{
    "slug": "food-stagnation",
    "name": "Food Stagnation",
    "pinyin": "Shi Ji",
    "chinese": "食积",
    "organ": "Stomach and Spleen",
    "nature": "excess",
    "family": "food-stagnation",
    "summary": "Food that went in faster than the Stomach could handle it and is now sitting there. Fullness and bloating, sour belching, acid, nausea, no wish to eat, foul gas, and loose foul stools or constipation, with a thick greasy coat. The simplest pattern there is, and the most common one after a holiday.",
    "picture": "A sink with last night's dinner still in it. Nothing is wrong with the plumbing. There is just too much in the sink.",
    "signs": {
        "key": [
            "Fullness and bloating that started after a big meal",
            "Sour or rotten belching, acid",
            "Nausea, sometimes vomiting undigested food",
            "No appetite, aversion to the thought of food",
            "A thick greasy tongue coat"
        ],
        "common": [
            "Foul gas, foul loose stools, or constipation",
            "Bad breath",
            "Restless sleep after eating late",
            "A child who is fussy, hot, and off their food after overeating"
        ],
        "tongue": "Thick greasy coat, white or turning yellow.",
        "pulse": "Slippery and full."
    },
    "causes": [
        "Overeating, especially rich or greasy food",
        "Eating late at night",
        "Eating fast or under stress",
        "A weak Spleen that cannot keep up with a normal meal, in a child or older person"
    ],
    "tell_apart": [
        {
            "slug": "spleen-dampness",
            "how": "Dampness is heavy and sticky without the sour belching and the clear link to a meal. Food stagnation has a start time."
        },
        {
            "slug": "spleen-qi-deficiency",
            "how": "A weak Spleen is tired and bloated even on small meals. Stagnation is stuffed after a large one. A child can have both."
        }
    ],
    "formulas": [
        {
            "slug": "bao-he-wan",
            "role": "primary",
            "when": "The day-after formula. Digests the backlog and moves it along.",
            "pinyin": "Bao He Wan",
            "_links": {
                "self": "https://www.naturalherblibrary.com/api/v1/formula/bao-he-wan",
                "html": "https://www.naturalherblibrary.com/formula/bao-he-wan"
            }
        },
        {
            "slug": "ping-wei-san",
            "role": "with damp",
            "when": "When the stomach is both stuffed and damp, with heavy limbs.",
            "pinyin": "Ping Wei San",
            "_links": {
                "self": "https://www.naturalherblibrary.com/api/v1/formula/ping-wei-san",
                "html": "https://www.naturalherblibrary.com/formula/ping-wei-san"
            }
        },
        {
            "slug": "xiang-sha-liu-jun-zi-tang",
            "role": "with weakness",
            "when": "When a weak Spleen is the reason food keeps piling up.",
            "pinyin": "Xiang Sha Liu Jun Zi Tang",
            "_links": {
                "self": "https://www.naturalherblibrary.com/api/v1/formula/xiang-sha-liu-jun-zi-tang",
                "html": "https://www.naturalherblibrary.com/formula/xiang-sha-liu-jun-zi-tang"
            }
        }
    ],
    "herbs": [
        {
            "pinyin": "Shan Zha",
            "role": "Hawthorn digests meat and fat.",
            "herb_slug": "hawthorn-fruit",
            "_links": {
                "herb": "https://www.naturalherblibrary.com/api/v1/herb/hawthorn-fruit",
                "html": "https://www.naturalherblibrary.com/herb/hawthorn-fruit"
            }
        },
        {
            "pinyin": "Shen Qu",
            "role": "Medicated leaven digests grain and alcohol.",
            "herb_slug": "medicated-leaven-3",
            "_links": {
                "herb": "https://www.naturalherblibrary.com/api/v1/herb/medicated-leaven-3",
                "html": "https://www.naturalherblibrary.com/herb/medicated-leaven-3"
            }
        },
        {
            "pinyin": "Lai Fu Zi",
            "role": "Radish seed digests starch and moves gas down.",
            "herb_slug": "radish-seed",
            "_links": {
                "herb": "https://www.naturalherblibrary.com/api/v1/herb/radish-seed",
                "html": "https://www.naturalherblibrary.com/herb/radish-seed"
            }
        },
        {
            "pinyin": "Mai Ya",
            "role": "Malted barley digests starch and dairy.",
            "herb_slug": "germinated-barley",
            "_links": {
                "herb": "https://www.naturalherblibrary.com/api/v1/herb/germinated-barley",
                "html": "https://www.naturalherblibrary.com/herb/germinated-barley"
            }
        },
        {
            "pinyin": "Chen Pi",
            "role": "Tangerine peel moves the stuck qi.",
            "herb_slug": "dried-tangerine-peel",
            "_links": {
                "herb": "https://www.naturalherblibrary.com/api/v1/herb/dried-tangerine-peel",
                "html": "https://www.naturalherblibrary.com/herb/dried-tangerine-peel"
            }
        },
        {
            "pinyin": "Ji Nei Jin",
            "role": "Chicken gizzard lining digests anything.",
            "herb_slug": "chicken-s-gizzard-skin",
            "_links": {
                "herb": "https://www.naturalherblibrary.com/api/v1/herb/chicken-s-gizzard-skin",
                "html": "https://www.naturalherblibrary.com/herb/chicken-s-gizzard-skin"
            }
        }
    ],
    "conditions": [
        "indigestion",
        "dyspepsia",
        "abdominal-distension",
        "acid-reflux",
        "nausea",
        "constipation",
        "diarrhea"
    ],
    "habits": [
        "Skip the next meal or make it rice porridge. Give the sink time to drain.",
        "Hawthorn tea or a few hawthorn berries after a heavy meal.",
        "Walk for twenty minutes after eating.",
        "Stop at seventy percent full, and nothing after eight at night."
    ],
    "watch": [
        "Fullness and belching ease within a day or two.",
        "Appetite returns as the coat thins.",
        "If it keeps happening on normal meals, the Spleen is weak and needs a tonic, not a digester."
    ],
    "sources": [
        {
            "title": "Maciocia, The Foundations of Chinese Medicine, 3rd edition",
            "note": "Retention of food in the Stomach."
        },
        {
            "title": "Bensky, Scheid, Ellis and Barolet, Chinese Herbal Medicine: Formulas and Strategies, 2nd edition",
            "note": "Bao He Wan."
        }
    ],
    "meta": {
        "status": "published",
        "last_updated": "2026-10-12",
        "reviewed_by": null
    },
    "_links": {
        "html": "https://www.naturalherblibrary.com/pattern/food-stagnation",
        "self": "https://www.naturalherblibrary.com/api/v1/pattern/food-stagnation",
        "index": "https://www.naturalherblibrary.com/api/v1/patterns"
    }
}