Method: Add the sugar a strained decoction of cinnamon bark to the ready-made gruel. Alternatively, add 1–2 gr of ground cinnamon to the gruel.
Rationale:Ròu guì supplements original yáng, warm the spleen and stomach, relieves cold pain, and frees the blood vessels. It is commonly used for insufficiency of kidney yáng (also called debilitation of the life gate fire) with aversion to cold and cold limbs as well as for debilitation of spleen yáng with cold pain in the stomach duct and abdomen. It is also used for yīn flat-abscess (yīn jū) that fail to burst, for wind-cold-damp impediment (fēng hán shī bì) pain, infertility due to uterine cold, and cold-type menstrual pain. Volatile oils contained in Ròu guì excite the nervous system and stimulate blood flow. This is explains the blood-quickening and cold-dispersing action It also stimulates the gastrointestinal mucosa to improve digestion and absorption, relieve spasmodic pain, increase gastric secretion, stimulate peristalsis and prevent abnormal fermentation in the intestines. This explains the function of warming the spleen and stomach. Note that also this gruel is a food recipe, the Ròu guì used in Chinese medicine should be used in preference to the cinnamon used in Western cooking, which usually comes from other species of cinnamon.