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.
One of the dishes should be eaten once a day.
Herbal teas
Chen Pi tea (Tangerine peel)
Portion: 4 grams chen pi
Function: Improves spleen and liver function; expels toxins and
fluids (diuretic).
Pu'er tea
Portion: 10 grams Pu'er tea
Function: Aids digestion, expels fat, diuretic, laxative.
Foods to help you lose weight
Yi Mi (Job's tears) congee
Ingredients: Job's tears (30g), sugar
Function: Improves the function of the spleen and expels excessive
body fluid (diuretic), thus aiding to weight loss and relieving
swelling. It helps reduce hypertension and lower blood sugar. Also
known as coix seed or Chinese pearl barley, it tastes like barley.
Method:
1. Put Job's tears into a saucepan, bring quickly to a boil.
Reduce heat, simmer for 30 minutes until Job's tears become
soft.
2. Add sugar and stir.
Dried shrimp and white gourd soup
Ingredients: Dried shrimp (15g), white gourd (400g), lard (25g),
green onion (8g), salt, gourmet powder, and sesame oil
Function: Expels excessive body fluid (diuretic), thus promoting
weight loss and relieving swelling. It also helps expel toxins and
phlegm.
Effect is best if prepared with only 30g white gourd with peel
and drink as tea several times a day.
Method:
1. Wash the dried shrimp, and soak it in warm water. Peel the
white gourd, and chop it into slices.
2. Boil the water in saucepan, and then add white gourd, dried
shrimp and salt. Wait 8-10 minutes, then add green onion, gourmet
powder and sesame oil.
(Shanghai Daily August 15, 2007)
