Food Stagnation

How to recognize Food Stagnation

The signs that point most strongly to this pattern:

1. Fullness and bloating that started after a big meal
2. Sour or rotten belching, acid
3. Nausea, sometimes vomiting undigested food
4. No appetite, aversion to the thought of food
5. A thick greasy tongue coat

Also 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.

Formulas for Food Stagnation

Herbs that matter most for Food Stagnation

• Shan Zha Hawthorn Fruit Hawthorn digests meat and fat.
• Shen Qu Medicated Leaven Medicated leaven digests grain and alcohol.
• Lai Fu Zi Radish Seed Radish seed digests starch and moves gas down.
• Mai Ya Germinated Barley Malted barley digests starch and dairy.
• Chen Pi Dried Tangerine Peel Tangerine peel moves the stuck qi.
• Ji Nei Jin Chicken Gizzard Lining Chicken gizzard lining digests anything.

How Food Stagnation differs from its look-alikes

• Dampness in the Spleen Dampness is heavy and sticky without the sour belching and the clear link to a meal. Food stagnation has a start time.
• Spleen Qi Deficiency A weak Spleen is tired and bloated even on small meals. Stagnation is stuffed after a large one. A child can have both.

What drains into Food Stagnation

• 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

Food and habits that help Food Stagnation

• 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.

What should change as Food Stagnation improves

• 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.

Conditions where Food Stagnation shows up