In recent years, with the enhancement of people's awareness of self-care, and the traditional saying of "keeping fit 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 very popular. With the rise of medicinal tea health, herbal tea began to play the banner of "health" and came from behind. Are these tea drinks really good for health?

Herbal tea is a "family"?

Medicinal tea in a broad sense includes herbal tea.

Xiaoshi, a primary school teacher, often feels a sore throat because he uses his voice too much. 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 found that 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 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 substitutes for food or medicine, such as soup, fresh fruit juice, lotion, emulsion and so on, which do not contain tea leaves and are made by brewing, decocting, squeezing and distillation.

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, China has always been the representative of herbal tea culture. Usually, herbal tea is a kind of Chinese herbal medicine with cold nature, which can dispel the heat in human body, so as to eliminate the heat in 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 of Chinese herbal medicine, which has the effect of clearing away heat and reducing fire and is a traditional Chinese medicine that ordinary people can drink. Moreover, herbal tea is not necessarily cold to drink, and hot drinking is better.

How to drink is taking drugs?

I don't know the indications, so I use Chinese medicine instead of tea.

"Ginseng tea supplements vitality, Chenpi tea reduces inflammation, reduces phlegm and stimulates appetite, Boat-fruited Sterculia moistens throat, cassia seed tea clears liver and improves eyesight, and Ginkgo biloba tea reduces 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 pieces, not tea. It is a serious drug abuse for people to add Chinese herbal pieces to tea at will. " Recently, a sentence by 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 various kinds of medicinal teas such as slimming tea, beauty tea, throat moistening tea and health preserving tea. She will buy and drink all kinds of medicinal teas that can be bought in the market. She believes that medicinal tea does not have side effects like some drugs, and it is not very troublesome to drink at ordinary times. Drinking it like drinking water can not only quench your thirst, but also play a role in health care, killing two birds with one stone.

"'Drinking herbal tea is an abuse of Chinese medicine' is too absolute. However, if Miss Li replaces tea with Chinese medicine, she is suspected of abusing Chinese medicine. " Dr. Gong said that if you don't know the indications of traditional Chinese medicine, replacing tea with traditional Chinese medicine at will will definitely lead to some adverse reactions of traditional Chinese medicine. For example, drinking too much tea substitute containing honeysuckle and other cold Chinese medicines will aggravate the condition of people with spleen and stomach deficiency and affect digestive function. Medicinal teas that can promote blood circulation and remove blood stasis, such as safflower, are not suitable for people who are pregnant and have excessive menstrual flow. For example, Sujing Ginger Sugar Beverage used for wind-cold colds cannot be given to patients with wind-heat colds at will.

Experts say that it is best to consult a Chinese medicine practitioner or pharmacist before deciding which medicinal tea to choose. Don't use medicinal tea with too many drugs, strong pertinence and narrow application scope at will.

Is herbal tea suitable for everyone?

Cold constitution is not suitable for the elderly and children.

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 inflammation caused by deficiency and cold constitution, such as people with weak constitution and spleen and stomach deficiency and cold. Although there are some symptoms of getting angry, people with light tongue coating and careless diet are not suitable for drinking herbal tea to clear fire.

Experts remind that although herbal tea is a good refreshing drink in summer, it is also a decoction of traditional Chinese medicine, so it must be drunk in sufficient quantities. "Clinically, many people are full of phlegm and dampness, which is related to many people drinking herbal tea as a daily drink at will, which leads to 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. Such 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 their menstrual period. At this special time, women are in a state of blood loss, and people's physique is relatively weak. If they eat cold food again, it will damage their spleen and stomach. Third, the elderly. Due to the weakening of yang, organ function declines, and the elderly will have digestive system diseases and a series of symptoms that damage yang due to the stimulation of herbal tea.

Medicine and food are homologous, so there is no problem?

Those that are hot and cold should not be used for a long time.

The Food Safety Law of People's Republic of China (PRC) clearly stipulates: "Traditionally, the list of substances that are both food and Chinese herbal medicines was formulated and published by the health administrative department of the State Council." It is understood that there are 87 kinds of traditional Chinese medicines that are currently allowed to be used as health care products. The common ones are white lentils, Gordon Euryale, jujube, honey, Siraitia grosvenorii, chrysanthemum, peach kernel, mulberry and longan. In addition, 1 14 kinds of traditional Chinese medicines or their effective components are also allowed to be used as health food. Such as tortoise shell, Schisandra chinensis, ginseng, acanthopanax bark, pseudostellaria heterophylla, gastrodia elata, Polygonum multiflorum and so on. Fifty-nine kinds of traditional Chinese medicines, such as croton, puffer fish, nux vomica, aconite and kusnezoff monkshood, cannot be used as health food because of their obvious toxic and side effects.

Experts pointed out that Prunella vulgaris, Ganoderma lucidum, Cordyceps sinensis, pearl powder, astragalus and so on. Strictly speaking, they are all medicines and cannot be sold as ordinary food. Even if medicine and food are of the same origin, health drinks that can be widely used by Chinese medicine for a long time are generally "flat", and these drugs will not have much problem if they are used for a long time. Whether it is cold (cool) or warm (warm), it is generally not suitable for long-term use. For patients with mixed cold and heat or healthy people, we can choose some biased Chinese medicines, but we need to choose them dialectically.

Further reading: a list of articles on medicine and food homology and health food.

List of 87 homology items of medicine and food announced by the Ministry of Health: clove, star anise, sword bean, fennel, thistle, yam, hawthorn, purslane, zaocys dhumnades, dark plum, papaya, hemp seed, daihua, Polygonatum odoratum, licorice, angelica dahurica, ginkgo biloba, white lentil flower, longan, cassia seed and lily. Thallus Laminariae, Fructus Jujubae, Fructus Siraitiae Grosvenorii, Semen Pruni, Flos Lonicerae, Fructus Canarii Immaturus, Herba Houttuyniae, Rhizoma Zingiberis Recens, Semen Hoveniae, Fructus Lycii, Fructus Gardeniae, Fructus Amomi, Boat-fruited Sterculia, Poria, Fructus Citri, Herba Elsholtzia, Semen Persicae, Folium Mori, Fructus Amomi.

The list of 1 14 published by the Ministry of Health can be used as health food.

Ginseng Radix, Ginseng Folium, Ginseng Fructus, Notoginseng Radix, Rhizoma Smilacis Glabrae, Cirsium japonicum, Fructus Ligustri Lucidi, Corni Fructus, Radix Cyathulae, Bulbus Fritillariae Cirrhosae, Rhizoma Chuanxiong, Cornu Cervi Pantotrichum, Red Deer, Radix Salviae Miltiorrhizae, Cortex Acanthopanacis, Fructus Schisandrae Chinensis, Cimicifugae Rhizoma, Radix Asparagi, Rhizoma Gastrodiae, Radix Pseudostellariae, Radix Morindae Officinalis, Radix Aucklandiae, Equisetum,