Will eating more lettuce salad help you lose weight faster? Doesn't sweating a lot mean "good metabolism"? Chinese medicine practitioners debunk the "Big 5" summer health myths
This year’s “Great Heat” season ushered in six days of extremely high temperatures exceeding 36 degrees Celsius. There was no shortage of people coming to medical clinics to ask for help with uncomfortable symptoms caused by “heat injuries.” Qiu Guanzhong, a traditional Chinese medicine doctor from Kyoto Hall, pointed out that there are 5 summer health myths that are easy to occur, and reminded the public not to let misconceptions lead to physical discomfort or even obesity:
Myth 1: Sweating has the same effect as exercise. As long as you sweat enough, you don’t need to exercise.
Chinese medicine doctor Qiu Guanzhong said that more sweat is secreted in summer because the body needs to cool down through the evaporation of sweat to prevent excessive rise in body temperature. As long as the body burns calories, it will sweat when the body temperature rises, but this does not mean that sweating is “burning fat” because there are many reasons for the rise in body temperature, such as high ambient temperature, infection and inflammation of the body, the influence of drugs, etc.
In addition, sweating will only eliminate water, electrolytes and metabolic waste. After sweating, the weight will temporarily decrease, and the weight will be restored after replenishing water. So sweating does not equal exercise, nor does it equal burning calories.
Myth 2: The weather is hot and your appetite is poor, so you will lose weight easily if you can’t eat.
Qiu Guanzhong, a Chinese medicine practitioner, explained that hot weather can make people feel poor appetite. The most common reasons are:
Heat itself makes people feel uncomfortable and depressed, and they may feel repulsed by hot food.
The weather is hot and you don’t want to move. The amount of activity is relatively reduced and your appetite is also reduced.
But poor appetite does not mean that you will consume less calories, because many people cannot eat regular meals in summer, but eat a lot of high-calorie snacks such as ice products, desserts, and sugary ice drinks, which in turn accumulate more fat.
Myth 3: Drinking ice water stimulates metabolism.
There is a lot of controversy over whether drinking ice water has an impact on weight loss. There is even a formula for ice water to help weight loss circulated on the Internet. The theory is that “consistently drinking ice water for one year can burn about 1.56 kilograms of fat.”
Qiu Guanzhong, a Chinese medicine doctor, refutes that this statement is not valid because the human body’s complex adaptive system cannot be predicted by such a simple calculation method, and drinking ice water will cause discomfort when the human body encounters the following three situations:
During menstruation, drinking ice water can easily cause uterine contractions and induce menstrual pain.
During a cold, the immune system needs to increase body temperature to stimulate immunity. Drinking ice water will cause the temperature of the mucous membrane to drop, which is detrimental to the operation of immune cells.
During gastrointestinal discomfort, drinking ice water will cause gastrointestinal mucosal vasoconstriction, causing local ischemia and bacterial and viral invasion.
In addition, from the perspective of traditional Chinese medicine, stimulation of the gastrointestinal mucosa by ice water will cause vasoconstriction, poor circulation and edema. This is called “spleen dampness” in traditional Chinese medicine, and is easily accompanied by diarrhea, indigestion and other discomforts. In the long run, deficiency of spleen and kidney yang will lead to asthma, aggravation of allergies in the eyes, mouth and nose, as well as poor fat metabolism and weight gain.
Myth 4: Eating more lettuce salad in hot weather will help you lose weight faster.
Chinese medicine practitioner Qiu Guanzhong clarified that eating too many cold drinks, lettuce, sashimi and other raw and cold foods, as well as cold fruits and vegetables in your daily diet may stagnate the digestion and absorption function of the gastrointestinal tract, causing moisture to accumulate in the body and blocking the movement of the spleen. change. Common symptoms include back pain, persistent fatigue, joint and muscle pain, unformed stool, and excessively sticky stool. At the same time, moisture accumulation in the body will also reduce the body’s metabolism and cause fat consumption to be slow, making it difficult to lose weight.
Myth 5: Obese people sweat a lot in summer, which means they are healthy.
Qiu Guanzhong, a Chinese medicine doctor, explained that body fat has the function of insulating heat. When the temperature is high in summer, having more fat is like covering the body with an extra layer of down jacket. At this time, the body must emit more sweat to cool down, so obese people sweat more. , has nothing to do with health. In addition, obese people usually have lower activity levels and poor circulation. If they don’t drink enough water, they can easily suffer from heatstroke due to the inability to perspire smoothly to cool down. They need to be extra careful when facing high temperatures.
The hot summer weather can easily lead to “excessive internal heat”. Eat these “8 kinds of foods” to promote metabolism in the body.
However, due to the scorching heat in summer, it is easy to have strong internal fire. Qiu Guanzhong, a Chinese medicine practitioner, recommends eating light or high-water foods:
Bitter melon and bamboo shoots can reduce anger, soothe nerves, and add a large amount of dietary fiber to promote metabolism, avoid constipation, and enhance weight loss.
The lycopene in large tomatoes can resist oxidation, help reduce cholesterol, and increase metabolism. It is more easily absorbed by the body when cooked.
Winter melon, cucumber, mung beans, green beans, asparagus and other seasonal ingredients can clear away heat and diuresis and are suitable for consumption in summer.
Or drink heat-clearing and dehumidifying tea containing the following ingredients:
Adzuki beans and Poria: promote metabolism.
Pearls and barley: resist oxidation and eliminate moisture.
Codonopsis ginseng and Scutellaria baicalensis: warming and nourishing.
Licorice, cassia seed, and tangerine peel: clear away heat and detoxify.
Finally, Chinese medicine doctor Qiu Guanzhong reminded the public that the effects of the above-mentioned diet vary from person to person, and issues such as indications, contraindications and other side effects still need to be diagnosed and evaluated by professional doctors.
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