People have always loved sweet, delicate, and rich foods, while disliking bitter and coarse foods. Millions of years ago, or even just forty or fifty years ago, people often had to live on meager diets. Their main concern was not diabetes, heart disease, or obesity, but how to avoid malnutrition. Now, our diet is completely different from that of our ancestors, and we worry more about preventing obesity, lowering blood fat, and reducing the risk of cancer.
1. Astringent Foods
Unripe persimmons and purple grape skins are foods with a strong astringent taste. Their astringency comes from tannins, phytic acid, and oxalic acid in the food. These substances are powerful antioxidants and are beneficial for preventing diabetes and high blood lipids. Moreover, for the same type of fruit, the astringent variety is more nutritious. For example, a small, tart apple is better than a large, sweet Fuji apple.
Health Tip:
Tannins from astringent foods are widely used in beauty products, mainly for their astringent, sun-protection, whitening, wrinkle-preventing, and antioxidant effects. Therefore, astringent foods are truly rare and valuable beauty foods for women.
2. Coarse Foods
Foods are coarse because they are rich in insoluble fiber, such as coarse grains, celery stalks, and cabbage stalks. It is this dietary fiber that helps prevent constipation, intestinal cancer, and aids in the excretion of metal ions, helping the body detoxify and lose weight. If you are worried about gaining weight after eating a high-fat meal, you can eat these foods, as this is when coarse foods are most effective.
Health Tip:
Dietary fiber is a type of carbohydrate that cannot be digested by the human body. It can be divided into two basic types based on its solubility in water: soluble fiber and insoluble fiber. Cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin are three common types of insoluble fiber, found in plant cell walls. Insoluble fiber can reduce the risk of colorectal cancer, prevent constipation and diverticulitis by absorbing toxins in food, and reduce toxins excreted by bacteria in the digestive tract. Soluble fibers, such as pectin and gum, are found in non-fibrous substances in nature. Common foods rich in soluble fiber include barley, beans, carrots, citrus fruits, flax, oats, and oat bran. Soluble fiber can slow down digestion and rapidly excrete cholesterol, helping to regulate immune system function and promote the excretion of toxic heavy metals from the body.
3. Bitter Foods
Bitter melon with egg
Foods like lemon peel, tea, and dark chocolate are rich in various glycosides, terpenes, and polyphenols, which are what make them bitter. For example, naringenin in lemon peel and grapefruit peel, polyphenols in tea, and polyphenols in red wine and chocolate can prevent cancer and heart disease, and also give the food a slightly bitter flavor.
Health Tip:
Among bitter foods, bitter melon is probably the most accepted. Bitter melon has the effects of clearing heat and relieving summer heat, nourishing blood and replenishing qi, tonifying the kidneys and strengthening the spleen, and nourishing the liver and improving eyesight. It is also effective in treating dysentery, sores and swellings, heatstroke and fever, excessive prickly heat, and conjunctivitis. In addition, bitter melon is high in vitamin C and has effects such as preventing scurvy, protecting cell membranes, preventing atherosclerosis, improving the body's stress response, and protecting the heart.
4. "Pungent" Foods
Cold-dressed onion
Foods like radishes, garlic, and onions have a very strong, pungent taste, and can even leave a bad odor after eating. This is because they contain substances like glucosinolates and diallyl disulfides, which are very helpful in preventing cancer. For example, garlic is a "health guard" for people. Numerous epidemiological surveys have shown that cancer incidence rates in garlic-producing areas and among populations that regularly consume garlic are significantly lower.
Health Tip:
How to quickly get rid of bad breath after eating "pungent" foods?
1) Tea: For bad breath after eating garlic or other foods, take a small pinch of tea, place it in your mouth in several portions, and chew it slowly. After the saliva dissolves the tea, swallow it slowly. This remedy is quite effective.
2) Peanuts: Chewing some protein-rich foods like peanuts, walnuts, or almonds can also help reduce the garlic taste.
5. Spicy Foods
Water chestnut with mustard
The spiciness in food is generally provided by capsaicin or volatile sulfur compounds. Capsaicin has analgesic effects and can also boost metabolism, helping to burn fat and lose weight. Mustard has a strong spicy taste and a strong stimulating effect. It can regulate women's endocrine system, enhance sexual function, and stimulate blood vessel dilation to increase facial blood circulation, making a woman's complexion ruddier.
Health Tip:
The main ingredient that makes mustard pungent is isothiocyanate. This component not only prevents cavities but also has certain effects on preventing cancer, preventing vascular plaque deposition, and assisting in the treatment of asthma. In addition, mustard can also prevent hyperlipidemia, hypertension, and coronary heart disease, and reduce blood viscosity.
6. Sour Foods
Malus asiatica, hawthorn, and kimchi, etc. Their sourness comes from organic acids like citric acid and malic acid. These natural acidic substances can promote the absorption of minerals, such as iron. For the same variety of fruit, the sourer one usually has a higher vitamin C content, and the vitamins are more stable and easier to preserve.
Health Tip:
Many women develop a special craving for sour foods during pregnancy. Sour taste can stimulate gastric juice secretion, increase the activity of digestive enzymes, promote gastric motility, and facilitate the digestion of food and the absorption of various nutrients. Therefore, craving sour foods during pregnancy is beneficial for the health of both the fetus and the mother. From a nutritional perspective, eating sour foods is beneficial for the pregnant woman's own health and the development of the fetus. Sour taste stimulates gastric acid secretion, increases the activity of digestive enzymes, increases the pregnant woman's appetite, and alleviates early pregnancy symptoms.
7. "Smelly" Foods
The durian has a strong smell, and it's no exaggeration to say it's "stinky." However, in Thailand, due to its high nutritional value, it is often used as a tonic for patients and postpartum women to nourish their bodies. Durian is "hot" in nature and can invigorate blood and dispel cold, alleviating menstrual pain, making it especially suitable for women troubled by dysmenorrhea. It can also improve symptoms of a cold abdomen and can help raise body temperature, making it an ideal tonic for people with a "cold" constitution. Although durian has many benefits, you should not eat too much at once, otherwise it can easily lead to "internal heat" in the body, and it may also cause "internal heat" because the digestive system cannot fully absorb it.
8. "Unusual Fragrant" Foods
Some foods, although named with the character "fragrant" (xiang), have a very strange taste, such as cilantro and toon. Cilantro contains a lot of boron, which helps the body absorb minerals and protect bones, making it most suitable for middle-aged and elderly people over 40. Cilantro is also rich in iron, calcium, potassium, zinc, vitamin A, and vitamin C, which helps maintain stable blood sugar and prevent cancer. Toon contains volatile aromatic organic compounds such as toonin, which can strengthen the spleen and whet the appetite. It has the effects of clearing heat and dampness, promoting urination, and detoxifying, making it a good adjuvant for treating enteritis, dysentery, and urinary tract infections. Studies have shown that toon contains vitamin E and substances related to sex hormones, which have anti-aging and nourishing yin and yang effects, and a certain therapeutic effect on infertility, hence it is known as the "fertility-enhancing element."
Mustard chips
Bitter eggs