As the temperature slowly rises in summer, in addition to hiding in air-conditioned rooms to cool down, people also love to eat various heat-clearing and summer-heat-relieving foods to increase their appetite. So, what are some heat-clearing and summer-heat-relieving foods suitable for summer?
Perfect for boiling, simmering, stir-frying, and pan-frying, here's a look at heat-clearing and summer-heat-relieving beans.
Mung Bean Ice
Mung Bean
In the south, as soon as summer arrives, every household loves to boil kelp and mung bean water to drink, which is enough to show that mung beans have excellent heat-clearing and summer-heat-relieving effects. In fact, the skin of mung beans contains very rich antioxidant components, such as saponins, tannins, flavonoids, and more. Additionally, mung beans also contain some phytosterols, alkaloids, and a large amount of dietary fiber. Eating mung beans in summer can clear heat and detoxify, and relieve heatstroke. Common ways to eat mung beans are in congee or soup, and making mung bean paste is also a good choice.
Red Bean
From a Traditional Chinese Medicine perspective, red beans are neutral in nature and sweet and sour in taste, with the effects of strengthening the spleen to promote urination, clearing heat to remove dampness, and reducing swelling and detoxification. In summer, the body is prone to edema, and eating red beans is a good food therapy method to reduce swelling. Red beans are also rich in various nutrients such as dietary fiber, potassium, and B vitamins. Red beans can be cooked with rice to make red bean rice, or used as a filling for staple foods, such as red bean buns.
Hyacinth Bean
Hyacinth bean is the dried mature seed of the hyacinth bean plant, a dual-purpose food and medicine that is good for tonifying the spleen and warming the stomach, transforming dampness to relieve summer heat, and tonifying deficiency to stop diarrhea. It is especially an indispensable ingredient on the family table during the hot, humid spring and summer rainy seasons. Hyacinth beans not only have high medicinal value but also high nutritional value. Their mineral and vitamin content is higher than most root and stem vegetables and melons, and they have a fresh and delicious taste. Hyacinth bean is also a very common vegetable. Fresh, tender hyacinth beans are best stir-fried. Steaming hyacinth beans and mixing them like eggplant puree is also a good option.
Butter Bean
Butter beans not only provide a large amount of high-quality protein that is easily digested and absorbed by the human body, but also contain appropriate amounts of carbohydrates and various trace elements and vitamins. They can fully supplement the nutrients needed by the body, thereby improving the body's immune function. Appetite is often poor in summer, and the vitamin B in butter beans can maintain the normal secretory function of digestive glands and gastrointestinal motility, inhibit cholinesterase activity, and help with digestion and increasing appetite. However, eating too many butter beans can lead to stagnation, so those with qi stagnation and constipation should be cautious about eating them.
The most indispensable thing in summer is fruit, and the top heat-clearing and summer-heat-relieving fruit is watermelon.
Watermelon
Watermelon is the top choice for quenching summer heat and thirst among melons. When summer heatstroke, fever, vexation, thirst, or other acute febrile diseases occur, watermelon can be used as an adjuvant food therapy. Watermelon is sweet and cold in nature, with the effects of eliminating summer heat and vexation, quenching thirst, and promoting urination. It is an excellent summer heat-relieving product, known as the "natural Baihu Decoction." It is suitable for conditions such as summer heat vexation and thirst, thirst and vexation, difficult urination, summer heat injuring fluids, and alcohol injury. However, those with summer heat and internal cold-dampness should not consume it.
Muskmelon
Muskmelon, also known as pear melon or fragrant melon, is often used in Traditional Chinese Medicine with its seeds and calyx to treat patients. Muskmelon is sweet and cool in nature, entering the stomach, large intestine, and bladder meridians. It not only has the effect of relieving vexation and thirst, clearing summer heat, but also promotes urination and relieves constipation.
Grape
The fruit, root, stem, and leaves of grapes can all be used as medicine. Grapes are sour, sweet, and cold in nature, entering the lung, kidney, and spleen meridians. Their effects are to promote the production of body fluids to quench thirst, stimulate the appetite to aid digestion, and nourish the blood to calm the fetus. They can be used for conditions such as fluid injury and thirst, vexation, dark urine, poor appetite, and blood deficiency with palpitations.
Vegetables and melons on the table are also powerful tools for relieving heat and summer heat.
Cucumber
Cordyceps Flower and Winter Melon Soup
Cucumber is the best beauty and weight-loss vegetable in summer. Regular consumption of cucumber can effectively resist skin aging, reduce wrinkles, and prevent cheilitis and angular stomatitis. Cucumber has the effects of clearing heat, quenching thirst, promoting urination, and reducing swelling, making it one of the vegetables suitable for summer. Cucumbers can be eaten raw like fruit, but not excessively. Those with a weak spleen and stomach, abdominal pain and diarrhea, or a cold cough should eat less cucumber.
Winter Melon
Winter melon has excellent heat-clearing and summer-heat-relieving effects. Eating more winter melon in summer can quench thirst and relieve summer heat, and promote urination. Because it promotes urination and contains very little sodium, it is an excellent remedy for reducing swelling in chronic nephritic edema, malnutrition edema, and edema during pregnancy. It contains a variety of vitamins and essential trace elements for the human body, which can regulate the body's metabolic balance.
Luffa
Luffa has the effect of clearing heat and relieving summer heat. When making soup, the cooking time should not be too long, and it's best to maintain the fresh green color of the luffa. Boiling the luffa skin and luffa flowers together to make tea also has the effect of preventing summer heat and relieving heat.
Still worried about easy heatstroke from high temperatures in summer? Look, the beans, fruits, and vegetables and melons introduced above are all great heat-clearing and summer-heat-relieving foods! And eating more fruits and vegetables in the summer can replenish water and nutrients!
A meadow soup
Green Bean Ice