The summer weather is hot, so using air conditioners is common. Moreover, appetite tends to be poor in summer, and people often crave cold drinks and spicy foods. Such a diet is actually unhealthy. So, let's take a look at how we should eat during the hot and humid summer season.
Diet should pay attention to 5 key points
Appropriately eat foods that clear heat and relieve summer heat
Traditional Chinese Medicine believes: "Summer belongs to fire, its nature is hot, it connects to the heart, governs growth, and summer heat is the pathogenic factor." Foods with the effect of clearing heat and removing summer heat include fresh lotus root, mung beans, winter melon, watermelon, bamboo shoots, water chestnuts, amaranth, water shield, and pear. They can not only clear summer heat but also expel internal heat generated by the body. You can also take traditional Chinese medicines with the function of sweet and cold clearing summer heat or acrid and cool dispelling, such as chrysanthemum, lotus leaf, bamboo leaf, honeysuckle, forsythia, and mint.
In mid-summer, focus on strengthening the spleen to remove dampness
Mid-summer corresponds to the spleen. During this time, the weather is hot, humid, and rainy, and the body is more susceptible to the pathogenic factors of summer heat and dampness. The spleen prefers dryness and dislikes dampness. If the spleen's yang is obstructed by dampness, the spleen and stomach lose their transportation function, leading to symptoms like epigastric fullness, loss of appetite, loose stools, and difficult urination. Therefore, you can add some foods that strengthen the spleen, stomach, and remove summer heat and dampness to your diet, such as Poria, Atractylodes macrocephala, Job's tears, Eupatorium fortunei, Agastache rugosa, hyacinth bean, lotus seed, and cardamom.
Do not indulge in raw and cold foods
In summer, eating some cold drinks in moderation can clear heat, relieve summer heat, and quench thirst. However, indulging in raw and cold foods can easily damage the spleen and stomach's yang energy, violating the principle of "nourishing yang in spring and summer." It may also cause digestive system diseases such as stomach pain, abdominal pain, and diarrhea. Especially for the elderly, whose spleen and stomach yang is already declining, overeating raw and cold foods can further damage the body's yang energy.
Children's digestive function is not yet fully developed, and they are susceptible to summer heat and dampness in summer. Eating raw and cold foods often can damage the spleen and stomach's transportation function, leading to symptoms such as loss of appetite, abdominal pain, and abnormal stools, which can lead to gastrointestinal diseases over time. Women have special physiological phenomena such as menstruation, leukorrhea, pregnancy, and childbirth, and are prone to qi deficiency and blood deficiency. Therefore, women should not indulge in raw and cold foods, especially during menstruation and postpartum. Overeating raw and cold foods can not only damage the spleen and stomach's yang energy but also cause conditions like uterine cold.
Diet should be light
In summer, the diet should especially be light. This is because the body's yang energy is dispersing according to the seasonal changes. Eating rich and greasy foods often加重加重 the burden on the spleen and stomach, leading to weak spleen yang and the production of phlegm-dampness. In a light diet, staple foods should be mainly grains, side dishes should be mainly beans, vegetables, fruits, and mushrooms, and meat should be eaten less and lightly. Cooking methods should be steaming or boiling, with less oil and salt, to maintain the original flavor of the food. The "Annotation of Sun Zhenren's Health Song" says: "During the three hot days, food should be light and reduced, so that the spleen and stomach can easily digest it, and thus abdominal diseases will not occur."
Pay attention to food hygiene
In the hot summer season, pathogenic microorganisms can easily breed and multiply, and food is prone to spoilage and corruption. Moreover, people drink more water in summer, which dilutes gastric acid and weakens the defense function of the digestive tract. If you do not pay attention to food hygiene, it is easy to suffer from intestinal infectious diseases such as enteritis and dysentery. Therefore, it is important to develop good dietary and personal hygiene habits to prevent the occurrence of summer digestive diseases and guard against "diseases entering through the mouth."
What foods are the most nourishing in summer
Nourish yin and produce fluids: The "Melon Family" takes the lead
Ingredients: 1 fresh loofah, 100 grams of japonica rice, a little sugar.
Method: Peel and deseed the fresh loofah. Wash the japonica rice and set aside. Put the japonica rice in a pot, cut the fresh loofah into 2 cm long and 1 cm thick pieces, add an appropriate amount of water, bring to a boil over high heat, then simmer over low heat until cooked into a porridge. Add sugar to serve. For tender loofah, you can cut it into pieces directly without deseeding to make porridge, which has the effect of clearing heat and detoxifying, cooling blood and unblocking collaterals.
Clear heat and remove dampness: Coix Seed and Red Bean Soup
Ingredients: 30 grams each of coix seed and red bean, 5 red dates, 1 spoon of sugar.
Method: Wash the first two ingredients and put them in a pot, add 2 large bowls of water, simmer over low heat for 1 hour, add red dates and sugar and cook for 30 minutes until the beans are soft. Eat as a snack to clear heat, strengthen the spleen, promote urination, remove dampness, and nourish the liver.
Prevent dampness-heat from困脾脾: "Five-Leaf and Reed Root Drink" is the best
Ingredients: 3 grams each of Agastache rugosa leaf, mint leaf, and lotus leaf; 30 grams each of loquat leaf, fresh reed root, and Eupatorium fortunei leaf; 60 grams of winter melon; appropriate amount of sugar.
Method: Wash the above ingredients. First, decoct loquat leaf and winter melon together to make about 500ml of water. Then add the other herbs and decoct for 10 minutes. Add sugar to serve. It has the effect of aromatic dampness-removing, spleen-strengthening, and stomach-waking.