Food Therapy For Digestive and/or Uterine Stagnation

(In TCM called: Liver Stagnation)

STAGNATION FOOD GUIDELINES - Clearing Qi Stagnation, supporting liver


Don’t eat / snack during the hour before bed - food needs time to digest and can occupy the liver when it’s supposed to be cleaning and generating the blood from 11:00pm-3:00am. If you eat during this time you might wake up feeling “hungover”.

A trick I use because I get cravings for salty crunchy and/or sweet snacks between the dinner meal and bedtime is chewing gum to avoid eating during this window of time.

Reduce fat/oily foods

Avoid cold foods/beverages as much as possible. If I’m going to eat raw carrots for that crunch and it’s winter time I like to combine it with hot tea. I don’t eat icy desserts in cold weather as a rule, but will when it is hot out. (Find balance!)

Both of those kinds of foods take longer to digest and can take up the energy needed for liver work between 11:00pm-3:00am.

FOOD THERAPY FOR CIRCULATION, moving blood stagnation + Qi stagnation
Focus on bitter and spicy foods, and herbs, as well as emmenagogue teas.

Helpful circulation foods:

  • Chicken Egg

  • Bitter Greens - collards, watercress, dandelion, frisee, radicchio, arugula

  • Roots - carrot, parsnip, beet, turnip, radish, daikon radish

  • Chilis

  • Butter

  • Onion

  • Rice

  • Vinegar

  • Chives

  • Grapefruit

  • Squash

    Helpful circulation herbs:

  • Green Tea

  • Black Tea

  • Ginger

  • Cinnamon

  • Thyme

  • Pepper

  • Cayenne

  • Hawthorne

  • rose

  • motherwort

  • Don Quai - angelica root

  • basil

  • tulsi

  • cardamom

  • caraway

  • chives

  • cloves

  • coriander

  • dill seed

  • fennel seed

  • garlic

  • orange peel

  • peppermint

  • anise

  • caraway 

Cut Back 50% on these foods when clearing stagnation:

  • Fatty and oily foods

  • Cold foods, frozen foods, cold beverages,

Disclaimer: This information is intended as a reference only and not as medical treatment. The information given here is designed to help you make informed decisions about your health. It is not intended as a substitute for any treatment that may have been prescribed by your doctor. Steph C Cosby assumes no liability for injury due to misuse of the information above.

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