Spring is a great season for health and wellness. Many people like to use diet for wellness in the spring. So do you know what you should eat in the spring? What should you eat for wellness in the spring? Today, let's tell you about the "five flavors" that you must supplement in your spring diet. Let's take a look.
Sweetness nourishes the spleen
In TCM, the liver belongs to wood and the spleen belongs to earth. Wood and earth counteract each other. When the liver is overly active in the spring, it can harm the spleen and stomach, affecting their digestive function. The solution is to eat more sweet foods to supplement the spleen and stomach qi.
TCM believes that the spleen and stomach are the foundation of acquired health and the source of a person's qi and blood. Only when the spleen and stomach are strong can one live a long and healthy life. Therefore, you should eat more sweet foods, such as jujubes, Chinese yam, longans, sweet potatoes, pumpkins, dried persimmons, and strawberries.
Acidity nourishes the liver
In TCM, our liver belongs to wood and corresponds to spring. Therefore, liver qi is at its most vigorous in the spring. If wellness in the spring is not managed properly, it can easily damage liver qi. Therefore, the focus in spring should be on nourishing the liver. In the relationship between the five organs and five flavors, the sour flavor enters the liver and has an astringent nature.
Therefore, you should eat some sour foods in moderation. Common sour fruits include plums, lemons, and pineapples, which can be eaten in moderation.
Sugar-cured lemon water
Warming and supplementing yang
Yang refers to the body's yang energy. TCM believes that yang energy protects the body, allowing it to be free from external invasions. In terms of diet in the spring, one should follow the principle of "nourishing yang in spring and summer" proposed in the *Huangdi Neijing*. It is advisable to eat more foods that warm and supplement yang to make the body's yang energy full and enhance the ability to resist diseases. Foods that nourish yang are generally warm-natured, such as beef, lamb, ginger, green onions, potatoes, chives, and black tea. You don't need to eat a lot of these foods at once; you can eat some of them every day.
Light flavor to nourish yin
In winter, people are accustomed to tonifying and eating rich, heavy foods. In the spring, this habit should shift towards a lighter direction, and eating more vegetables is a key to wellness in the spring. After winter, many people may have insufficient intake of vitamins, inorganic salts, or trace elements, such as frequently developing angular stomatitis or stomatitis. Eating more vegetables can supplement these nutritional deficiencies. Spring chives are the most tender and fresh, and spinach, which nourishes blood and yin, is also very popular.
Wild vegetables for detoxification
When spring comes, many wild vegetables also begin to grow. Therefore, eating some wild vegetables appropriately in the spring is very beneficial to the body. Eating wild vegetables in the spring can not only achieve the effect of health and wellness but also have a health-preserving effect.
Shepherd's purse is the most common wild vegetable. Its vitamin C content is more than 2.5 times higher than that of Chinese cabbage, and its vitamin B2 content is higher than that of potherb mustard, ranking it first among vegetables. It can be used as a filling, blanched and then served as a cold dish, mixed with eggs, or used in soups and porridges.
Purslane contains nutrients like riboflavin and ascorbic acid, and can also clear heat and detoxify, cool the blood and stop bleeding. It has a certain effect on preventing diabetes. Purslane can be stir-fried, served as a cold dish, or used as a filling, such as garlic purslane salad, scrambled eggs with purslane, purslane buns, and purslane porridge.
Sugar lemonade