🌿 Folk Prescriptions

Loss of appetite, bitter taste in mouth, belching, early satiety after eating, acid reflux, and heartburn—all these are symptoms caused by functional or organic gastrointestinal diseases. First, visit a gastroenterology department for systematic examination to identify or rule out various GI or systemic diseases. Only after excluding or treating underlying conditions should different dietary strategies be adopted based on specific gastrointestinal symptoms.
No Appetite
Various functional causes lead to reduced appetite, including mental stress, fatigue, weakened gastric motility (delayed gastric emptying), etc.
Solutions: Regulate emotions, relax, slow down lifestyle, rest timely. Emphasize regular, scheduled, and measured meals—avoid overeating. Increase outdoor activities and breathe fresh air. Diet-wise, emphasize variety, avoid monotony, pay attention to color, aroma, taste, and presentation. Balance dry and wet, coarse and fine foods. Avoid high-fiber foods to prevent delayed gastric emptying. Also, avoid sweets or sweet drinks before meals—they worsen already poor appetite.
Food and Meal Selection: Use hawthorn, sour plums, tangerine peel to stimulate appetite. Fruits like strawberries and sweet oranges have mild appetizing effects; grapes, bananas, lychees, due to high sugar content, may suppress appetite. Seasonings like tomato sauce, curry sauce, doubanjiang, chili sauce can be used, but avoid excessive spiciness to prevent overcorrection. Important to avoid or limit: fried foods, leeks, raw soybeans, buttery foods, sugary carbonated drinks. Avoid excessive consumption of peanuts and sunflower seeds.
Feeling Full Immediately
Feeling hungry before meals and having a decent appetite, but feeling full after eating just a little, with appetite sharply declining—this is known as “early satiety.” The cause is primarily weakened gastric motility after meals, reduced stomach capacity, so even a few bites leave no room for more food.
Solutions: Enhance gastric motility, accelerate gastric emptying, and increase stomach capacity are key.
Food and Meal Selection: Follow the “small meals, multiple times” principle. Adopt a “3+3” eating pattern: divide part of the main meal (e.g., staple food, yogurt, fruit) into snacks. Keep total intake unchanged, eat six meals daily, with no more than 2 liang (100 grams) of staple food per meal, aiming for about 70% fullness. Avoid fatty meats, fried foods, and high-fiber foods. Chew food thoroughly before swallowing. Eating too quickly worsens early satiety.
Acid Reflux and Heartburn
Due to impaired gastric motility and dysfunction of the lower esophageal sphincter, acidic gastric contents reflux into the esophagus after meals, causing heartburn, chest pain, and in severe cases, unbearable discomfort leading to eating avoidance.
Solutions: Avoid foods damaging the lower esophageal sphincter function; improve gastric motility, accelerate gastric emptying, prevent food retention. Crucially, focus on eating habits and posture.
Food and Meal Selection: Avoid foods damaging the lower esophageal sphincter: coffee, fatty meats, pepper. Avoid foods impairing gastric motility: fatty meats, sweets, fried foods, high-fiber foods. Use small, frequent meals, chew slowly. Do not lie flat within one hour after eating. When sleeping, elevate the head and shoulders slightly with pillows. (Source: *Health Times*)