The autumn climate is dry, and for those who love spicy food, issues like internal heat, constipation, and a sore throat can easily arise. How can they stay more nourished and moist?
Autumn diet should focus on strengthening the spleen, nourishing the liver, and clearing the lungs. It's best to eat more foods that are clear, moist, sweet, and sour, as the saying goes, "reduce pungency and increase sourness." It's best to eat less spicy food, but if you're used to eating spicy food, you can try to balance it with the following methods. Pair with cooling ingredients
Since chili peppers are considered warming, when cooking spicy dishes, it's best to pair them with foods that have yin-nourishing, drying-reducing, and heat-clearing properties, such as duck, shrimp, crucian carp, lean meat, bitter greens, bitter melon, loofah, cucumber, lily, pagoda tree flowers, toon shoots, and turnips. These foods have the effects of clearing heat, reducing fire, and detoxifying, and are especially suitable for people with a "heaty" body constitution. Eat some sour fruits
Sour fruits and vegetables contain substances like tannic acid, organic acids, and dietary fiber, which can stimulate digestive secretions and accelerate gastrointestinal motility, helping those who often eat spicy food to nourish yin and moisten dryness. Among fruits, hawthorn has the widest variety of acidic substances. It stimulates the secretion of various digestive enzymes in the gastrointestinal tract, aids digestion, and prevents fat accumulation. In addition, pomelo, pomegranate, and apple are also common sour fruits eaten in autumn. Drink more water or soup
Eating spicy food during the dry autumn can more easily lead to yin deficiency and internal heat, causing symptoms like a dry throat, lack of saliva in the mouth, chapped lips, nosebleeds, and constipation. At this time, it's essential to replenish the body's water frequently, and a small amount of salt can be added to the water. When making soup, you might consider choosing a hot and sour soup, which can promote the production of body fluids and moisten dryness.
Special attention should be paid: during the cooking process, if you have already added chili peppers, do not add other "heaty" ingredients like Sichuan peppercorns, star anise, or cinnamon bark, as this can easily lead to "adding heat to heat."