Stomach Care: How to Nourish Your Stomach with the Right Foods
In today's fast-paced world, many people suffer from irregular eating habits, disrupted sleep schedules, and high levels of stress. As a result, the incidence of stomach diseases has been on the rise. Stomach problems not only impact individual health but also pose a significant burden on society. Therefore, maintaining a healthy stomach has become a pressing concern for modern people. We can effectively prevent and treat stomach diseases through several methods, improving our overall quality of life.
Stomach Care: How to Nourish Your Stomach with the Right Foods
Stomach Issues Are 'Nurtured' Back to Health
- Self-repair of the digestive tract mucosa:
The mucosa of our digestive tract is constantly in contact with food and can be easily damaged. However, it also has a strong self-repair ability. A balanced diet and regular lifestyle can provide a good environment for the repair of the digestive tract mucosa. - The harm of irregular eating:
Excessive eating, binge eating, irregular eating habits, and picky eating can all increase the burden on the stomach, leading to the development or aggravation of stomach diseases. - Impact of emotional imbalance:
Long-term anxiety, depression, and other negative emotions can disrupt gastrointestinal function and aggravate stomach problems.
If you're struggling with stomach pain, we recommend first understanding the types and symptoms of gastric pain and then improving your stomach health through proper care and nourishment.
How to Properly Care for Your Stomach?
- Dietary Adjustments:
- Eat regularly and chew slowly: Establish a fixed mealtime and chew your food thoroughly to reduce the burden on your stomach. Avoid eating before bed to prevent excessive night-time acid production and the risk of ulcers.
- Choose a light and varied diet: Prioritize easily digestible and nutritious foods, ensuring a balanced intake of nutrients. Avoid a monotonous diet to prevent nutritional deficiencies. While porridge and noodles are suitable for acute stomach problems, long-term consumption is not recommended as the high degree of starch gelatinization can weaken the digestive system over time.
- Maintain a warm diet and avoid irritants: The temperature of your food should be warm. Avoid excessively cold or hot foods, as well as spicy, greasy, and raw foods.
- Eat smaller, more frequent meals: For those with excessive stomach acid, dividing meals into five or six smaller portions can reduce the volume of each meal without decreasing the total daily intake. Avoid binge eating, as this can lead to acute gastric distension and damage the stomach's protective mechanisms, causing ulcers.
- Lifestyles Adjustment:
- Maintain a regular and healthy lifestyle: Ensure adequate sleep and avoid staying up late to allow your body to rest. Avoid smoking and drinking alcohol. The harmful substances in cigarettes damage the stomach lining, while alcohol directly irritates the stomach mucosa.
- Engage in moderate exercise: Regular exercise can promote gastrointestinal motility and enhance digestion. Activities like jogging, tai chi, and yoga are good options.
- Maintain a positive mood: Avoid excessive stress and anxiety. Acute anxiety can disrupt the internal balance of the digestive system, leading to stress-related ulcers. Conversely, the discomfort and pain associated with ulcers can cause negative emotions, creating a vicious cycle. It is recommended to cultivate hobbies such as reading, calligraphy, painting, mountain climbing, playing chess, making friends, or playing musical instruments to maintain emotional stability.
- TCM Treatment*：
- Tailored treatment: Kang Won TCM practitioner will develop a personalized treatment plan based on your specific condition.
- Herbal medicine: Chinese herbs can warm the middle burner, strengthen the spleen and stomach, and promote digestion.
- Acupuncture and massage: These techniques can regulate Qi and blood, relieve pain, and improve gastrointestinal function.
*It is recommended to consult a Kang Won TCM practitioner for a personalized treatment plan based on your specific condition.
Are You Eating the Right Foods for Your Stomach?
- Weak spleen and stomach: Millet porridge, pumpkin porridge, yam porridge, and red dates.
- Excess stomach acid: Cabbage, radish, lotus root. Drink milk or soy milk and eat alkaline steamed buns or bread to neutralize stomach acid.
- Insufficient stomach acid: Consume concentrated meat broth, chicken broth, or acidic fruits or juices to stimulate gastric acid secretion and aid digestion.
- Insufficient stomach yin: Silver ear fungus, lily, and pear.
- Peptic ulcers: Avoid drinking milk to relieve pain. Milk contains a large amount of protein, which stimulates the secretion of gastric acid and pepsin, aggravating ulcer symptoms. In severe cases, you can eat soda crackers (baking soda can neutralize stomach acid) to alleviate symptoms, but this effect is short-lived and not recommended due to the high fat content.
- Gastroesophageal reflux disease: Porridge is a liquid food that can easily cause reflux, leading to heartburn and aggravating the condition. It is recommended to eat semi-liquid or semi-solid foods such as noodle soup, wontons, and tofu.
- Liver and stomach heat: Eat a moderate amount of vegetables and fruits such as bitter gourd, cucumber, and loofah to clear heat, cool the blood, and promote bowel movements.
- Atrophic gastritis: You may try yoghurt. The phospholipids in yoghurt can protect the gastric mucosa, and probiotics can promote intestinal health.
Staple Foods
Steamed buns: The fermentation process breaks down starch into smaller, easily digestible sugars, reducing irritation to the stomach.
Yam: Rich in polysaccharides, which can protect the gastric mucosa. However, it is digested slowly and should not completely replace other staple foods. It is recommended to make up about 1/3 of your staple food.
Noodles: Easy to digest, especially suitable for those with excess stomach acid. Fermented foods like steamed buns and noodles can neutralize stomach acid. Choose soft noodles and steamed buns, avoiding hard noodles and pancakes.
Side Dishes
Orange vegetables: Pumpkins, papaya, carrots, and tomatoes are rich in beta-carotene, which helps repair the digestive tract mucosa. They are high in dietary fiber, so it is recommended to cook them.
Milk: Dilutes stomach acid, but excessive consumption can stimulate gastric acid secretion. It is recommended to consume 300 grams per day. Options include milk, yoghurt, and cheese. Use with caution for people with acute gastritis or lactose intolerance.
Kontea Recommendation Products
Vitality Herbal Paste
Effects:Increases vitality and detoxes. Protects the liver, decreases stress, improves blood circulation, Improves allergic constitution, prevents fatigue, improves vitality and Strengthen Immune System.
Suitable for: Commonly recommended for children or the elderly, bad appetite, bloating, stomach pains, frequent fever, sinus, sweating, and fatigue. Enuresis in children, bad digestion, diarrhea, stool with undigested food scraps.
Digestive Wellness Paste
Effects:Regulate digestive function by warmly invigorating the digestive tract and reducing stomach acid, dispelling wind and alleviating abdominal pain, promoting wellbeing of liver and regulating flow of qi.
Suitable for:Suitable for: Anyone who frequently experience flatulence, bloating, gastric, acid reflux and indigestion.
Gut Warmer Tea
Effects:Many people are facing gastroenteritis due to stress and irregular diet. Ginger is an herb of medium-warm nature that is capable of eliminating cold in the stomach, while cinnamon is good for improving and rejuvenating stomach functions. Combining these two herbs together, the Gut Warmer, as its name suggests, does incredibly well in warming up your stomach in order to eliminate discomfort.
Suitable for:Bloated stomach, stomach ache, gastric coldness, vomit, thin stool.
Mood Balancing Soup
Effects: Chestnut mushroom has unique medicinal properties that clears heat, balances the kidney, promotes clear vision, and promotes smooth urinary flow. Longan has been considered a great medicinal food for a long time, and red dates are sweet and warming and can treat diarrhoea and increase appetite.
Suitable for: Moodiness, lack of appetite, stomach discomfort. Also great for people who defecate easily.
Qi Tonic Soup
Effects: Lion’s mane is highly beneficial to the digestive system. It can help rebuild the stomach membrane for individuals suffering from gastritis and improve the digestive system. Lion’s mane also improves red blood cells regeneration, thereby improving stamina, activeness and slowing down the aging process. On the other hand, white pepper complements the lion’s mane in improving the digestive system. It contributes to stomach-membrane rebuilding and protects the stomach from food that is detrimental for gastric patients (such as cold food/drinks).
Suitable for: Reducing fatigue, cold, diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol.
Kang Won Herbalist
Kang Won TCM Practitioner also recommends seeking medical attention as soon as rheumatic symptoms begin to appear. Early consultation allows us to provide you with suitable treatment and prevention plans based on your symptoms and underlying causes.
Our TCM Practitioner specializes in diagnosing and treating various internal health issues in the internal medicine field. We are dedicated to balancing the body's energy flow to alleviate internal problems and improve overall health. Therefore, if you have any concerns about rheumatic diseases, we welcome you to consult with us in person to learn more.
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