Avoid over-toning in winter? Be sure to pair this ingredient with your tonic! It helps reduce blood lipids, stabilizes blood pressure... the best!

As we enter the winter tonic season, many people experience worse digestion and higher blood lipids. Ultimately, it’s because they eat too much.

At this time, you definitely need this kind of medicinal material - hawthorn.

Hawthorn, the champion in fat burning

Hawthorn is one of the traditional Chinese medicines that can be used as both medicine and food. Many people only know that it has the function of helping digestion, but they do not know that it can actually "burn fat".

PART.01

Eliminate "intestinal fat"

Hawthorn tastes sour and sweet, is slightly warm in nature, and enters the spleen and stomach meridians. It is good at digesting food and eliminating accumulation, especially meat accumulation.

"Compendium of Materia Medica" records that hawthorn can "digest food, eliminate meat accumulation, relieve lumps, phlegm, fullness, acid regurgitation, and bloating and pain caused by blood stasis."

In order to emphasize the digestive effect of hawthorn, Li Shizhen told such a story in "Compendium of Materia Medica".

Next door to Li Shizhen's home lived a family who had a son in their later years and doted on him very much. They often let him eat fish and meat, and also gave him snacks after meals. Eventually, he overate and damaged his spleen and stomach.

When I saw the child again later, his abdomen was swollen like a drum, he was in pain from time to time, and his whole body was yellow and swollen.

Regarding the child's recovery process, Li Shizhen wrote, "He occasionally went under a sheep's elm tree and ate until he was full. When he came back, he spat out a lot of phlegm and his illness was cured."

That is to say, one day the child was resting under a hawthorn tree and picked hawthorn fruits to eat. In fact, hawthorn fruits are hawthorns, which are sweet and sour. He ate them until he was full without realizing it, which had the effect of inducing vomiting and eliminating food accumulation. He spat out filth and his food accumulation was cured.

Modern research has also found that hawthorn contains lipase, which can promote fat digestion, increase the secretion of gastric digestive enzymes, and have a certain regulatory effect on gastrointestinal function.

Therefore, when we feel bloating and uncomfortable due to eating too much meat, it is best to eat some hawthorn.

PART.02

Eliminate "blood lipids"

In addition to helping us digest meat, hawthorn can also "eliminate blood lipids", which Chinese medicine calls "clearing turbidity and reducing lipids".

Modern medical research shows that the triterpenes and flavonoids in hawthorn have the effects of lowering serum cholesterol, lowering blood pressure, and having a diuretic and sedative effect.

What is more worth mentioning is that while hawthorn helps us lower blood lipids, it can also reduce the deposition of cholesterol and cholesterol esters in the arterial walls, alleviate atherosclerotic lesions, and reduce the area of ​​atherosclerotic plaques.

PART.03

Relieve menstrual cramps

Hawthorn can promote qi and disperse blood stasis, and has certain effects on amenorrhea due to blood stasis, blood stasis type dysmenorrhea, abdominal pain due to blood stasis after childbirth, and lochia retention.

Zhang Xichun said that hawthorn "is good at entering the blood and is an important medicine for removing blood stasis. It can eliminate tumors, lumps, and masses, and relieve amenorrhea in women and pain caused by blood stasis after childbirth."

Modern medicine believes that this is most likely related to the fact that hawthorn can dilate blood vessels and help relieve local congestion.

Female friends who have dysmenorrhea, if you also have blood stasis dysmenorrhea, you might as well eat some hawthorn regularly~

Generally speaking, blood stasis type dysmenorrhea has the following characteristics: dysmenorrhea, accompanied by dark or even black-purple menstrual blood, blood clots, and a small amount of menstrual blood on the first day, which suddenly increases on the second and third days.

In addition, patients may also have sallow complexion, purple lips, dark circles under the eyes, and dry and rough skin.

Some people experience severe lower abdominal pain before menstruation, which is worse after catching a cold; some people also suffer from constipation during their menstrual period.

The tongue is dark red in color, with blue-black spots on the surface and blue blood vessels at the bottom of the tongue.

In addition, hawthorn can promote the contraction of the female uterus, have the effect of inducing labor when pregnant women are about to give birth, and can promote the recovery of the uterus after delivery.

PART.04

Stabilize blood pressure

Another important function of hawthorn is its impact on the cardiovascular system, such as strengthening the heart, anti-arrhythmia, increasing coronary flow, anti-myocardial ischemia, dilating blood vessels, and lowering blood pressure.

Studies have confirmed that taking hawthorn decoction internally has a certain therapeutic effect on coronary heart disease, angina pectoris, and coronary artery insufficiency.

Hawthorn edible precautions

PART.01

Hawthorn cannot be eaten on an empty stomach and is not suitable for consumption in large quantities on an empty stomach.

Because hawthorn contains tannic acid, if taken in large quantities on an empty stomach, it will easily come into contact with stomach acid to form tannic acid protein, which is difficult to dissolve in water and can form gastrointestinal stones. In severe cases, gastric stones can block the stomach and cause gastrointestinal obstruction.

PART.02

People with weak spleen and stomach should not eat hawthorn. Traditional Chinese medicine believes that people with weak spleen and stomach should not eat hawthorn. This is because hawthorn breaks and consumes qi and has no effect on replenishing qi.

This type of people often experience acid reflux, heartburn, and discomfort on an empty stomach, and the symptoms are relieved after eating.

From the perspective of modern medicine, this type of people often have diseases related to "excess gastric acid" such as duodenal ulcers and gastroesophageal reflux disease. Eating hawthorn will aggravate gastric acid and cause abdominal pain, belching, acid reflux, heartburn and other discomforts.

PART.03

The vitamin C and tannic acid in hawthorn are very considerable when eaten separately from the following foods. Based on this feature, the following three points should be noted in the diet:

Do not eat it with pork liver. Pork liver is rich in trace elements such as copper, iron, and zinc, which will accelerate the oxidation and destruction of the vitamin C in hawthorn.

Cucumbers, pumpkins, carrots and other fruits and vegetables contain vitamin C-degrading enzymes. Eating them with hawthorn will destroy the vitamin C in the hawthorn and reduce its nutritional value.

Seafood is rich in calcium, iron, carbon, iodine and other minerals and proteins, which are easily combined with the tannic acid in hawthorn to form tannic acid protein, which causes symptoms such as constipation, nausea, vomiting, and abdominal pain. Therefore, hawthorn should not be eaten with seafood.

5 Steps to Pick a Good Hawthorn - Fruit Shape. Hawthorns that are flat and round are more sour, while those that are almost round are sweeter.

Fruit spots. There are many spots on the surface of hawthorn. The dense and rough fruit spots are sour, while the small and smooth fruit spots are sweet.

Origin: The ones produced in Shandong and Northeast China are sour; the ones produced in Hebei and Henan are moderately sweet and sour.

Flesh color. White, yellow or red flesh is sweet; green is sour.

The texture of the flesh: soft and chewy, sweet; hard and dense, sour.

When choosing, you can choose any one of the 5 methods.

Note: There are many ways to eat hawthorn, such as making tea, cooking porridge, and adding it to dishes. You can choose according to your taste.

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Source: China Traditional Chinese Medicine News, Health China, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences Outpatient Department Official Account. If there is any infringement, please contact us to delete it.