True Friends You Can Rely On for Your Whole Life – Shanyao Yimi Qianshi Porridge

 

Zhonglibaren, Book 2, Chapter 2, Our Ancestor’s Secret Recipes Are Everywhere, Section 8, pg. 49

(continued from previous post)
Now let’s talk about yimi [1] (薏米).  You will find yimi the best helper, if your body has wet: accumulated fluid, swell, eczema, cysts - all problems related to the turbid water of the body.  “Yiren (薏仁) is the best at eliminating water, and it does not consume the qi of real yin.  It is the best for removing excess wet of the lower body.”  Yimi is a bit cool, and so it is not suitable for people with very cold and weak stomach and spleen or people who have very cold four limbs.  Li Shizhen (李时珍) said pregnant women should not use yimi; he might worry that yimi would also drain the amniotic fluid.  However, in practice yimi was found not dangerous to pregnant women at all.  Actually, it seems to be helpful.  Nevertheless, for the sake of safety, let’s listen to the old gentleman.  Yimi’s main function is to promote the spleen and eliminate wet.  Promoting the spleen can help the lungs [2], and eliminating water can resolve phlegm [3].  Thus, this herb can be used in treating lung heat, lung abscesses, and lung collapse.  When used together with shanyao, they complement each other and have synergistic effects.  “Shanyao and yimi both promote lungs and spleen without causing turbidity.  However, if used alone for a long time, shanyao is a bit sticky and yimi is a bit draining.  When used together in equal amount, shanyao and yimi can be used for a long time without side effects.”  Modern TCM doctors reported that daily intake of a porridge consisting of 50 grams of shanyao and 50 grams of yimi had an obvious effect on the draining of water accumulated in the abdominal cavities of patients of cirrhosis.  Now, why would we wait until the disease becomes so serious to eat the porridge?  Isn’t it a good idea for us to pulverize shanyao and yimi, cook them together as porridge, and eat it often?  It is very tasty, and one would never get tired of eating it.  There are people who say that the porridge tastes like medicine, sour and bitter and hard to swallow.  This is probably because the material they had is of low quality. Certain variety of shanyao has a slight sour flavor, but that does not affect the wonderful taste of the porridge.

Finally, let us talk about qianshi (芡实).  Have I exhausted all the praises for shanyao and yimi?  Not really.  Qianshi has an unparalleled special use.  If you have tuo symptom (脱症) or lou symptom (漏症) [4], qianshi can be like a pair of strong hands to hold you and keep your qi and blood from being wasted away.  There are people who have prolonged diarrhea, so severe that the food they eat goes straight to the toilet.  There are people who are troubled by unstoppable seminal emission.  There are also people who urinate so frequently at night that they cannot sleep well.  Qianshi can do wonder dealing with all these problems.  TCM doctor Chen Shize (陈士择) of the Qing Dynasty did the best job summing it up: “Qianshi can stop pains of the back or the knees, and sharpen vision and improve hearing; if taken regularly, it can prolong life.  It is plain to sight, but very beneficial to use.  Qianshi does not just stop seminal emission, it promotes essence [5] production.  It eliminates wet and phlegm of the stomach and spleen, thus producing the real and pure water [6] in the kidney.”  Based on this, I would say qianshi is the first choice for promoting spleen and strengthening kidney.  The results will be even better, if it is used in conjunction with shanyao.  (to be continued)

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[1] Yimi, also called Yiren, is pearl barley.

[2] According to TCM theory Wuxinglun (五行论), promoting the spleen can help the lungs,

[3] Phlegm is a term in TCM indicating anything sticky, not clean, not smooth, or not belonging to the place.  According to TCM, turbid water in the body is one of the causes of phlegm formation.

[4] Tuo symptom (脱症) or lou symptom (漏症): tuo and lou mean leaking and draining, respectively.  Symptoms such as prolonged diarrhea, seminal emission, or frequent urination at night belong to tuo and lou.

[5] Essence in TCM is the original force/vitality that starts and sustains life.  It is stored in the kidney.

[6] Real and pure water of the kidney means the essence of the kidney.  It is completely different from “wet” that is to be eliminated.

Qianshi (芡实）

Qianshi in soup (popcorn like)

True Friends You Can Rely On for Your Whole Life – Shanyao Yimi Qianshi Porridge

Zhonglibaren, Book 2, Chapter 2, Our Ancestor’s Secret Recipes Are Everywhere, Section 8, pg. 49

Many friends have chronic diseases with various symptoms.  They usually feel not even a single comfortable spot from head to toe in the body.  Their problems are neither serious nor dangerous, but rather lingering ones that never get truly healed.  The symptoms are better at one time, and worse at another, and always unbearably troublesome. What these friends really need as soon as possible is to increase qi and blood and maintain a reserve of them, because only when there is enough qi and blood in the body can a person resist various diseases.

What is the fastest and most effective way to increase and store qi and blood?  According to traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), the stomach and spleen are what the human body relies on after birth - they are the sources of qi and blood.  The stomach and spleen must be kept in good condition, if we want to have enough qi and blood.  There are people who cannot digest food well and feel uncomfortably full after eating only a small amount of food.  There are also people who can eat, but cannot absorb nutrients; the food they eat causes diarrhea, constipation, produces phlegm instead of minute particles and essential nutrients, or produces lumpy tissues instead of qi and blood.  The root of the problems for both conditions is the malfunction of the stomach and spleen.  Therefore, for these people, the most important step in strengthening the body constituents is to improve and promote the functions of stomach and spleen. 

It is not difficult to imagine that if the stomach and spleen of a person cannot digest grains and vegetables, it will be even harder for them to handle herbs [1]. 

Some people take kidney-nourishing herbs to strengthen their weakened kidneys [2].  However, these herbs are usually difficult to digest, in addition to having strong odors and tastes.  Thus, they often become a burden to the stomach and spleen instead of having the expected result of nourishing the kidney.  Eventually, these nourishing herbs could become stagnant and difficult to eliminate, and so become toxic to the body.  The phrase in TCM “too weak to be nourished”, partly means that the stomach and spleen are too weak to digest and absorb.  There are people with strong fire in their hearts and livers [3] who use cold [4] herbs for a long time to quench the heat and remove toxins.  They do not realize that cold herbs are the most hurtful to the stomach and spleen, and long term usage of cold herbs to quench fire is like using the family’s own farm field as a battle field to fight with an enemy.  At the end, even if they are not defeated by the enemy, they could still die from food shortage.  We need to always keep a reserve of qi and blood.  In a battle, we have nothing to be afraid of, when we have enough food supply.  In the fight with diseases, the only thing we need to worry is when we lose the ability to gain more fresh qi and blood.  Many patients lost their last chance to fight off diseases because they could not eat and absorb nutrients.  In life, we will have money to use, as long as we are able to make money, and we can persist to the final victory.  Similarly, in the battle with diseases, we need qi and blood and we should protect our ability to make and keep them. (to be continued)

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[1] That is why grains are our staple food.

[2] Kidney in TCM is not limited to the anatomical kidney, but is defined to have a lot more functions, including the vitality and fertility of the body.

[3] Fire is a TCM term which indicates general over-activity or inflammation.

[4] Cold, hot, warm, and cool are used in TCM to describe the properties of an herb, based on the effects of the herb.