What foods should longan not be eaten with? What is it incompatible with?

Longan is a fruit we often eat in our daily lives. The flesh of fresh longan is milky white and semi-transparent; after being made into dried longan, the flesh turns dark brown and becomes tough in texture. It can be eaten and also used as medicine. There are more than thirty varieties, widely cultivated in Fujian, Taiwan, China, Guangdong, Guangxi, Sichuan, Guizhou, Yunnan and other places in our country. Because the longan's pit is round, black and glossy, and its hilum is raised and white, it looks very much like the eye of the legendary dragon, so in ancient times it was called dragon eye, and now it is also called longan, round eye, fuyuan yizhi and so on. So what foods should longan not be eaten with? What is it incompatible with?

I. The effects and functions of longan

Longan is warm in nature and sweet in taste, belonging to the genus Dimocarpus in the Sapindaceae family. Li Shizhen said in the Compendium of Materia Medica: "Among foods, lychee is the most prized, but for nourishment, longan is the best." According to modern scientific research, the glucose, sucrose, vitamin A, vitamin B, protein and various minerals in longan are all very good nutrients needed by the human body. Longan contains a variety of nutrients and is easily absorbed by the human body; regular consumption can calm the mind, strengthen the brain, and relieve insomnia and forgetfulness. Its warming and tonic effect also makes it very suitable for the recuperation and recovery of patients, can assist in treating the problem of weak constitution, and is also suitable for women's postpartum physical conditioning. At the same time, research has found that longan's inhibition rate against uterine cancer cells exceeds 90%. The ancients highly praised the medicinal value of longan; as early as the Han Dynasty it was already used as medicine, and it was believed to have multiple effects such as nourishing and strengthening the body, tonifying the heart and calming the mind, nourishing the blood and strengthening yang, benefiting the spleen and stimulating the appetite, and moisturizing the skin and beautifying the appearance.

II. What foods should longan not be eaten with?

1. Longan should not be eaten with cold-natured, qi-descending foods such as bananas, large radishes, mung beans and lotus leaves. Eating them together will produce conflicting effects and may cause adverse reactions such as dizziness.

2. Longan should not be eaten with some heat-natured foods, because longan itself is a warm, heat-natured fruit, and eating too much can easily cause internal heat. For example, some heat-natured staple foods——brown rice, sorghum, sesame, rice, etc., heat-natured meats——beef, dog meat, oysters, venison, sea cucumber, etc., heat-natured fruits——red dates, lychee, papaya, durian, etc., as well as heat-natured dried fruits such as pine nuts, walnuts and cashews, longan cannot be eaten together with any of these heat-natured foods.

3. Pregnant women should eat as little longan as possible, because longan easily causes internal heat and is not very good for the fetus, but it can occasionally be eaten to supplement qi and blood.

4. Longan cannot be eaten when there are symptoms such as internal heat and inflammation, because eating too much longan easily leads to a condition of stagnant qi in the body. At the same time, people with yin deficiency and hyperactive fire in the body, diabetes, invasion of damp pathogens, or gynecological diseases should also eat less longan.