Du Heng looked at Xu Pinglin and smiled. "I think I've found the cause of his recurring condition."

"What's the cause?" Xu Pinglin asked quickly. He was also greatly troubled by this patient.

However, Du Heng didn't rush to address Xu Pinglin's anxiety. Instead, he turned and walked towards the hospital room. "Let me go confirm it." As his words fell, Du Heng had already returned to the hospital room.

In the hospital room, the patient had just picked up his bowl and chopsticks, ready to eat. Seeing Du Heng suddenly return, he couldn't help but pause. "Doctor, is there something else?"

Du Heng walked closer and looked at the meal in the patient's hand: cold noodles with tomato and egg, accompanied by cold-tossed celtuce. It looked, smelled, and tasted wonderful. Du Heng was still a meter away, but the aroma was already wafting into his nostrils.

"This meal looks wonderful, very appetizing," Du Heng complimented the patient's wife.

The man also smiled and said, "Doctor, you should try some too. My wife's cooking skills definitely surpass those of a five-star hotel chef."

"No, thank you. Please, go ahead and eat," Du Heng declined the man's kind offer, smiling as he said, "I have a few questions for you."

The man lowered the hand holding his bowl slightly. "Go ahead, Doctor."

"This tomato and scrambled eggs, do you eat it often?"

"Not really. I just add it when I have noodles. It tastes great with noodles and helps keep them from clumping together."

Du Heng then asked, "So, how often do you eat noodles?"

"Almost every day. Except for breakfast, at least one of my other two meals is noodles," the man said, laughing. "We people from the Northwest feel like something's missing if we go a meal without noodles."

Du Heng chuckled. "That's true. I can eat noodles for every meal, but I can't stand eating rice for several meals in a row. By the way, can you tell me what you usually eat for breakfast?"

"Of course," the man was very cooperative. "In the morning, sometimes I have millet porridge and steamed buns. Sometimes, if I don't feel like eating, I'll just drink some honey water to cleanse my stomach. Or I'll have whole wheat bread from the supermarket—the pure, coarse grain kind—with a salted duck egg. That keeps me full all morning."

This time, Du Heng didn't comment. Instead, he smiled and asked, "You don't drink milk? Milk is more nutritious, you know."

The man gave an embarrassed smile. "I don't drink it often, but my kids love it. When I drink milk, whether it's diluted or not, I always think it has a sort of fishy taste. I just can't get used to it."

"If you can't even handle milk, I suppose you don't eat mutton then? That has an even stronger gamey odor."

The man nodded readily. "You're right, Doctor. When it comes to food, I prefer sweet and sour flavors, something milder. Mutton itself has a strong gamey taste. To get rid of that gamey taste, you have to add strong seasonings like pepper, chili, garlic, and green onions, and I can't stand those even more."

"Then, with your dietary habits, you must have some fruit every day, right?"

"Well, how should I put it? We have a child at home, just one. So, fruit after meals has become essential. We give him different fruits every day—watermelon, strawberries, oranges, bananas, kiwis, and so on—to supplement vitamins that might be lacking in his regular meals. My wife and I just get to eat whatever is left over, thanks to him."

After listening quietly to the man finish, Du Heng sighed. The expression on his face was extremely complex; even he himself didn't quite know what to make of it. This man's actions really brought to mind that old saying: 'Taking medicine without observing dietary restrictions ruins the doctor's efforts.'

Xu Pinglin glanced at Du Heng. Seeing Du Heng's unreadable emotion, he couldn't help but ask, "President Du, why are you asking all this?"

Du Heng pursed his lips, looked at the man before him, and asked, "Do you think this kind of diet is good?"

The man also noticed Du Heng's odd expression, but he had absolutely no doubts about his own diet. His wife had formulated it after extensively reading various nutritional cookbooks. Besides, apart from his stomach discomfort, he had none of the typical middle-aged problems like obesity, greasiness, the 'three highs,' or kidney deficiency.

So, after hearing Du Heng's question, he looked at him suspiciously. "Is my diet not nutritionally balanced?"

Du Heng didn't answer the man's question. Instead, he countered, "Traditional Chinese medicine emphasizes dietary restrictions in treatment. You know that, right?"

The man nodded. "Of course, I definitely know that. And I know my stomach is weak, so I completely avoid irritating foods like chili peppers."

Du Heng simply shook his head at the man's reply. "That's not the right way to observe dietary restrictions. They should be chosen based on your own body's 'heat' or 'cold' nature. The nutritional balance you mentioned, from a Western medicine perspective, is indeed fine. Western medicine doesn't have this concept of dietary restrictions. So, your diet absolutely aligns with Western nutritional design. But you've seen the results. You're using the most scientific methods, eating the most nutritious meal plans, and keeping your food as bland as possible. Yet, this gastritis of yours just keeps recurring and doesn't get better. Meanwhile, those people who eat barbecue, drink beer, have crayfish, and even indulge in hot pot every few days are surprisingly perfectly fine. Why is that? It's because your dietary restrictions aren't the right ones for you."