We all know that a healthy diet cannot consist solely of refined grains in the long term; coarse grains should be appropriately incorporated. However, different coarse grains have different medicinal properties and nourishing effects. Many people are unaware of which coarse grains are suitable for their specific body constitutions.
1. Millet: Sweet and salty in flavor, slightly cold in nature. It has the effects of nourishing kidney qi, strengthening the spleen and stomach, clearing deficient heat, and promoting sleep.
2. Black Rice: It has the effects of nourishing yin and kidneys, strengthening the spleen and warming the liver, and improving eyesight and promoting blood circulation. Long-term consumption of black rice can treat dizziness, blurred vision, anemia, premature graying of hair, eye diseases, and soreness and weakness of the waist and legs.
3. Brown Rice: It can prevent arteriosclerosis and diabetes, prevent constipation, and has detoxifying effects. It can strengthen the liver and body, eliminate fatigue and anxiety, improve memory and reproductive ability, prevent infertility, premature birth, and miscarriage, and also prevent bone softening and knee pain in the elderly.
4. Rice Bran: Sweet and pungent in flavor, neutral in nature, and non-toxic. It is mainly used to treat dysphagia and beriberi.
5. Corn: Sweet and neutral in flavor and nature. It has the effects of tonifying the middle jiao and benefiting the spleen, quenching thirst, and reducing swelling. Modern medical research suggests that corn can lower serum cholesterol, prevent hypertension, coronary heart disease, and myocardial infarction, and has effects such as slowing down cellular aging and brain function degeneration, and preventing cancer.
6. Sorghum: Sweet and astringent in flavor, warm in nature, and non-toxic. It has the effects of harmonizing the stomach and strengthening the spleen, and stopping diarrhea. It can be used to treat food stagnation, indigestion, damp-heat, dysentery, and difficult urination.
7. Wheat: Sweet in flavor, cool in nature. It enters the heart, spleen, and kidney meridians. It has the effects of nourishing the heart, benefiting the kidneys, clearing heat, and quenching thirst.
8. Barley: Sweet and salty in flavor, cool in nature. It has the effects of harmonizing the stomach, relaxing the intestines, and promoting urination. It can assist in treating food stagnation with diarrhea, painful urination, edema, and scalds. Malt is sweet and warm in nature, and has the effects of stimulating the appetite, aiding digestion, promoting qi descent, and stopping lactation.
9. Buckwheat: Sweet and neutral in flavor and nature. It has the functions of promoting qi descent and benefiting the intestines, and clearing heat and detoxifying. Some scholars believe that due to its active components such as calcium, magnesium, iron, vitamin B2, and rutin, buckwheat has preventive and health-care effects on hyperlipidemia and the resulting cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases.
10. Oats: Oats have been used in medicine since ancient times. Sweet and warm in nature, they have the effects of tonifying the spleen and stomach, lubricating the intestines to promote bowel movements, stopping spontaneous sweating, and stopping bleeding. They are suitable for treating post-illness weakness, constipation, and difficult labor. Modern medical research suggests that oats not only inhibit the formation of age spots but also have the effect of slowing down cellular aging, making them an excellent health food for the elderly and patients with coronary heart disease.
11. Sweet Potato: Sweet and neutral in flavor and nature, and non-toxic. It has the wonderful effects of tonifying the middle jiao and harmonizing the blood, replenishing qi and promoting body fluids, relaxing the stomach and intestines, and promoting bowel movements. Recent research has found that sweet potatoes contain estrogen-like chemicals that can keep the skin delicate and slow down human aging. The organic components in sweet potatoes, such as mucoprotein, can improve health, prevent fatigue, make people energetic, enhance human immunity, promote cholesterol excretion, reduce cardiovascular lipid deposition, and have a significant effect in reducing the incidence of cardiovascular diseases. The anti-cancer effect of sweet potatoes is also receiving increasing attention, and in the list of 20 anti-cancer foods compiled by experts, sweet potato ranks first.
12. Black Soybean: Sweet and neutral in flavor and nature. It is a cooling and nourishing strengthening medicine. It has the effects of expelling wind and clearing heat, harmonizing qi in the lower body, activating blood, detoxifying, promoting urination, and improving eyesight. Since ancient times, medical doctors in China have often used black soybeans to treat kidney yin deficiency, insufficient kidney qi, and other conditions.