Dietary taboos include

There are innate taboos bound to individual physiological characteristics, pathological taboos related to disease/medication status, and customary taboos related to regional culture/religious beliefs. There is no unified list of taboos that is universally applicable. All taboos must be judged based on specific scenarios. Completely copying the general list online may lead to pitfalls.

Don't tell me, I have met a college student before who posted an online "fasting and fasting list" on the wall of her dormitory. She didn't even dare to eat bananas on an empty stomach. One time she was so hungry that she almost fell down on the stairwell due to hypoglycemia. In fact, she had no stomach problems and it was perfectly fine to eat bananas on an empty stomach. The so-called taboo did not hold true for her at all.

Innate physiological taboos are basically engraved in genes. There is no dispute. The most common ones are food allergies and lactose intolerance: People with peanut allergies may cause laryngeal edema even if they get a little bit of crushed peanuts. In severe cases, they may go into shock.； People who are lactose intolerant are likely to have diarrhea if they drink ice milk. They will be fine if they switch to lactose-free milk or room temperature yogurt. There were rumors before that "everyone will get stomach stones if they eat persimmons on an empty stomach." In fact, only people with excessive gastric acid secretion and insufficient gastric motility need to pay attention. I have a friend who gnaws a crisp persimmon on an empty stomach every day in winter. After five or six years of eating, there were no problems during physical examinations. This individual difference is the core of physiological taboos - other people's taboos may not matter to you at all.

What needs more attention than innate physiological taboos are pathological taboos during illness or taking medication. This is also the most controversial area at present, with different medical systems having quite different opinions. For example, patients with gout must strictly avoid high-purine foods, such as hot pot soup, animal offal, and cold beer. They must not touch alcohol when taking cephalosporin antibiotics, and even alcohol-containing Huoxiang Zhengqi water and alcoholic chocolate. These are the consensus recognized by both Chinese and Western medicine. There is nothing to argue about. If you really do it, you will die. A young man was admitted to the emergency department before. After taking cephalosporins, he couldn't help but drink half a glass of beer. He was sent to the ICU with difficulty breathing on the spot. But more taboos actually have their own basis. For example, when you have a cold, modern medicine believes that as long as you are not allergic, you can eat anything you want. Adding more protein can speed up recovery. However, traditional Chinese medicine often recommends avoiding raw, cold, and hair-raising foods, such as watermelon just taken out of the refrigerator, shelled seafood, and mutton. This is not completely true. It makes no sense. Last time I had a viral cold, I was so greedy that I ate half a kilogram of ice shrimp. I had a stuffy nose that night and couldn't sleep at all. After checking the information, I found out that some seafood has high histamine content. Eating it during an inflammation episode will indeed aggravate mucosal edema. There is no need to say which one is more correct. Just follow your body's reaction. There is another medication taboo that is easily overlooked: when taking lipid-lowering statins or some antihypertensive drugs, do not touch grapefruit or drink grapefruit juice. I used to have an old patient who had been taking statins for three years. One afternoon, he ate half an imported grapefruit. His muscles were sore that night and he could not stand up. When he was sent to the doctor for examination, he found that the creatine kinase had increased more than ten times. This was caused by the furanocoumarins in the grapefruit affecting the drug metabolism.

In addition to body-related taboos, there is another category that is easily overlooked, which are customary taboos in social and cultural settings. This type of taboo has nothing to do with health. The core is respect. For example, Hui compatriots do not eat pork, Hindus do not eat beef, and some Buddhists do not eat meat. There are also many places where people are not allowed to eat raw or cold foods during confinement. What scientific basis do you think these taboos have? In fact, there is no need to get to the bottom of it. Just go to corresponding occasions, get along with friends who have relevant customs, and abide by the corresponding rules. You can't go to a halal restaurant to eat and ask people if they have braised pork. That is not a taboo, but rude.

Nowadays, the dietary taboos on the Internet are becoming more and more mysterious. Things like "eating ginger and arsenic at night" and "eating vitamin C and shrimp together are equivalent to taking poison" are actually mostly eye-catching rumors. The former has no scientific basis at all. I often make ginger tea at night in winter and sleep more soundly.； The latter is even more exaggerated. To reach a toxic dose, you have to eat dozens of kilograms of shrimp in one go and take dozens of vitamin C tablets. It is impossible for normal people to eat so much.

To put it bluntly, there is really no need to memorize so many messy lists of taboos. There are only three core principles: don’t eat if you feel uncomfortable next time. Ask the doctor if you are sick or taking medicine. If you go to strange places and eat with people with different customs, observe and ask questions. It is much more practical than keeping dozens of "diet taboos to remember for a lifetime".