Dietary irregularities

A neutral cause of disease; any excess in the consumption of food, including: ingestion of raw, cold, or unclean foodstuffs; voracious eating; predilection for sweet fatty foods; habitual consumption of liquor or hot, spicy foods. Dietary irregularities may not only affect the spleen and stomach, causing digestive disturbances, food accumulation, stomach pain, diarrhea, etc., but in cases of excessive liquor consumption and overindulgence in sweet and fatty foods, they may create heat, phlegm, and dampness. In addition, improper diet may combine with the six excesses to cause disease, e.g., ingestion of raw or cold foodstuffs in summer. See externally contracted causes.