7 Gut-Healing Foods from Traditional Chinese Medicine (That You Should Probably Be Eating Right Now)

If you're struggling with bloating, fatigue after meals, food sensitivities, or just a gut that never feels quite right, welcome to the story of my life. But what if I told you that for over 2,000 years, Chinese medicine has been treating gut issues without FODMAPs, elimination diets, or $70 probiotic gummies. In today's video, I'm sharing seven of the most gut healing foods from traditional Chinese medicine. What they do, how to use them, and why they work. Now, some of these you may already know, but some of them I know will surprise you. And all of them have stood the test of time for centuries. Hey guys, I'm Dr. Alex Hine, board licensed doctor of acupuncture and nutritional Chinese medicine and author of the health book Master the Day. Let's jump into food number one. Food number one is kanji, which is rice porridge. This is the number one food I recommend to my gut healing patients, especially with bloating, loose stools, or fatigue after eating. Now, kanji or joe is a slowcooked rice, usually made with white rice and a lot of water. Now, traditional Chinese medicine is used to strengthen what we call the spleen and harmonize the stomach. It's good for like poor pancreatic enzyme function. It's easy to digest. It warms what we call the middle burner and it gives your digestive system a break. It's sort of like uh training wheels for your gut. Now, what's so cool about this is you can put all kinds of herbs in the actual kanji, right? We'll talk about some of the modifications here like for example adding dates dadozo. Now what you can do is cook one part white rice with six to eight parts water. You can add ginger. You can add a pinch of salt or maybe even some goji berries or dates for sweetness. And you want to eat it warm in the morning and not straight from the fridge. Not like overnight oats. Food number two is called yi ren or ko seed or job's tears. Now we say yir ren is both a medicinal and a foodgrade herb that drains dampness and supports the gut lining. So yen is a very mild bland seed and it's used in formulas that are famous for digestion like shenling bayan. Now it helps drain what we call dampness which is like the heavy sluggish and bloated feeling you get after meals. But in modern terms we say yen reduces intestinal inflammation and it supports mucosal lining integrity. Now you can use it like rice. You can soak it and simmer it with brown rice or barley and it's really really good for those prone to water retention, sticky stools or sluggish digestion with bloating. And you can put the ren in your kanji. Third herb, tadzo, jujub dates. We say this strengthens the chi and blood and it soothes the gut and brain axis. So these sweet little red dates are found in dozens of digestive and blood building formulas. We say in traditional Chinese medicine, it tonifies your spleen chi, digestive function, and blood. Calms the spirit. It's good for anxiety. Has very, very potent properties for regulating your nervous system. And it helps moderate warming spicy herbs like ginger. Now, in modern science, juju bees have been shown to regulate your gut and brain axis, reduce inflammation, and modulate your gut flora. So, your gut microbiome. Now, here's how I'd recommend using it. When you make the kanji, you can actually just put two or three dates in your soups, in your teas, or put it right in the kanji itself. So, this is called baza. Herb number four that's food grade is ginger. Fresh ginger in particular is called shungja. And we say it harmonizes the stomach and stops nausea. Now, this is one of the most universal TCM foods and for good reason. You know, we say ginger warms the stomach, dispels cold, and it helps harmonize your stomach function. So, it's very good for nausea, indigestion, or early morning bloating and low appetite. In the clinical studies on ginger, it actually reduces your gastric emptying time. So, like food sitting in your stomach, reduces inflammation, and it reduces nausea, especially in IBS or gastritis patients. So, the best way to use this if you want to put it in your daily regimen, part of your habits, add a few fresh slices of the ginger and put it in hot water or just sip it between meals or just cook with more ginger in your food itself. These fermented foods are great, but if your gut lining is inflamed or your digestion's weak, even healthy foods can cause a problem. Now, that's why I put together a free step-by-step guide on healing bloating, food allergies, and digestive issues using the traditional Chinese medicine approach. It'll help you figure out what foods to emphasize, what patterns might be behind your gut problems, and how to start rebuilding your digestive fire. So, you can grab it for free below. It's just the link right below this video. It's just been a game changer for a lot of my patients. Food number five is called Asian pear or even steamed pear with rock sugar. Doesn't that sound good? So, pear we say, moistens the intestines and it clears dry heat. So, pears in particular is great if you're dry, dry mouth, dry stools, dry throat. We say that pears moisten your lung and large intestine yin. So the lungs and large intestine are both metal organs in Chinese medicine and they have a shared relationship. So a lot of foods and herbs and practices that benefit the large intestine benefit the lung and in my opinion the reason is that they both have delicate mucosa. Healthy lung function goes down. Healthy large intestine function goes down. Right? When you're wheezing or you can't breathe and you feel this panting sensation, that's lung counterflow chi. So pears are very very good for constipation due to internal dryness. So try this at home. Cut a pair in half, add a little bit of honey or rock sugar, steam it for 15 minutes or 10 minutes, and then eat it warm. It's like the perfect fall or winter snack when the internal dryness worsens. That's the typically the season of the year that we say is related to lung and metal, right? Fall. Food number six is called black sesame seeds. We say they nourish the blood and they moisten your bowels. So, if your constipation isn't from heat or stagnation, it might be what we call from blood or yin deficiency. It's like a fluid, a functional fluid deficiency, especially if you're getting older, if your skin is dry, your hair is thinning, and your nails are brittle. Black sesame seeds nourish what we call liver and kidney yin, and they gently lubricate the intestines. They're often used in a famous formula called Run Changan, a formula for constipation with dry stools. So, here's what you can do with them. You can toast them lightly to eat them. You can grind them and mix them with honey in a paste. This is really nice. Or you can just eat one or two teaspoons a day or sprinkle it right over your oatmeal or throw it right in your porridge in the morning. And finally, the seventh fermented food is fermented millet or sweet rice porridge. This is great for your gut microbiome and what we call chi or energetic support. Now, while traditional Chinese medicine doesn't traditionally talk about probiotics, it absolutely understood the value of fermented foods for digestion and your digestive functioning. what we call your spleen chi or spleen function. These fermented millet or rice pores have natural probiotics and postbiotics that nourish their gut flora and help improve the digestive functioning. So, it's great for bad appetite, bloating with fatigue, loose stools with undigested food. And so, what you can do is try a half a cup of fermented rice porridge warmed with a little bit of ginger in the morning. Really nice for your digestive function. So, let's recap here, guys. The seven gut healing foods from Chinese medicine you should try. One is kanji or joe. Two is yen, job's tears. Three is dao, juju be date. Four is ginger, shanjang. Five is steamed pear. Six is black sesame. And seven is fermented millet porridge. Now, do you notice something about this list? You know, they're not that extreme. They're warm, they're soft, they're easy to digest, and they restore balance. They don't just fix like a specific symptom. So, if your gut has been off, you're bloated, you're overly sensitive to everything you eat, try eating like a traditional Chinese medicine patient of mine for one week. Warm foods, cooked grains, less raw, less cold, less processed, and just watch how your body responds. Now, remember, if you want my free 7-day gut reset plan based on traditional Chinese medicine, I've linked it below. And remember, in Chinese medicine, healing starts not with what you remove, but with what you restore to proper function. Now, if you've made it this far into the video, it probably means this message resonates with you on a deeper level. You know, maybe you've tried the supplements, stress hacks, or lifestyle changes, and something's missing. That's where personalized care comes in. In my private clinic in Los Angeles or virtually via tele medicine, I work one-on-one with people who are done guessing. People who are ready to get to the root cause of their digestive problems, anxiety, insomnia, burnout, or chronic fatigue. This isn't a generic functional medicine protocol. It's custom classical East Asian medicine designed for your body. So, you can learn more about working with me oneonone with a link right below this video or in the description of this video here. And I have another great video on traditional Chinese medicine dietary therapy right up there.