Improper diet

Although food is of course necessary for maintaining life, improper diet may be one of the causative factors of disease, and may affect the body in the following three ways :

Overeating and malnutrition. The quantity of food consumed should be appropriate to the requirements of the body. Either voracious eating or insufficient food intake may result in disease. If more food is eaten than the digestive system can properly digest, the function of the spleen and stomach will be impaired. Clinical manifestations include foul belching, sour regurgitation, distension and pain of the epigastria and abdominal regions, loss of desire to eat, vomiting and diarrhea. The forty - third chapter of Plain Questions states : " Overeating will inevitably impair the gastro - inlestinal function. " Insufficient food intake will fail to provide the basis for the manufacture of qui and blood. In the long run, there will be loss of weight and weakness of antipathogenic qi.

Overindulgence in particular foods. The human body can only obtain its nutritional needs when food intake is balanced. Overindulgence in one particular food may result in various forms of malnutrition or other diseases. For example, continuous intake of polished rice may result in beriberi. The inhabitants of inland plateaus run a greater risk of suffering from simple goiter through drinking only " Shashui " ( drinking water lacking in iodine ) .

Overindulgence in cold or raw food can easily injure, spleen yang leading to the development of interior cold and damp with the symptoms of abdominal pain and diarrhea. Overindulgence in alcoholic drink or greasy, sweet and highly flavored food may produce damp heat, phlegm and stagnation of qi and blood. When the functions of the spleen and stomach are impaired, there may he pathological changes such as full sensation in the chest with profuse sputum, dizziness, vertigo, bleeding hemorrhoids and carbuncles.

Intake of unclean food. If unclean, decayed or poisonous food is eaten, the functions of the spleen and stomach will be impaired, resulting in pain and distention in the epigastria and abdominal regions, nausea, vomiting, borborygmus and diarrhea. Unclean food may also cause parasitic diseases or food poisoning.