In recent years, with the enhancement of people's awareness of self-care, and the traditional saying of "keeping health with tea" in China, many families began to drink Chinese herbal tea to keep healthy. "Intestinal tea", "fire-reducing tea", "throat-moistening tea" and various types of scented tea are extremely popular. With the rise of medicinal tea health, herbal tea began to play the banner of "health" and came from behind. Do these tea drinks really have a health-preserving effect?
Herbal tea is a "family"?
Medicinal tea in a broad sense includes herbal tea.
Xiao Shi, a primary school teacher, often feels sore throat because of excessive use of her voice. It is said that making tea with Siraitia grosvenorii can relieve the symptoms of sore throat. With a grain of salt, she tried to drink it several times and felt the effect was quite obvious. However, she said, does this kind of water brewed with Siraitia grosvenorii instead of tea belong to medicinal tea or herbal tea? Are they the same thing?
"In fact, there is a difference between herbal tea and herbal tea in definition." Experts explained that the medicinal tea we talk about in our daily life is actually a special liquid beverage with certain curative effect made by adding food or medicine to the tea we drink. However, in a broad sense, medicinal tea actually includes some tea substitute products made of food or medicine without tea by brewing, decocting, squeezing and distilling, such as soup, fresh juice, lotion, emulsion and so on.
Herbal tea is the general name of Chinese herbal medicine plant beverage, and it is also a tea beverage included in the broad scope of medicinal tea. Herbal tea in Guangdong Province of China has always been the representative of herbal tea culture. Usually, herbal tea is a kind of Chinese herbal medicine that is cold and can dispel the internal heat of the human body, so as to eliminate the summer heat in the human body or treat the sore throat caused by dryness in winter.
It can be said that herbal tea is not tea, but a decoction made from Chinese herbal medicine, which has the effects of clearing away heat and reducing fire, and is a traditional Chinese medicine that ordinary people can drink. And herbal tea is not necessarily cold to drink, and the effect of hot drinking is better.
How to drink is drug abuse?
Do not know the indications, use Chinese medicine instead of tea.
"Ginseng tea invigorates vitality, orange peel tea is anti-inflammatory, expectorant, appetizing, boat-fruited Sterculia moistens throat, cassia seed tea clears liver and improves eyesight, and Ginkgo biloba tea lowers blood fat ... These tea drinks are very common in people's daily life. Chinese medicine experts believe that these teas with Chinese medicine belong to the category of Chinese medicine decoction pieces instead of tea. It is a serious drug abuse for people to add Chinese medicine decoction pieces to tea at will. " Recently, the words of Gu Zhongyi, director of Beijing Dietitians Association and a famous clinical dietitian, caused an uproar on the Internet.
Miss Li, a citizen, likes to drink all kinds of medicinal teas, such as "slimming tea", "beauty tea", "throat-moistening tea" and "health-preserving tea". She will buy and drink any medicinal tea that can be bought in the market. She believes that medicinal tea, unlike some drugs, will have side effects, and it is not very troublesome to drink at ordinary times. Just drink it like water, which can not only quench your thirst, but also play a role in health care, killing two birds with one stone.
"'drinking herbal tea belongs to the abuse of Chinese medicine' is too absolute. However, if Miss Li uses Chinese medicine instead of tea, it is suspected of abusing Chinese medicine. " Dr. Gong said that if you don't know the indications of Chinese medicine, you can use Chinese medicine instead of tea at will, which will definitely lead to some adverse reactions of Chinese medicine. For example, drinking too much tea substitute containing honeysuckle and other cold traditional Chinese medicines will aggravate the condition of people with spleen and stomach deficiency and affect their digestive function. Medicinal teas such as safflower, which can promote blood circulation and remove blood stasis, are not suitable for people who are pregnant and have excessive menstrual flow. For example, Jingsu ginger sugar drink used for wind-cold cold can not be given to patients with wind-heat cold at will.
Experts say that it is best to consult a Chinese medicine practitioner or pharmacist before making a decision on which kind of medicinal tea to choose. Don't use medicinal tea with too many drugs, pertinence and narrow application scope at will.
Is herbal tea suitable for everyone?
Cold constitution, the elderly and children are not suitable.
Judging from the efficacy of herbal tea, it is mainly divided into two types: clearing fire and eliminating dampness. Drinking herbal tea for the purpose of clearing fire can be bitter, and the effect is better. If you want to get rid of dampness, you don't need to seek "bitterness", because bitter Chinese herbal medicines are generally cold and easy to damage the spleen and stomach.
It should be noted that although they all get angry, "fire" can be divided into real fire and virtual fire. Although some people have "fire", it is actually the inflammation caused by deficiency-cold constitution, such as people with weak constitution and deficiency-cold spleen and stomach. Although there are some symptoms of excessive internal heat, people who are prone to abdominal pain and diarrhea due to light tongue coating and careless diet are not suitable for drinking herbal tea to clear fire.
Experts reminded that although herbal tea is a good refreshing drink in summer, it is also a Chinese medicine decoction, and it must be enough to drink. "Clinically, it is found that many people are physically full of phlegm and dampness, which has something to do with many people drinking herbal tea as a daily drink at will, resulting in weakness of the spleen and stomach, and then phlegm and dampness are trapped in the spleen."
Therefore, the following three types of people should not drink herbal tea: First, people with poor gastrointestinal function. This kind of people can't adjust and adapt to the cold stimulation of drugs in time, which may affect digestion and absorption and cause abdominal pain and diarrhea, including children. Second, women are in the menstrual period. At this special time, women are in a state of blood loss, and people's physique is weak. If they eat cold food again, they will damage their spleen and stomach. Third, the elderly. Because the yang is getting weaker and the organ function declines, the elderly will have digestive system diseases and a series of symptoms that damage the yang due to the stimulation of herbal tea.
Medicine and food are homologous, so there is no problem?
Those that are cold and hot should not be used for a long time.
The Food Safety Law of the People's Republic of China clearly stipulates: "Traditionally, the list of substances that are both food and Chinese herbal medicines is formulated and published by the health administrative department of the State Council." It is understood that at present, there are 87 kinds of traditional Chinese medicines that are approved to be used as health care products, such as common white lentils, Euryales, dates, honey, Siraitia grosvenorii, chrysanthemums, peach kernels, mulberries, longan and so on. In addition, 1 14 kinds of traditional Chinese medicines or their effective components are also allowed to be used as health food processing and use. Such as tortoise shell, Schisandra chinensis, ginseng, acanthopanax bark, pseudostellaria heterophylla, gastrodia elata, Polygonum multiflorum and so on. There are 59 kinds of traditional Chinese medicines which can't be used as health food because of their obvious toxic and side effects, such as croton, puffer fish, nux vomica, monkshood and kusnezoff monkshood.
Experts pointed out that Prunella vulgaris, Ganoderma lucidum, Cordyceps sinensis, Pearl powder, Astragalus membranaceus, etc., strictly speaking, are all medicines and cannot be sold as ordinary foods. Even the health drinks with the same origin of medicine and food, which can be widely and long-term used by Chinese medicine, are generally "flat", and these drugs will not have much problem in long-term use. Whether it is cold (cool) or warm (warm), it is generally not suitable for long-term use. For patients or healthy people with cold and heat, we can choose some biased Chinese medicines, but we need to choose them based on syndrome differentiation.
Further reading: List of articles with homology of medicine and food and health food.
The list of 87 medicinal and edible items published by the Ministry of Health: clove, star anise, sword bean, fennel, thistle, yam, hawthorn, purslane, zaocys dhumnades, dark plum, papaya, hemp seed, generation flower, Polygonatum odoratum, licorice, angelica dahurica, ginkgo, white lentil, white lentil flower, longan, cassia seed and lily. Thallus Laminariae, Fructus Jujubae (Ziziphi Spinosae, Zizyphus jujubae), Fructus Siraitiae Grosvenorii, Semen Pruni, Flos Lonicerae, Fructus Canarii Albi, Herba Houttuyniae, Rhizoma Zingiberis Recens, Fructus Hoveniae, Fructus Lycii, Fructus Gardeniae, Fructus Amomi, Boat-fruited Sterculia, Poria, Fructus Citri, Herba Elsholtzia, Semen Persicae, Folium Mori, Mulberry, Fructus Amomi.
List of 1 14 items that can be used as health food published by the Ministry of Health.
Ginseng Radix, Ginseng Folium, Ginseng Fruit, Notoginseng Radix, Rhizoma Smilacis Glabrae, Cirsium japonicum, Fructus Ligustri Lucidi, Corni Fructus, Radix Cyathulae, Bulbus Fritillariae Cirrhosae, Rhizoma Chuanxiong, Cervi Pantotrichum, Cervus elaphus, Radix Salviae Miltiorrhizae, Cortex Acanthopanacis, Fructus Schisandrae, Cimicifugae Rhizoma, Radix Asparagi, Rhizoma Gastrodiae, Radix Pseudostellariae, Radix Morindae Officinalis, Radix Aucklandiae, Equisetum, Fructus Arc Dendrobium (with usable certificate), Cortex Lycii, Radix Angelicae Sinensis, Caulis Bambusae, Carthami Flos, Radix Rhodiolae, Radix Panacis Quinquefolii, Evodia rutaecarpa, Achyranthes bidentata, Eucommiae Cortex, Eucommiae Folium, Semen Astragali Complanati, Cortex Moutan, Aloe, Rhizoma Atractylodis, Fructus Psoraleae, Fructus Chebulae, Radix Paeoniae Rubra, Radix Polygalae, Radix Ophiopogonis, Carapax et Plastrum Testudinis, Eupatorium, Platyclad Curcuma longa, Fructus Aurantii, Fructus Aurantii Immaturus, Semen Platycladi, Margarita, Gynostemma pentaphyllum, Fenugreek, Radix Rubiae, Fructus Piperis Longi, Caulis Polygoni Multiflori, Rhizoma Cyperi, Rhizoma Drynariae, Radix Codonopsis, Cortex Mori, Ramulus Mori, Bulbus Fritillariae Thunbergii, Herba Leonuri, Herba Centellae, Semen Cuscutae, Flos Chrysanthemi Indici, Folium Ginkgo, Radix Astragali.