The third episode of Dream of Red Mansions: "After the lonely meal, each maid brought tea with a small tea tray. On that day, Lin Ruhai taught her daughter to cherish her blessings to nourish her body, and after the cloud meal, she should wait for the rice to be swallowed, and then eat tea after a while, so as not to hurt the spleen and stomach. Today, Daiyu saw that many things here did not fit the style of the family, and she had to follow them, so she had to change them one by one, so she took the tea. I saw someone holding the gargle again, and Daiyu also rinsed her mouth. After finishing his hand, he brought tea again, this is the tea to eat. It can be seen that you can't eat tea immediately after a meal, otherwise it will hurt your spleen and stomach.
Modern medicine also does not recommend drinking tea immediately after meals, because the caffeine and catechins in tea can cause ulcers and erosions of the stomach mucosa. Another tea contains a large amount of tannic acid, which can react with iron in food to form new substances that are difficult to dissolve, so that the gastrointestinal mucosa can not be absorbed, and it can lead to iron deficiency in the body and even induce anemia for a long time. Therefore, it is possible to drink tea an hour after a meal, which can help to cleanse and detoxify the intestines.
Lin Daiyu has a weak physique and a bad spleen and stomach, so Lin Ruhai instructed Daiyu to eat and digest the food before eating tea, that is, "after a while" (equivalent to 2 hours in modern times). And drinking tea immediately after a meal formed by the Jia family is indeed not good for human health, Lin Daiyu follows the local customs, but also sacrifices her own health.
This also confirms the classics of Dream of Red Mansions from another aspect, and many of the prescriptions and health regimens in the book still have places that we modern people can learn from.