Celebrate the Chinese New Year in good health (New Vision)
When my grandma was alive, every twelfth lunar month, I would look forward to opening her "treasure jar".
The mud-sealed jar was under the bed in the back room. She led me to take it out, smash the soil with a hammer, and open the seal. A strong aroma of wine immediately rushed out and filled the whole room - this is how to celebrate the New Year. Eat jujube.
At this time, grandma would fish out two pills from the jar with a spoon and stuff them into my mouth. That sweet taste, even after more than 30 years, still makes my mouth water when I think about it.
Are jujube soaked in wine? Or is it fermented by adding something else? I didn’t ask when I was little, and no one asked me when I grew up. However, whether it is soaked in wine or fermented into wine, it will hinder the neurological development of children. I highly suspect that my slow brain reaction today is related to eating too many jujubes when I was a child?
Just kidding, people at that time could not have the same health concepts as today. The establishment of health concepts and health literacy comes after a significant improvement in material living standards. Don’t you have to get rich first to get the so-called “high-sugar coronary disease” and other diseases of wealth? In times of scarcity, when meat and sweets can only be eaten during the Chinese New Year throughout the year, let’s fill our stomachs first.
China is developing so fast. When I was a kid, I would be so happy just eating a few dates during the Chinese New Year. Nowadays, the table is full of chicken, duck, and fish, and I can’t even whet my appetite. Many people say that the Chinese New Year loses the flavor of the year. In fact, many aspects of the flavor of the year are contradictory to health.
For example, there are many dinner parties during the Chinese New Year, the food is often greasy, and there is also a lot of drinking. This is very unfriendly to patients with hepatobiliary disease. Drinking alcohol in patients with liver disease will directly damage liver cells and even cause degeneration or necrosis of liver cells, leading to further deterioration of the condition. If patients with gallbladder disease eat a large amount of greasy food, it will increase the burden on the gallbladder and induce acute cholecystitis.
During the Chinese New Year, there are many parties and visiting relatives and friends. During the Spring Festival, the weather in the north is cold, and viruses such as influenza A, B, and C are easy to spread. People are prone to colds and colds. If we gather together at this time, it is very easy to cause cross-infection. Especially when you go to pay New Year greetings to the elderly, you should pay more attention. Some elderly people are already frail and sick, so it would not be appropriate to bring the virus with them during New Year greetings.
There is a lot of excitement during the Chinese New Year. Relatives and friends get together to chat about home affairs and recent developments. This is of course very happy for many people, except for patients with high blood pressure. For them, crowds of people are indeed lively, but it can also put the brain in a state of excitement, leading to an increase in the secretion of catecholamines in the body. In severe cases, it may accelerate heartbeat, blood flow, arteriole spasm, and increase blood pressure, thereby inducing cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases. Disease onset.
During the Chinese New Year, we stay up late a lot. Many places have the custom of "staying up late" on New Year's Eve. In some places, dumplings are served at 12 o'clock in the middle of the night. After eating, we clean up and chat, and it is almost dawn. On other days, we often play late, and it is easy to be confused between morning and dusk. If patients with gastric and duodenal ulcers stay up all night like this, they will be too tired or lack sleep, which can easily lead to disease attacks or worsening of the condition.
In fact, patients need to avoid these factors that affect their health. Healthy people and sub-healthy people also need to pay attention and try to avoid health-damaging behaviors such as eating big fish and meat every day and playing mahjong all night long.
The Spring Festival originated in the agricultural era and needs adjustment and innovation in modern society. This is the proper meaning of the title. Especially today, when health is becoming more and more important to modern people, it is important to celebrate the Spring Festival and live it healthily. Wouldn’t it be nice to adjust the New Year’s rhythm and New Year’s diet appropriately according to personal circumstances, so as to celebrate the New Year well without harming the body and have a healthy New Year?
Xiong Jian
"People's Daily Overseas Edition" (Page 10, February 6, 2024)