🌿 Folk Prescriptions

As temperatures gradually rise, mung beans, which have the effects of clearing heat and detoxifying, relieving summer heat, and generating body fluids, are becoming increasingly popular. There are many ways to consume mung beans, among which mung bean soup is a refreshing drink suitable for people of all ages during summer. However, there is a common folk belief that "one should not eat mung beans while taking traditional Chinese medicine, as it may counteract the medicinal effects," causing those who are currently taking herbal remedies to avoid mung beans altogether. But is this claim valid?
In fact, mung beans themselves are also a type of traditional Chinese medicine with functions such as clearing heat and detoxifying, relieving summer heat, generating body fluids, and promoting urination to reduce swelling. According to the *Compendium of Materia Medica*, "Mung beans have a sweet and cold nature, are non-toxic... capable of detoxifying all kinds of poisons from herbs, livestock, metals, and minerals." This means mung beans can neutralize toxic substances in drugs and food, so strictly speaking, they detoxify poisons rather than negate the therapeutic effects of medicines. Folk practices often use mung bean soup to treat cases of drug or food poisoning. So, can one eat mung beans while taking traditional Chinese medicine?
The answer cannot be generalized and depends on the type of illness: when suffering from conditions such as heatstroke, sore throat, cough with yellow phlegm, mumps, dry mouth, bitter taste, skin infections, urinary tract infections, or constipation—conditions characterized by excess heat and real symptoms—consuming mung bean soup (porridge) or mung bean cakes alongside herbal medicine can complement each other and achieve synergistic effects. Furthermore, the detoxifying property of mung beans comes from compounds like mung bean protein, tannins, and flavonoids, which bind with organophosphorus pesticides, mercury, arsenic, lead compounds, forming precipitates that reduce or eliminate their toxicity and prevent absorption in the gastrointestinal tract. Therefore, patients poisoned by pesticides can enhance treatment efficacy by consuming mung bean soup or raw mung beans ground into powder and taken with water while receiving herbal medicine. Since mung beans are naturally cold in nature, they are unsuitable for individuals with spleen-stomach deficiency-cold or yang deficiency; if one suffers from chronic gastritis, cold pain and numbness in limbs, restricted movement, abdominal pain, diarrhea, or dysmenorrhea—conditions associated with deficiency and cold—one should avoid mung beans while taking herbal medicine. Otherwise, not only will the effectiveness of the medicine be reduced, but the condition may worsen.
Whether one can consume mung beans while taking herbal medicine also depends on the nature of the medicine being taken: when using heat-clearing herbs such as Coptis, Scutellaria, Phellodendron, Isatis leaf, Banlangen, Buffalo-bezoar, honeysuckle, or gypsum, mung beans can be consumed together, enhancing their effects. However, when taking tonifying herbs like ginseng, Astragalus, cinnamon twig, Aconite root, cloves, or high-quality ginger, or warming herbs like cinnamon twig, dried ginger, and fine-leaf ginger used to dispel cold and warm meridians, one should not take mung beans without medical advice, as doing so may weaken the medicine’s effect and impair treatment outcomes.
Therefore, whether mung beans can be consumed simultaneously with herbal medicine depends on the nature of the disease—whether it is cold, heat, deficiency, or excess—and the nature of the prescribed medicine. It cannot be generalized. If one is unsure about the condition or the nature of the medicine being taken, it is best not to combine mung beans with herbal medicine without a doctor's approval.