Food damage

Described in Dān-Xī’s Heart-Approach (Zhū Zhèn-Hēng 朱震亨 [Dān-Xī 丹溪], 丹溪心法 dān xī xīn fǎ). Any disease pattern of damage to stomach and spleen by food. Food damage is caused by voracious eating or spleen-stomach vacuity. Plain Questions (素问 sù wèn) states, Overeating causes damage to the stomach and intestines. It is characterized by aversion to food, nausea and vomiting, belching, putrid-smelling vomitus and qì, acid swallowing, painful bloating of the abdomen, diarrhea or constipation, foul-smelling stool and flatus, and relief from pain and distension after defecation or passing of flatus. The tongue fur is slimy and either thick or yellow. In food damage, when food accumulation remains untransformed for days, the resulting condition is called abiding food. See food stagnating in the stomach and intestines.