To eat healthily, food pairing is a very important part. For thousands of years, our ancestors have summarized countless classic pairings, and "Five grains plus jujubes are better than lingzhi grass" is one saying that has been widely circulated among the people for a long time.
Health experts throughout history have advocated the healthy dietary concept of "five grains as the staple," which means that the human body must consume a certain amount of staple food daily. According to experts, grains such as corn, millet, rice, wheat, and soybeans can provide about 70% of the body's energy, 40%-50% of its protein, and are also an important source of minerals like calcium, phosphorus, and iron, as well as B vitamins. This shows the crucial role of grains in people's diets.
Jujubes, also known as red dates, are a type of food and medicine. Traditional Chinese medicine believes that they can replenish the essence of the Taiyin and transform the Qi of the Yangming, and have effects such as promoting fluid production, moistening the lungs, and relieving dryness; nourishing blood, nourishing the liver, and stopping internal wind; and treating weakness of the spleen and stomach. Therefore, they are listed as a superior medicinal herb. Modern pharmacological research has also found that jujubes also contain various active ingredients such as triterpenoid saponins, alkaloids, flavonoids, and organic acids, and have effects such as delaying aging, antioxidation, improving immune function, protecting the liver, enhancing physical strength, anti-allergy, and anti-tumor.If jujubes are cooked into a congee with rice, millet, or glutinous rice, it can have a good health-preserving effect. Therefore, there is also a folk saying, "If you want good skin, add jujubes to your congee." However, experts especially remind that when cooking jujubes into congee, it is best to cut the jujubes into several pieces, which is beneficial for extracting the active ingredients from the jujubes and increasing the therapeutic effect. It is worth noting that because jujubes are warm in nature, consuming too much can help dampness, produce phlegm, and accumulate heat, and they are not suitable for people with dampness-heat, phlegm-heat, or heat syndromes.