestinal-regulating effects, can improve the symptoms of patients with mild to moderate diabetes and hypertension, and has the effects of lowering cholesterol, anti-oxidation, anti-tumor and enhancing immunity. The soap contained in yam is an important ingredient for the synthesis of a variety of hormone substances (such as male hormones and steroid compounds). Studies have found that soap has the effects of dilating coronary arteries, increasing coronary flow, improving microcirculation and mild anticoagulation.

Purple yam is more nutritious than white yam, anthocyanin is the key

As for the choice, purple yam contains anthocyanins which are not found in white yam. Anthocyanins are an antioxidant that can protect cells from damage by free radicals. Therefore, they are helpful in anti-aging and reducing inflammation. They also have a good protective effect on the cardiovascular system. In diabetic patients, they can protect retinal cells and avoid oxidative damage and inflammation.

Nutritionist Wen Zhaoming said that yam may retain more nutrients when eaten raw than cooked, but it needs to be peeled and washed when eaten raw. In addition, yam is high in potassium, with about 500 mg of potassium per 100 grams, so patients with kidney disease need to pay attention to their potassium intake when consuming it; yam is also a staple food, and when controlling weight, you need to pay attention to total calorie intake to avoid eating too much staple food and causing weight gain.