Many people believe that bitter melon can help beat the summer heat, but Traditional Chinese Medicine points out that although bitter melon is "bitter," it cannot actually relieve summer heat. If you want to relieve greasiness and whet your appetite, eating some bitter melon is a good choice. However, if it's for cooling down and reducing internal heat, you don't have to eat this "bitter" food at all.
Mulberry Porridge
Bitter melon, though "bitter," cannot relieve summer heat
For our tongues, bitterness is not a friendly taste. "Bitter" usually means something toxic or a highly irritating substance harmful to the body. Through long-term evolution, our ability to discern "bitterness" is much stronger than our ability to perceive sour, sweet, or salty tastes. The average person's resolution for sweetness is 0.5%, while for bitterness, it is 0.0016%. Some "supertasters" can even detect bitter substances in a glass of water by the molecule. Common bitter substances are generally classified as alkaloids, bitter peptides, and terpenoids.
Undeniably, bitter alkaloids like theophylline and caffeine can give us a clear mind in the summer. As for the highly-praised bitter melon, its main bitter components are momordicoside and momordin. These bitter compounds are useless for alleviating symptoms of hot weather, but some of them may lower blood sugar in diabetic patients.
However, this does not mean you can use bitter melon as a hypoglycemic drug. Related research shows that consuming large amounts of bitter melon cannot achieve the goal of specifically ingesting hypoglycemic substances, and it may even cause side effects due to excessive intake of other substances. Momordin can kill cancer cells, but these substances also "take care of" the human immune system (by causing inhibitory effects), which is somewhat similar to the chemotherapy method for treating cancer. Moreover, high doses of momordin can also inhibit embryonic development and affect normal fertility.
So, what should you eat to cool down in the summer?
Mulberry is sweet and sour in taste, slightly cold in nature, and affects the heart, liver, and kidney meridians. It has the effects of nourishing the liver and kidneys, promoting the production of body fluids and moistening the intestines, and blackening hair and improving eyesight. It is mainly indicated for dizziness and blurred vision, tinnitus and palpitations, irritability and insomnia, soreness and weakness of the lower back and knees, premature graying of hair, thirst and dry mouth, and dry constipation caused by insufficient yin and blood.
Mulberry Fruit Porridge
Ingredients: 50g canned mulberry, 100g glutinous rice, appropriate amount of rock sugar.
Method:
1. First, mash the mulberries from the can (add mulberry juice) and set aside.
2. Wash the rice, add an appropriate amount of water, and cook it in a clay pot. Bring to a boil over high heat, then simmer over low heat. After the porridge is cooked, add the mashed mulberries and rock sugar. Simmer for a short while until the rock sugar has completely dissolved.
Green plums. In the south, May and June are the season for plums to ripen. There is a historical allusion from the Three Kingdoms period, "Discussing Heroes Over Boiled Green Plums." Green plums contain various natural, high-quality organic acids and rich minerals, and have unique nutritional and health-care functions such as purifying the blood, regulating the intestines, lowering blood lipids, eliminating fatigue, improving skin beauty, regulating acid-base balance, and enhancing human immunity. However, most fresh plums are sour and astringent, making them difficult to eat directly. They need to be processed before consumption, and this process is boiling the plums.
Green Plum and Papaya Chicken Feet Soup
Ingredients: 10g green plums, 70g papaya, 100g chicken legs, 2g ginger
Method:
1. Wash the green papaya and cut it into small pieces.
2. Wash the chicken legs, remove the skin, and chop them into small pieces.
3. Blanch the chicken pieces in boiling water, then remove and rinse them clean.
4. Place the ginger, chicken pieces, and purple perilla plums in an electric rice cooker, and pour in the purple perilla plum juice. Cook until the switch pops up, then continue to simmer for about half an hour.
5. Finally, add the papaya to the soup and cook until the switch pops up again. Let it cool slightly before serving.
Porridge