When it comes to "cooling down and dissipating heat," most people first think of cooling foods like mung bean soup and iced watermelon. In fact, eating some spicy food appropriately during the height of summer can also help with heat dissipation. Research also shows that spicy food can dilate blood vessels throughout the body, which in turn helps the body release heat.
Pepper:
Nature: warm, Flavor: pungent. Comes in black and white varieties. Can be used to treat indigestion, gastroenteritis, bronchitis, colds, and rheumatism. However, patients with diabetes, gout, arthritis, hemorrhoids, cancer, and bronchial asthma should avoid eating pepper.
Ginger:
Nature: warm, Flavor: pungent. It can enhance blood circulation, stimulate gastric juice secretion, excite the intestines, promote digestion, strengthen the stomach, and increase appetite. Eating ginger can also induce sweating to lower body temperature, refresh the mind, and relieve fatigue, listlessness, loss of appetite, insomnia, bloating, and abdominal pain. Although ginger is beneficial, those with yin deficiency and internal heat, as well as hemorrhoid patients, should avoid it.
Garlic:
Nature: warm, Flavor: pungent. It has effects such as expelling parasites, detoxifying, eliminating food stagnation, promoting qi circulation, and warming the stomach. Additionally, eating garlic can prevent the flu and has significant effects of lowering blood pressure, blood lipids, and blood sugar, as well as strong anti-cancer properties. However, those with yin deficiency excess, diarrhea, hemorrhoids, gastrointestinal bleeding, and eye diseases should not consume it.
Onion:
Nature: warm, Flavor: pungent. It has effects such as clearing heat and resolving phlegm, detoxifying and killing insects, stimulating appetite and transforming dampness, lowering lipids and blood sugar, aiding digestion, calming the liver and moistening the intestines, expelling phlegm, promoting urination, inducing sweating, preventing colds, and inhibiting bacteria and preserving food. It can also help prevent and treat arteriosclerosis. However, people with eye diseases or those recovering from febrile diseases should not eat it.
Chili:
Nature: hot, Flavor: pungent. It has effects such as warming the middle to dispel cold, stimulating appetite and aiding digestion, and inducing sweat to expel dampness. It also has certain antibacterial properties and is quite effective in preventing colds, arteriosclerosis, night blindness, and scurvy. However, those with eye inflammation, gastric ulcers, high blood pressure, toothache, or pharyngitis should avoid it.
Sichuan Peppercorn:
Nature: warm, Flavor: pungent. It has effects such as warming the middle and strengthening the stomach, dispelling cold and dampness, detoxifying and killing insects, and regulating qi to relieve pain. Modern pharmacological research has found that it has certain local anesthetic and analgesic effects. However, patients with bronchial asthma, diabetes, gout, cancer, and pregnant women should use it with caution.