The Ultimate Guide to Autumn Eating. You're welcome.

Autumn has arrived, with its crisp breezes, relief from the summer heat, branches full of ripe fruit, and golden fields. As the seasons change, the body can be prone to discomfort, and dietary adjustments are a great way to improve this. So, how should you nourish yourself in the fall? What foods should you eat, and what dietary taboos should you be aware of? Come and learn something new!

Part 1——For Moms-to-Be: Eat More Lean Meat

Beef and Spinach Congee

Throughout the summer, moms-to-be often eat more vegetarian meals. Although they do consume meat, it tends to be fish and shrimp, which are not rich in iron. They rarely eat animal meats like pork, beef, or mutton. If one consumes a large amount of cold and frozen fruits during the summer, it can often harm the spleen and stomach, leading to "spleen and stomach cold deficiency." This, in turn, affects digestion and absorption and makes one more prone to iron-deficiency anemia.

Therefore, after entering autumn, the focus for these women with "yang deficiency constitutions" characterized by cold spleen and stomach is to appropriately eat some warm lean meats like beef and mutton. This helps boost yang energy, warm the stomach, and dispel cold, and it also aids in iron supplementation.

In your diet, you should also follow the principle of "nourishing blood with color," eating more red foods such as red dates, goji berries, and carrots. With a wide variety of fruits available in autumn, if you want to eat blood-boosting fruits, it's best to choose warm ones like oranges and tangerines. Melons like muskmelons and cantaloupes should be eaten less.

Recommended Recipes: Sliced Beef with Scrambled Eggs, Beef and Oatmeal Congee, Peas and Beef Congee, Spinach and Beef Congee

Part 2——For Dads Who Love Meat: Control Your Appetite

Spinach and Chicken Ball Soup

Once autumn arrives, meat-loving men have a good excuse: "fuqiu" (fattening up for winter). Braised lamb lamb chops, lamb spine hot pot, and fatty beef hot pot are their favorites.

Although middle-aged men are less prone to anemia, for those who frequently socialize, controlling weight in autumn becomes a serious challenge, making appetite control crucial. Because if you're not careful in autumn, you could easily gain 5 kilograms of weight during the less active winter, which puts great strain on the heart and other internal organs and can easily lead to "heatiness" (internal heat). Therefore, when there are no social engagements, try to eat at home as much as possible, eating more vegetables and maintaining a light diet.

Recommended Recipes: Sichuan Green Beans with Sesame, Cauliflower Juice, Ginger Spinach, Spinach and Chicken Ball Soup

Part 3——For the Little Ones at Home: Eat Less Fried Chicken and More Fish

Crucian Carp and Tofu Soup

Research shows that autumn is a high season for colds. The main food parents give their children to "fuqiu" is meat, and breakfast often consists of high-calorie foods like hamburgers and fried chicken, which is not advisable.

A balanced diet requires a variety of vegetables. Parents can prepare vegetable salads and soy products for their children to ensure a richer breakfast. This helps prevent low blood sugar and ensures better memory throughout the morning.

When "fuqiu" for children, parents can prepare some sea fish. Fish contains less saturated fat than most meats, and sea fish are rich in omega-3 fatty acids, which can increase "good" cholesterol in the blood and help eliminate "bad" cholesterol. It's best to steam sea fish to maximize the preservation of its nutrients.

Recommended Recipes: Raw Fish and Red Date Soup, Fish Fillet Congee, Chinese Yam and Fish Fillet Soup, Crucian Carp and Tofu Soup

Learn Something New: Autumn Diet Do's and Don'ts

As autumn arrives, the weather gradually becomes cooler in the mornings and evenings, but it remains hot during the day. After the "Bailu" (White Dew) solar term, rainfall decreases, the weather becomes dry, and there is a large temperature difference between hot days and cool nights. This changeable climate makes one prone to colds, and many old illnesses can easily relapse, earning autumn the name "eventful season." Autumn is a critical period for health preservation, and autumn dietary health care must pay attention to four issues:

Do's

1. Eat a light nourishing diet and drink some nourishing yin soups

Old Duck and Winter Melon Soup

Due to its seasonal characteristics, early autumn is prone to damp-heat toxins. Therefore, heavy and warm tonics are not suitable; instead, light tonics are appropriate. Consuming foods that are nourishing, yin-enhancing, and heat-clearing, such as duck, goose, crucian carp, rabbit, lean pork, kelp, and tofu. After proper cooking, make soups like old duck and bitter melon soup or kelp soup. This not only stimulates the appetite and improves nutrition but also helps relieve summer heat and strengthen the body.

2. Eat a light diet and drink some varied congees

Lotus Leaf Congee

At the end of summer and the beginning of autumn, high temperatures and heavy rainfall lead to high humidity, which can dampen the spleen. The spleen governs transportation and transformation and prefers dryness over dampness. Damp-heat trapping the spleen affects its normal function, which in turn affects the stomach's ability to receive food, leading to loss of appetite. Additionally, hot weather can easily irritate people's mood, and poor sleep can also affect gastrointestinal function, causing a decrease in appetite. Therefore, our general dietary principle is to eat lightly. Eat more foods that clear heat and dampness, strengthen the spleen, and whet the appetite, such as mung beans, Job's tears, bitter melon, loofah, hyacinth beans, and tomatoes. You can also make some therapeutic congees at home, such as hawthorn and Job's tears congee, mung bean and tremella ice congee, lotus leaf congee, or hyacinth bean congee.

3. Eat more bitter foods and some melons, bamboo shoots, and tea

Modern people, compared to the ancients, often have excess nutrition and excess internal heat, with a constitution leaning towards yang excess. Coupled with the summer season, they are easily affected by summer heat, leading to excessive internal fire. You can eat more bitter and cooling foods. There is a folk saying, "Eating bitter food in hot weather is better than taking a tonic." Eating more bitter foods can help clear heat and relieve summer heat, refresh the mind, strengthen the spleen and whet the appetite, and detoxify and reduce internal fire. Common bitter foods include: bitter melon, endive, kale, lettuce, grapefruit, aloe vera, lotus seeds, buckwheat, naked oats, and green tea.

Don'ts

1. Avoid eating spicy, raw, and cold foods

Due to the dry weather in autumn, it's easy to get "heatiness" (internal heat). You should try to eat less spicy and irritating foods like chili peppers. You can eat more water-rich vegetables like celery or more water-rich fruits. Because the weather is dry, it's important to drink more water. Additionally, the climate in autumn also turns cool, with large temperature differences between morning and evening. Be careful to eat less raw and cold food in your diet. If you eat as much raw and cold food as you did in summer, the body will not be able to adapt to this change, and physiological metabolism will not be balanced, which can easily lead to indigestion and other diseases. We all know that "illness enters through the mouth," so we must remember to "abstain" from certain foods for health preservation.

2. Avoid eating overly dry foods

According to traditional Chinese medicine, bitter and drying foods can easily damage body fluids and vital energy. In autumn, the pathogenic factor of dryness is prevalent. The lungs are delicate organs and are connected to autumn's dryness, making them susceptible to the pathogenic influence of autumn dryness. Many chronic respiratory diseases often relapse or gradually worsen starting in autumn. Therefore, autumn dietary health care should avoid overly dry foods, such as some fried and grilled foods. Additionally, to prepare for the arrival of autumn, the body stores fat to keep warm. Therefore, caloric intake is greater than expenditure, and if you're not careful, your weight will increase. Therefore, obese people should pay more attention to weight loss in autumn and eat more low-calorie diet foods, such as red beans, radish, bamboo shoots, Job's tears, kelp, and mushrooms. Furthermore, ordinary people should increase their intake of sour foods in autumn to enhance liver function. They should eat more sour, juicy fruits like apples, grapes, hawthorn, and grapefruit, which are beneficial for diseases like hypertension, coronary heart disease, and diabetes.

3. Avoid eating greasy, fried, and grilled foods

Greasy, fried, and grilled foods are not easy to digest. They accumulate in the stomach, increasing the internal heat and stagnation, which is not conducive to moistening dryness. Many chronic respiratory diseases often relapse or worsen in autumn for this very reason.