Wheezing, sore throat, phlegm... sudden coughing symptoms can often catch you "off guard." In fact, besides taking medicine to treat the symptoms, a single pear can have unexpected effects to help alleviate your cough.
From the perspective of traditional wellness, the main characteristics of autumn and winter are "dryness" and "aridity." Therefore, the body often exhibits symptoms such as dry skin, a dry mouth, chapped lips, and a sore throat. Therefore, it is essential to eat less of pungent foods like scallions, ginger, garlic, chives, and peppers to prevent excessive lung energy. Eating fruits that promote saliva production, quench thirst, and moisten the throat to relieve dryness will make a person feel refreshed and comfortable. When eating fruit in autumn and winter, pears are indispensable. Pears are nutritious, containing protein, fat, sugar, and various vitamins and minerals. Their flesh is delicate, juicy, delicious, crisp, and sweet. Traditional medicine records that pears are cool in nature and sweet in taste, with effects such as moistening the lungs, reducing phlegm, and relieving coughs. How do you choose a good pear?
There are many varieties of pears commonly sold on the market: Snowflake Pear, Ya Pear, Jingbai Pear, Dangshan Pear, etc. How can you tell a good pear from a bad one?
High-quality pear—the fruit is fresh and full, well-shaped, and appears in colors like green, yellow, or bluish-white depending on the variety. It is moderately ripe (80% ripe), with fine flesh, a crisp and fresh texture, few stone cells, is juicy, and tastes sweet or sweet-and-sour (depending on the variety). It has no mold, frostbite, disease damage, or mechanical injuries. The high-quality pears of each variety are relatively uniform and moderate in size, and they come with a stem.
Inferior pear—the shape is not well-formed, with a considerable number of deformed fruits. They lack a stem, the fruit size is uneven and tends to be small, the surface is rough and unclean, with many scratches, cuts, bumps, and pressure marks. There are disease spots or insect bite wounds, tree rubs, water rust, or dry scars that cover one-third to one-half of the fruit's surface. The flesh is coarse with poor texture, the stone cells are large and numerous, the juice is scant, and the taste is bland or overly sour. Some may also have bitter or astringent flavors. In particularly inferior pears, a rotten smell can be detected.[China Cuisine]
Little tip: Did you know? Pears also have male and female varieties.
There are two types of pears: one is the "male pear," with coarse, hard flesh, less water, and poorer sweetness; the other is the "female pear," with tender, sweet, crisp, and juicy flesh. When buying pears, you can distinguish between male and female by their appearance. The male pear is small on top and large on the bottom, resembling a high-steamed bun, with a secondary convex-concave shape at the blossom end and no rust spots on the surface. The female pear's shape is roughly isosceles, small on top and large on the bottom, with a single deep, rust-stained concave pit at the blossom end. When selecting pears, first, choose the variety, as different varieties have different flavors; second, choose those with a deep pit at the blossom end, as they are of better quality than those with a shallow pit. Every part of the pear is useful.
Pear fruit: It has effects such as promoting saliva production, moistening dryness, clearing heat, and resolving phlegm. It is suitable for conditions like thirst due to damage to body fluids by febrile diseases, diabetes, hot cough, phlegm-heat with mania, dysphagia, thirst and loss of voice, red and swollen eyes, and indigestion.
Pear skin: It has effects of clearing the heart, moistening the lungs, reducing fire, promoting saliva, nourishing the kidneys, and supplementing yin. The roots, branches, leaves, and flowers have effects of moistening the lungs, resolving phlegm, clearing heat, and detoxifying.
Pear seeds: Pear seeds contain lignin, an insoluble fiber that dissolves in the intestines to form a gel-like film, which can bind with cholesterol and expel it. Pears contain boron, which can prevent osteoporosis in women. When boron levels are sufficient, memory, attention, and mental acuity are improved.
How to eat pears: When you have a cough, how can you eat pears?
Common therapeutic recipes:
Stewed Snow Pear with Chuanbei and Honey Stewed Snow Pear with Chuanbei and Honey is a common and effective folk remedy for relieving dry coughs, especially for coughs caused by lung dryness, its effect is particularly significant. 10 grams of Chuanbei mother powder, 1000 grams of snow pear juice, 500 grams of donkey-hide gelatin. First, core and dice the snow pear, put all ingredients into a steaming pot, and simmer on low heat for 1 hour. After steaming, it becomes Bei Li Gao (Pear Paste with Chuanbei). Take 10 grams each time, twice a day. Honey can be added before serving. Bei Li Gao can nourish yin and moisten the lungs, and treat lingering coughs with blood in the phlegm. For stewing, fragrant pears or Ya pears are better because they are more fragrant, sweet, and tender. Rougher varieties like sand pears are not suitable for stewing and are better eaten raw.
Snow Pear Paste Snow Pear Paste, made by simmering snow pears with honey (or sugar), is an excellent remedy for stopping coughs and resolving phlegm. Because it is sweet, cool, and delicious, it is especially suitable for children. There is also a story about pear paste. It is said that Emperor Wuzong of Tang, Li Yan, was ill with a dry mouth, a parched face, and a vexed heart. He sought treatment from famous doctors all over the world but saw no improvement. Later, Daoist Xing from Qingcheng Mountain passed by and was summoned to treat him. Daoist Xing simmered the pear paste according to the prescription above. After Emperor Wuzong took it, he indeed recovered. Thus, the fame of Snow Pear Paste spread along with Daoist Xing's reputation. Pear paste has since flourished and has been passed down to this day.
Silver and Chuanbei Snow Pear Soup 20 grams of soaked silver ear fungus, 5 grams of Chuanbei mother, 1 snow pear, 20 grams rock sugar. Soak and clean the silver ear fungus, place the silver ear fungus, Chuanbei, snow pear, and rock sugar in a small bowl, and steam or cook over boiling water for half an hour. It has the effects of clearing heat, moistening the lungs, and stopping coughs, and is suitable for patients with lung-heat cough, yin-deficiency hemoptysis, and dry cough with no phlegm.
Snow Pear and Duck Soup Peel and core two snow pears, slice them, peel and slice 100 grams of water chestnuts, and cook with 250 grams of duck meat. Take once a week. It has the effects of clearing heat, nourishing yin, and benefiting the liver, and is suitable for patients with chronic hepatitis of yin-deficiency internal-heat type.
Simple ways to eat pears:
The most basic—eating raw: There is a folk saying that "raw pears clear the heat of the six fu-organs, while cooked pears nourish the yin of the five zang-organs." Therefore, eating raw pears can significantly relieve symptoms such as dryness, itching, and pain in the throat, hoarseness, and constipation with dark urine in patients with upper respiratory tract infections.
The easiest—juicing: Juice the pears, or add a little of Peng Dahai (Sterculia lychnophora), winter melon seeds, and rock sugar, then boil and drink. It has the effect of moistening the throat and replenishing body fluids for those affected by dry weather, excessive internal heat, dry laryngitis, and hoarseness.
The most common—steamed pear with rock sugar: Steamed pear with rock sugar is a traditional therapeutic food in China. It can nourish yin and moisten the lungs, relieve coughs and reduce phlegm, and has a good moisturizing and protective effect on the throat.