The Secret Cause of Your Bloating

Why salads might be sabotaging your digestion and causing bloating from a Chinese Medicine perspective.

Salads are commonly known as a healthy food, with plenty of dietary fiber and a variety of colorful vegetables. You might be thinking, how could salads be bad for you? Raw vegetables are great, but they are not always ideal, especially for people with digestive problems. From a Chinese Medicine perspective the digestive system can be seen as a cooking pot. This cooking pot loves warm cooked foods, which are easy to digest. Cold or raw foods (which are cold in nature), can be taxing on the system and require a lot of energy to digest. If you think about it, your body needs to “cook” raw or cold foods and bring them to a body temperature in order to assimilate the nutrients.

The Impact 

In TCM, the Spleen and Stomach organs are responsible for transforming the food that we eat into Qi and Blood to be used by the body. There is a saying in Chinese Medicine, “The Spleen loves warmth and hates cold.” Every time you eat a salad or have an iced drink, the spleen is forced to digest a food that is cold in nature, taxing the body in the process. Coldness can impair the Spleen’s function, leading to:

• Bloating

• Loose stools

• Fatigue after eating

• Cold hands and feet

• A sluggish metabolism

Would you throw raw vegetables into a lukewarm pot of water and expect soup?

Who Is Most Affected?

People most affected by cold foods are those with weak digestion, fatigue, excessive bloating or loose stools. Individuals with cold hands and feet, or who tend to run cold. Women postpartum or during the menstrual cycle should be especially careful of cold food. These are times when the body needs extra warmth. 

What To Eat Instead

If you’re someone that likes to meal prep salads for lunch every week, an easy swap is roasted, steamed, or sautéed vegetables. Meal prepping a big batch of vegetables is a great way to support digestion for the week. Warm nourishing foods like soups, stews, and congee are easily digestible and a great way for the body to assimilate nutrients. Warm herbal teas are another way to support the body with the warmth that it needs for digestion. 

A Warmer Approach to Wellness

The goal isn’t to label salads as "bad"—it’s to recognize that what’s considered healthy can look different depending on your body’s needs and the season of life you’re in. Tuning into how your body feels after certain meals is the first step toward creating a more supportive, nourishing relationship with food.

In TCM, food is medicine—but only when it's in harmony with your body's natural rhythms. So if you’ve been dealing with bloating, fatigue, or sluggish digestion, consider shifting from cold, raw meals to warm, cooked ones. Your Spleen will thank you. To learn more about how to support digestion, call Arise Acupuncture at 619-356-1225 and book a consultation.