In the cold winter, many people enjoy eating hot pot, but frequent consumption can easily lead to "heatiness" (上火). In severe cases, it can cause symptoms like a sore throat and swollen gums, a sore or ulcerated tongue, oral bleeding, lip herpes, abdominal pain, diarrhea, vomiting, and even gastrointestinal bleeding. If you pay attention to the food pairings in your hot pot, you can reduce these symptoms.
Add some ginger: Ginger can add flavor and fight off the cold. It's best to add unpeeled ginger to the hot pot, as the ginger peel is pungent and cooling, helping to dissipate heat.
Add some white lotus seeds: White lotus seeds are not only rich in various nutrients but are also a great remedy for the body. When adding them, it's best not to remove the lotus seed cores, as they have a heat-clearing effect.
Add some tofu: Some tofu contains gypsum. Adding tofu to the hot pot not only supplements the intake of various trace elements but also allows the gypsum to exert its heat-clearing, heat-reducing, and thirst-quenching effects.
Pairing hot pot ingredients is also important
Eat more vegetables with hot pot: Vegetables are rich in vitamins and chlorophyll, and most are cooling. They can not only cut through the greasiness and supplement the body's vitamin intake in winter but also have cooling, detoxifying, and heat-reducing effects. However, do not cook vegetables for too long, or they will lose most of their nutritional value and heat-clearing benefits.
When eating lamb, pair it with cooling and neutral vegetables: This can have a cooling, detoxifying, and heat-reducing effect. Cooling vegetables generally include winter melon, loofah, rapeseed, spinach, cabbage, enoki mushrooms, shiitake mushrooms, lotus root, water bamboo shoots, and bok choy. Sweet potatoes, potatoes, and shiitake mushrooms are examples of neutral vegetables.
The order of eating hot pot matters
The order in which you eat hot pot is also important. Eating in the right order allows you to make full use of the nutrients in the food, reduce the burden on your digestive system, and achieve a healthy diet.
Before the meal: Start with a small glass of fresh fruit juice.
During the meal: Eat vegetarian dishes like vegetables first, followed by meat dishes.
After the meal: Eat some fruit. Generally, you can have some fruit about 30 to 40 minutes after the hot pot. Fruit is cooling and has a good effect on reducing "heatiness." Eating one or two fruits after the meal can prevent "heatiness."