Dietary details for workaholics: maintaining acid-base balance and avoiding sub-health.

In fact, many working men often worry about their declining health while working hard, but the immense pressure of reality doesn't allow them to stop and stagnate. So what can they do? Just wait to collapse like Mr. Tang one day? Of course not. For health, the most important thing is "eating." As the saying goes, food is the first necessity of the people. A healthy diet is the foundation of a healthy body. Therefore, men might as well make some changes to the details of their diet.

Many people are familiar with scientific and healthy dietary principles such as "eat a good breakfast, a substantial lunch, and a light dinner," as well as avoiding smoking and alcohol and overeating. Here's another small detail: consume more alkaline foods and drinks to maintain an alkaline body constitution. Working men are often busy with work and social engagements, leading to a diet high in oil and fat. Over time, this can cause the body to tend towards a "sub-healthy" acidic constitution. Therefore, men should also try to maintain an "acid-base balance" by eating more alkaline foods like seaweed and soy products to neutralize this imbalance.

In addition, men who are busy in the workplace can also pay attention to drinking, which is even more frequent than eating, by drinking sour plum juice from time to time. Although sour plum juice is not a fancy drink, it is made by boiling dried plums and hawthorn, and contains a variety of trace elements, amino acids, unsaturated fatty acids and dietary fiber needed by the human body. It is not only nutritious and helps to cut through grease, but it can also effectively relieve physical fatigue for busy white-collar men. If you can drink traditional sour plum juice, that would be even better, because traditional sour plum juice is made with all-natural ingredients, rock sugar and mineral water, so you don't have to worry about chemical additives increasing the burden on your body. Even Emperor Qianlong praised sour plum juice as a "rare treasure of the Qing Palace".

In today's fiercely competitive workplace, "sub-health" is issuing a warning to all working professionals, especially men. This state, which lies between health and illness, is often an early clinical manifestation of certain diseases. Even if it doesn't mean a serious illness is imminent, it often weakens the body's resistance, leading to colds, or minor symptoms such as dizziness, fatigue, palpitations, shortness of breath, irritability, etc., causing varying degrees of trouble to work and life.

Guo Yong has only been working for two years. Normally, someone in their early twenties should be full of youthful vigor and fearlessness. But for some reason, he has been feeling particularly tired lately, often forgetting things and focusing on the beginning without considering the end.

One time, his mother saw him like this and jokingly said, "You're so young, yet you're not as good as me." Guo Yong was also puzzled, so he went to the hospital over the weekend, but the test results came back normal. The doctor told him that this was what is called "sub-health," also known as "chronic fatigue syndrome."

In the workplace, there are quite a few people like Guo Yong who are in a state of "sub-health". When asked about their physical condition, these people often reply, "I am not sick, but I am not healthy!" However, according to research by the World Health Organization, nearly 70% of office workers are currently in a state of sub-health to varying degrees.

From a medical perspective, sub-health refers to a state of being neither healthy nor diseased, also known as the third state or gray state. This means that medical examinations reveal no organic lesions, and all test results are normal. However, despite the absence of any apparent problems, these individuals often experience discomfort such as lethargy, fatigue, loss of appetite, headaches, insomnia, restlessness, forgetfulness, and sexual dysfunction; hence the term "sub-health."

So how can we overcome sub-health? Actually, there is no magic cure for this "chronic fatigue syndrome". In addition to psychological adjustment, reasonable arrangement of daily life, and strengthening exercise, we should pay attention to dietary conditioning and use food therapy to deal with sub-health.

Food is considered an important aspect of combating sub-health because, from a Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) perspective, sub-health falls under two main categories: deficiency of both the heart and kidneys, and liver dysfunction. The most common foods from nature can replenish the Yin and Yang of the internal organs, regulate emotions, and promote a cheerful mood. Therefore, scientifically consuming healthy foods and choosing the most suitable dietary therapy can, to a certain extent, regulate the heart, liver, and kidneys. If, at the same time, one can ensure adequate exercise and a cheerful mood, this can help alleviate the discomfort caused by sub-health.

Since the "grocery basket" plays such a significant role, here are some dietary therapy methods to regulate "sub-health":

First and foremost, the simplest and most effective dietary therapy is porridge. Porridge is light, easy to digest, nourishes the stomach and intestines, and strengthens the spleen, making it extremely beneficial. Adding certain ingredients to the porridge can further enhance its effects, making it even easier to combat "sub-health." The following two porridge recipes are worth trying.