Pungent foods have the effect of stimulating appetite, strengthening the spleen, and whetting the appetite, as well as promoting sweating, moving qi, and invigorating blood. Let's take a look at pungent foods that can prevent disease.
Ginger promotes sweating and lowers body temperature
Ginger is warm and pungent in nature. It can enhance blood circulation, stimulate gastric juice secretion, excite the intestines, and promote digestion. Ginger can also kill bacteria in the mouth and intestines, achieving the purpose of cleaning the mouth. In the hot summer, eating ginger can also promote sweating to lower body temperature, refresh the mind, and relieve fatigue, listlessness, loss of appetite, insomnia, bloating, and abdominal pain. Therefore, there is a popular saying in China: "Eat radish in winter and ginger in summer, and you won't need a doctor's prescription." It is worth noting that while ginger is beneficial, those with yin deficiency and internal heat, as well as hemorrhoid patients, should avoid it.
Chili peppers prevent colds
Chili peppers are hot and pungent in nature, and their vitamin C content is very high, ranking among the highest in vegetables. They have the effects of warming the middle to dispel cold, whetting the appetite and aiding digestion, promoting sweating to eliminate dampness, and a certain antibacterial effect. They are quite effective in preventing colds, arteriosclerosis, night blindness, and scurvy, as well as preventing cancer and delaying aging. Due to their highly hot nature and strong irritability, they should not be eaten in excess. Those with eye inflammation, gastric ulcers, high blood pressure, toothache, pharyngitis, and other infections should avoid them.
Garlic has antiviral properties
Garlic is warm and pungent in nature. It has the effects of killing parasites, detoxifying, eliminating food stagnation, moving qi, and warming the stomach. It has a certain therapeutic effect on food stagnation, cold pain in the epigastric abdomen, dysentery, malaria, whooping cough, carbuncles and swellings, and insect or snake bites. In addition, eating garlic can prevent influenza, treat fungal infections, and has the effects of lowering blood pressure, lowering blood lipids, lowering blood sugar, and a strong anti-cancer effect. Those with yin fire flourishing, diarrhea, hemorrhoids, gastrointestinal bleeding, and eye diseases should not consume it.
Sichuan peppercalms pain
Sichuan pepper is warm and pungent in nature, containing components such as limonene, sanshools, unsaturated organic acids, and volatile oils. It has the effects of warming the middle and strengthening the stomach, dispelling cold and eliminating dampness, detoxifying and killing insects, and regulating qi to relieve pain. It is somewhat effective in treating indigestion, hiccups, belching and vomiting, joint and muscle pain caused by wind-cold-dampness, dysentery, and roundworms. Patients with bronchial asthma, diabetes, gout, cancer, and pregnant women should use it with caution.
Onions prevent arteriosclerosis
Onions are warm and pungent in nature. They have the effects of clearing heat and transforming phlegm, detoxifying and killing insects, whetting the appetite and transforming dampness, lowering lipids and sugar, aiding digestion, calming the liver and moistening the intestines, dispelling phlegm, promoting urination, and inducing sweating. They can prevent and treat arteriosclerosis and also have anti-cancer effects. Because it combines nutrition, health care, and medical functions, onions are known as the "queen of vegetables" in some European and American countries. People with eye diseases or those recovering from febrile diseases should not eat them.
Pepper dispels wind and strengthens the stomach
Pepper is warm and pungent in nature, containing nutrients such as volatile oil, piperine, crude fat, crude protein, and starch. It comes in black and white varieties and can treat indigestion, enteritis, bronchitis, colds, and rheumatism. Modern pharmacological research has also found that the piperine, piperidine, and volatile oil in pepper have the effects of dispelling wind and strengthening the stomach. Patients with diabetes, gout, arthritis, hemorrhoids, cancer, bronchial asthma, and other conditions should preferably avoid eating pepper.