Four Types of Traditional Chinese Medicine Recommended Lipid-Lowering Foods
TCM believes hyperlipoproteinemia results from internal accumulation of greasy substances, phlegm-dampness, and blood stasis. Thus, it is classified into four types. Different lipid-lowering foods are used accordingly.
First type: Phlegm-dampness excess. Characteristics include obesity, heaviness in body, frequent chest tightness, white phlegm, poor appetite. Diet should be light; prefer foods like millet, corn, radish, legumes and their products, black fungus, eggplant, pea shoots, tomatoes, lettuce, tangerines, pomelos, peaches, soybean oil, tea, carp, jellyfish, etc. Avoid raw fruits, sweets, and greasy foods that promote phlegm and dampness.
Second type: Phlegm-stasis intermingled. Features include dizziness, heaviness, chest pain, numbness in limbs; dark tongue with ecchymosis, greasy coating, deep and wiry pulse. Caused by internal heat. Avoid spicy, heating foods such as lamb, dog meat, chili peppers, Sichuan pepper, black pepper, cinnamon, ginger.
Third type: Spleen deficiency with phlegm-dampness. Features include obesity, shortness of breath, fatigue, excessive sleepiness. Focus on strengthening spleen: consume foods like broad beans, adzuki beans, yam, chicken, shrimp, ribbon fish, red dates, chestnuts, glutinous rice. Avoid cold-natured foods like raw fruits, crab meat, duck eggs.
Fourth type: Liver-kidney yin deficiency. Features include frailty in old age, lower back and knee weakness, fatigue, dizziness, tinnitus, dry eyes, palpitations, insomnia, dry mouth. Regular intake of liver and kidney tonics such as black beans, black fungus, seaweed, mushrooms is beneficial.
In addition, patients with hyperlipoproteinemia should quit alcohol, as ethanol promotes cholesterol and triglyceride synthesis, raising blood lipid levels.