Are you ready for the autumn diet for health preservation? The summer heat hasn't even subsided, and the crispness of autumn has quietly arrived! In autumn, due to the pleasant climate and abundant food, people tend to overeat, leading to excess calorie intake that is converted into fat, causing weight gain. In your autumn diet, it's important to eat in moderation and not indulge your appetite with excessive feasting.
Autumn is the season for nourishment, but many people are afraid of gaining weight from excessive eating. You might consider eating some fish, which is low in fat. Its fatty acids have been proven to lower blood sugar, protect the heart, and prevent cancer.
1. Avoid greasy and fried foods
Greasy and fried foods are difficult to digest and can accumulate in the stomach, exacerbating internal heat accumulation, which is not conducive to moistening dryness. Many chronic respiratory diseases often relapse or worsen in the autumn for this reason.
2. Avoid overeating
In autumn, due to the pleasant climate and abundant food, people tend to overeat. Excess calorie intake is converted into fat, leading to weight gain. When it comes to your autumn diet, you must pay attention to moderation and not indulge your appetite with excessive feasting.
3. Avoid spicy, raw, and cold foods
In autumn, you should also eat less of pungent, spicy, and heat-generating foods, such as hot chili peppers. It's also important to avoid the accumulation of damp-heat qi. Foods with a pungent aroma have a dispersing effect, so it's recommended to eat aromatic foods like celery. Furthermore, as the weather turns from hot to cool, the body's physiological metabolism also changes to adapt. It's especially important not to eat food that is too raw or cold, as this can cause indigestion and various digestive tract disorders.
4. Avoid overly dry foods
Traditional Chinese medicine believes that bitter and drying substances can easily damage body fluids and deplete qi. In autumn, dryness is the predominant pathogenic factor. The lungs are delicate and correspond to the autumn dryness, making them susceptible to it. Many chronic respiratory diseases often relapse or gradually worsen starting in autumn. Therefore, the autumn diet for health preservation should avoid overly dry foods, such as some fried foods. Additionally, to prepare for winter, the body stores fat for warmth. Thus, calorie intake can exceed expenditure, and weight can easily increase if you're not careful. Therefore, those who are overweight should pay special attention to weight loss in autumn by eating low-calorie diet foods like red beans, radishes, bamboo shoots, Job's tears, seaweed, and mushrooms. Furthermore, after the start of autumn, an ordinary person's diet should include more sour foods to enhance liver function. Eating more sour, juicy fruits like apples, grapes, hawthorns, and grapefruits is also beneficial for treating hypertension, coronary heart disease, and diabetes.
5. Avoid aquatic plants
Most aquatic plants mature in autumn, but this is also when they carry the most cysts. Eating raw aquatic plants at this time can easily lead to infection, causing inflammation, bleeding, edema, ulcers, diarrhea, and loss of appetite in the intestinal mucosa. In children, it can lead to facial swelling, developmental delays, and reduced intelligence. In severe cases, it can even lead to death from exhaustion or collapse.
6. Avoid blindly controlling your diet
The nutrients and energy reserves the body needs should be comprehensive and balanced and must be provided through a varied diet.
7. Avoid eating crab indiscriminately
Autumn is when crabs are at their fattest. Crabs are large, plump, and delicious this season. As autumn arrives, crabs come ashore, making them very easy to catch. Therefore, autumn is the best time to eat crab. Although crab is delicious, there are many rules to follow. Crabs must be washed thoroughly. The crab's body contains a large number of bacteria and mud. If not cleaned properly, these bacteria and parasites from the mud can enter your body, turning the delicious crab into a "killer crab" that is extremely detrimental to your health.
8. Avoid eating foods without regard to their safe periods
Some foods, while beneficial for health, should not be eaten at certain times. For example, if the food itself is in a risky period, or if your body is in a phase that conflicts with the nature of the food, you should pay special attention. For instance, honey has the effect of nourishing yin and moistening the lungs, but you should avoid eating it in the seventh lunar month. This is because most poisonous plants flower during this month, and if bees collect nectar from them, the honey produced will also be toxic. During the eighth and ninth lunar months, which is the time to nourish yin for the transition to autumn and winter, you should eat more foods that nourish yin and moisten the lungs. Ginger, however, is a pungent food that can easily cause autumn dryness, depleting qi and harming the spirit, so it's best to avoid it. Melons are considered yin-cold foods, and eating too many of them can harm the spleen and stomach. Therefore, they should be eaten less in autumn.
The most suitable foods to eat after the start of autumn are:
Yellow-green fruits and vegetables
These are orange-yellow fruits and vegetables and green leafy vegetables. In summer, people mainly eat gourds and beans, such as cucumbers, winter melons, watermelons, sweet melons, zucchinis, green beans, cowpeas, and edamame. Besides watermelons and green beans, gourds and beans are low in carotene. Therefore, when autumn arrives, the body's reserves of vitamin A can easily become depleted. If not replenished in time, problems like reduced night vision, dry eyes, and susceptibility to respiratory infections can occur in winter and spring. Therefore, it's important to eat more orange-yellow vegetables like pumpkins, carrots, and tomatoes. Additionally, gourds and beans are very low in vitamin C. A long-term deficiency of vitamin C can weaken the immune system, making one more prone to catching colds during the changing seasons. Thus, it's also necessary to eat more green leafy vegetables to replenish vitamin C, such as kale, spinach, and broccoli.
Minced Meat and Crystal Winter Melon Slices
Fermented foods
In autumn, you should appropriately eat more nutrient-rich foods that aid digestion, and fermented foods have this benefit. During fermentation, microorganisms produce a large amount of B vitamins. At the same time, microbial action eliminates anti-nutritional factors in food, partially breaks down proteins, and allows for better absorption and utilization of trace elements and various active substances. For staple foods, you can choose fermented products like leavened flatbreads and steamed buns. Mixed-grain steamed cakes are especially recommended, as combining coarse and fine grains provides higher nutrition. For side dishes, you can eat more fermented bean products like fermented black beans, bean paste, tofu pudding, mahu (a type of fermented tofu), and soybean milk. You can also eat yogurt (fermented from milk) and fermented glutinous rice.
Tofu Pudding with Beef
Various tubers
Autumn is the peak season for tubers. Many tuber foods have the effect of strengthening the body and are rich in B vitamins and minerals like potassium and magnesium. Traditionally, tuber foods are believed to tonify the middle qi. Modern research suggests that when eaten as a staple food, they help prevent obesity and various chronic diseases. Regularly eating Chinese yams, sweet potatoes, taro, and potatoes as substitutes for refined white rice and flour is an excellent health measure.
Rice with Red sausage and Sweet Potato