Drink porridge when you are sick. Maybe you have some misunderstanding about the light diet that the doctor recommended?

Audit expert: Wu Xinsheng

Deputy Chief Physician, Department of Gastroenterology, PLA 371 Hospital

When we are unwell or sick, people around us may remind us to eat lighter food, so porridge becomes the first choice for many patients. Drinking porridge is a traditional Chinese dietary habit, and the saying "preserving health with porridge" has been deeply rooted in people's hearts since ancient times.

The "Historical Records" records the story of the famous doctor Chunyu Yi using "Huoqi Congee" to treat the King of Qi's illness; the Han Dynasty medical saint Zhang Zhongjing liked to use porridge as an adjuvant to enhance the efficacy of the medicine; Li Shizhen's "Compendium of Materia Medica" in the Ming Dynasty also included many medicinal porridges, and subdivided them into more than ten categories of effects, such as clearing away heat, relieving exterior symptoms, nourishing blood, nourishing qi, and strengthening the stomach...

During the epidemic last year, Dr. Zhang Wenhong of Huashan Hospital affiliated to Fudan University proposed that "don't eat porridge when you are sick." This caused many people to wonder and puzzle: Is the eating habit passed down from our ancestors wrong?

Source | Panorama

1

Who is suitable for drinking porridge?

Drinking porridge does have beneficial effects on some patients.

First of all, when our body has an inflammatory response due to respiratory infections, surgery, large-area burns, trauma and other factors, the temperature regulation center of the hypothalamus will guide the body to increase heat production and reduce heat dissipation, causing our body to be in a state of fever (body temperature ≥ 37.3℃).

At this time, our gastrointestinal function will be much worse than before. The secretion and activity of various digestive enzymes will decrease, and gastric motility will weaken, leading to our loss of appetite.

Porridge is a semi-liquid diet, similar to the chyme formed after the stomach grinds and digests it. Therefore, after the porridge enters the digestive tract, it can be directly digested and absorbed into the small intestine without the stomach consuming excessive energy, thus reducing the burden on the stomach.

After a long period of cooking, the starch contained in the porridge is broken down and gelatinized. At this time, the gelatinized starch is easier to digest, decompose and absorb by the human body. Therefore, drinking porridge can help patients reduce the burden on the intestines.

In addition, our body will sweat a lot when it is hot, resulting in water loss. Drinking porridge can provide the body with a certain amount of water while quickly taking in and absorbing certain nutrients.

Source | Voice of Hubei

However, as Dr. Zhang Wenhong advocates, it is incorrect to blindly choose to drink porridge without asking the reason when you are sick.

‍2

Why is it recommended not to drink porridge when you are sick?

First of all, the nutritional content of porridge is too single.

A serving of the most common white rice porridge contains only a large amount of carbohydrates, and lacks other nutrients such as vitamins, proteins, minerals, etc. that are vital to patients.

Although we can add nutritious foods such as meat, eggs, vegetables, seafood, etc. to porridge, the nutrients in them may be destroyed due to long processing and cooking.

In this case, porridge not only fails to supplement nutrition, but may also cause health hazards to the body due to problems such as meat fat being incorporated into the porridge soup and DNA decomposition releasing purine. If patients use porridge as their staple food for a long time, it may lead to insufficient nutrient intake.

Source | Express

Secondly, the glycemic index (GI) of porridge is much higher than that of rice and noodles.

The full name of GI is "Glycemic Index", which is defined as the percentage of the area under the time curve of blood sugar concentration produced when food containing 50 grams of carbohydrates causes blood sugar to rise, and the area under the time curve of blood sugar concentration of a standard substance (such as glucose).

GI can reflect the production and response of blood sugar after the human body takes in food. Foods with low GI cause low insulin levels and are more likely to make people feel full, while foods with high GI have the opposite effect.

Moreover, studies have shown that GI is related to the structure and type of carbohydrates. Generally speaking, monosaccharides have a higher GI than polysaccharides, and for starch, the higher the degree of gelatinization, the higher the GI.

Porridge is a kind of highly gelatinized food containing a lot of starch, so it raises blood sugar very quickly, which is like adding insult to injury for diabetics. Therefore, diabetics should be careful to avoid drinking porridge.

For ordinary patients, excessive reliance on porridge as a staple food may also greatly increase the risk of obesity, abnormal blood sugar and other problems.

Source | blueseas

Finally, drinking porridge can nourish the stomach while also disrupting its normal function.

For the elderly with weak gastrointestinal function, patients with atrophic gastritis, patients whose gastrointestinal function has not recovered after surgery, drinking porridge can reduce the burden on the gastrointestinal tract. However, for patients with reflux esophagitis, eating porridge will aggravate symptoms such as heartburn, acid reflux, and hiccups because it is easy to reflux.

At the same time, the idea of ​​"use it or lose it" also applies here. Our bodies are in a working state every day, and regular and appropriate work is conducive to the normal maintenance of our body functions.

But when an organ or system is in a low workload state for a long time, its function will gradually decline over time.

Therefore, for patients with poor gastrointestinal function, drinking white porridge can temporarily relieve the symptoms, but it cannot solve the problem from the root. In the long run, it may aggravate the development of the disease.

Source | Internet

When many people get sick, doctors will remind them to eat a light diet, but "porridge" is not a synonym for light.

The definition of a light diet refers to a diet that is light in taste, low in sugar, oil, salt, and non-spicy. These are more restrictions on cooking methods.

From a nutritional perspective, the light diet advocated by doctors is based on food diversity, a reasonable combination of nutrition, and a cooking method that can preserve the nutritional components of the food to the greatest extent.

Source | Tencent

That’s all for today. Finally, I wish everyone a balanced diet and good health!

Source: Digital Beijing Science Center