The wisdom of age makes seniors more particular about their diet. In daily life, seasonings like scallions, ginger, garlic, and Sichuan peppercorns are indispensable. Seniors often add them when stir-frying, simmering soups, or steaming to enhance the flavor of food. Traditional Chinese Medicine points out that these common seasonings not only add flavor but also possess medicinal properties, such as relieving pain, sterilizing, strengthening the spleen, and lowering blood pressure. Below, the editor will provide a detailed introduction:
Scallion: Protecting Blood Vessels
Nutritionists have found that scallions contain various nutrients such as protein, carbohydrates, fats, vitamins A, B, C, and minerals like calcium, iron, and magnesium. They inhibit *Shigella*, *Staphylococcus*, and skin fungi, can enhance human immunity, and prevent the spread of respiratory and intestinal infectious diseases. The scallion element extracted from scallions has the effect of dilating blood vessels, helping to prevent and treat high blood pressure. More importantly, the white part of the scallion can effectively break down protein. When cooking foods rich in protein and fat, adding scallions can reduce cholesterol deposition on the arterial walls, thus preventing atherosclerosis and lowering blood lipids, blood sugar, and blood pressure.
Ginger: Aspirin in Food
Ginger has multiple functions, including clearing the stomach, lowering cholesterol, promoting intestinal peristalsis, treating nausea and vomiting, fighting viral colds, thinning the blood, and alleviating rheumatism. Because ginger contains a special substance whose chemical structure is similar to the main component of aspirin, ginger has effects similar to aspirin in thinning the blood and alleviating rheumatic pain. It is also effective for joint swelling, pain, inflammation, and toothache.
Garlic: Natural Antibiotic
Garlic is famous for its powerful sterilization ability due to a unique substance called alliin. When it enters the bloodstream, it converts into allicin, which can instantly kill various bacteria such as *Shigella*, *E. coli*, and *Staphylococcus*, even when diluted.
Although garlic has many benefits for preventing and treating diseases, more is not always better. Excessive consumption of garlic can kill beneficial bacteria in the intestines along with pathogenic ones. Therefore, it is recommended not to eat more than four raw cloves of garlic per day, and it should not be consumed on an empty stomach. Furthermore, individuals with yin deficiency and excess internal heat, or those suffering from gastric ulcers, gastritis, duodenal ulcers, nephritis, heart disease, and constipation should avoid eating raw garlic.
Sichuan Peppercorn: A Unique Spice
Sichuan peppercorn is a unique Chinese spice. It is pungent in taste and hot in nature, with the effects of aromatically strengthening the stomach, eliminating dampness to relieve pain, warming the middle to dispel cold, killing parasites and detoxifying, and stopping itching and removing fishy odors. It is mainly used to treat conditions such as vomiting, wind-cold-dampness impediment, and toothache. The aromatic scent of Sichuan peppercorn can stimulate saliva secretion, increasing appetite. It can also dilate blood vessels, thereby lowering blood pressure. In addition, drinking peppercorn water can expel parasites.