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Undereating or overeating as causes of illness.

1. Failure to eat for a long period can damage stomach qì and stomach yīn, giving rise to stomach pain, clamoring stomach (a feeling in the stomach that is traditionally described as being like hunger but not hunger and like pain but not pain), and upflow and vomiting of acid water. Enduring lack of food can also cause qì vacuity, blood vacuity, or insufficiency of fluids. It can weaken right qì and thereby increase susceptibility to external contractions. Excessive hunger in children can affect development.
2. Excessive eating, especially voracious eating and drinking, can overburden the spleen and stomach, causing what is known as food damage. Because the spleen and stomach cannot cope, food stagnates in the stomach and intestines; hence, the condition is also called food stagnation or food accumulation. The result is distension and pain in the stomach duct and abdomen, putrid belching, acid upflow (welling up of acid into the throat and mouth), aversion to food, retching and vomiting, and diarrhea. When food stagnation continues for a long time, it can cause dampness and phlegm to gather. This can in turn give rise to cough with expectoration of phlegm and child gān disease (child malnutrition).

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