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Regarding syndromes where diet injures the Spleen and Stomach, there are those caused by Cold injury, Heat injury, acute onset, chronic duration, deficiency syndromes, and excess syndromes. However, while Heat, acute, and excess conditions are easily understood by people, Cold, chronic, and deficiency conditions are often unrecognized. Nowadays, when people injure their Stomach Qi by consuming raw or cold fruits and vegetables, resulting in diarrhea, dysentery, or pain, they are still often mistaken for Fire syndromes (syndromes caused by pathogenic fire) and treated with cold-natured medicines; this is a failure to recognize Cold syndromes. Some individuals experience abdominal distension or pain due to occasional food stagnation, which people generally know to be an excess condition. Yet, those with strong Spleen and Stomach functions can easily transform even stagnant food; only when transformation fails does it most likely indicate a Middle Jiao Deficiency syndrome. Thus, some present with hunger despite not eating, but abdominal distension after small amounts of intake; some have no sensation of hunger or fullness and completely lack appetite; some suffer from abdominal distension and bloating due to Stomach deficiency accompanied by vomiting; some experience intermittent eating and vomiting due to the Failure of Ministerial Fire to Warm Earth (Kidney Yang failing to warm the Spleen); some feel a sensation of obstruction in the chest and throat due to the inability of Middle Qi to transform, though this is not actually food stagnation; others lose their appetite for a long time due to other illnesses injuring Stomach Qi, which is not a disease of Middle Jiao fullness. Generally, Stomach diseases in acute phases are mostly excess, while Spleen diseases in chronic phases are mostly deficiency. Contemporary physicians, regardless of whether the cause is pathogenic or healthy qi, and regardless of duration, rarely refrain from using stomach-opening and digestion-promoting agents; this demonstrates a lack of understanding of deficiency syndromes. The function of the Spleen and Stomach is originally to digest food. Now that they cannot digest food, their functional capacity is diseased; how can one solely focus on attacking and depleting to further harm this capacity? Moreover, to treat any disease, one must first rely on Stomach Qi as the master driving the action of medicine. If Stomach Qi is solid, attacking will expel the pathogen, and the disease will often heal easily, because strong Stomach Qi facilitates the movement of medicinal power. If Stomach Qi is deficient, attacking will not expel the pathogen; this is not because the medicine cannot remove the disease, but because the weak Stomach Qi becomes weaker upon attack, making it impossible for the medicinal power to move. Long-term attacking will not only fail to allow the medicine to work but will inevitably injure Yuan Qi further, causing the disease to worsen, eventually destroying all function and leading to death. Furthermore, constitutions vary greatly. For robust laborers and newly sudden illnesses, eliminating and attacking methods are appropriate to quickly remove the pathogen. However, for those with weak constitutions and chronic illnesses, if one disregards deficiency and excess and indiscriminately applies rapid attacking treatments, danger is inevitable.

1. Those injured by food retention will necessarily dislike food.

1. Those who habitually prefer cold foods must have internal Heat; those who habitually prefer hot foods must have internal Cold. Therefore, those with internal Cold do not like cold, and those with internal Heat do not like heat. However, excessive preference for cold generates Middle Jiao Cold, and excessive preference for heat generates internal Heat. This is what the *Nei Jing* (Inner Canon) refers to as "long-term accumulation increases qi, which is the normal transformation of things"; prolonged increase of qi is the cause of premature death. Thus, those treating diseases and preserving health should observe the drawbacks of habitual preferences within one's innate constitution.

1. Diseases caused by diet: injuries from Heat mostly manifest as Fire syndromes with little food stagnation; injuries from Cold mostly manifest as food stagnation and are entirely non-Fire syndromes. Generally, dietary injuries are mostly due to cold-natured substances, followed by neutral/warm substances, and least by hot-natured substances. Therefore, treating such cases requires careful examination of the etiology.

1. People suffering from occasional illnesses often suspect food when it is not the cause, saying, "I ate such-and-such food/meat/noodles on such-and-such day, and got sick that same day." Physicians, regardless of deficiency or excess, hearing this and seeing poor appetite, will invariably treat for food retention. But who does not eat before getting sick? Must one retain food beforehand to await illness? How can one believe there is no food retention? When illness occurs, it may be due to fatigue, Wind-Cold invasion, or Seven Emotions, arising unpredictably, without abdominal distension or stagnation—what does this have to do with food? Medicines mismatched to the disease, blindly applied with attacking and depleting methods, will only exacerbate the illness. This is a form of fabrication in medical practice. By extension, any baseless speculation falls into this category, which is truly lamentable.