Don't underestimate this seasoning with its sour, sweet, bitter, and spicy flavors. Every little bit satisfies your cravings every day. It is important to let it become a helper for your health, not a hidden danger!
Saltiness
Saltiness is the fundamental taste for most complex flavors, earning it the title "king of a hundred tastes." Since around 5000 years ago, during the time of the Yellow Emperor, salt has been known and consumed.
Seasoning effect: Not only are most general dishes inseparable from saltiness, but even flavors like sweet and sour, or hot and sour, require an appropriate amount of saltiness to become rich and palatable.
Soy Sauce
Effect: Mainly salty, with a fresh and fragrant aroma. It enhances the flavor, freshness, aroma, and color of dishes, and can also supplement nutrients. The amino acids in soy sauce are a major nutrient for the human body, especially some amino acids that the body cannot synthesize, which must be obtained through salt intake. Additionally, when a certain part of the body is scalded, applying soy sauce can relieve pain and neutralize "fire toxin"; for swollen and painful fingers, soaking them in a mixture of warmed soy sauce and honey can relieve pain and reduce swelling.
Taboo: Some soy sauces cannot be eaten directly, as it is very easy to cause food poisoning. This is because raw soy sauce contains a salt-loving bacteria that can survive in high-salt foods. With a salt content of 15% to 20%, this bacteria can survive in soy sauce for a long time. When people consume food containing this bacteria, symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, and diarrhea may occur. In severe cases, it can lead to dehydration, shock, and even death. When taking medications for cardiovascular and gastrointestinal diseases like Yojangning and Men可乐, soy sauce should not be consumed, as it can cause side effects such as nausea and vomiting.
Types: Can be divided into red soy sauce, light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, etc., by flavor.
How to choose: Good soy sauce should have a reddish-brown color, be bright and transparent, have a rich aroma, and a delicious and mellow taste.
Salt
Effect: Enhances umami, relieves greasiness, and has antibacterial and preservative properties. The main component of salt is sodium chloride, and a certain amount must be consumed daily to maintain metabolism, regulate the acid-base balance between body fluids and cells, and promote human growth and development. Additionally, iodized salt is beneficial to the thyroid gland. Gargling with light salt water not only treats and prevents oral diseases like sore throats and swollen gums but can also prevent colds. For acute localized dermatitis and itching, washing and applying with salt water can relieve itching. Persisting in washing the eyes with light salt water daily can achieve good results in treating trachoma. Washing hair with salt water can reduce hair loss. Drinking a glass of salt water in the morning can relieve constipation.
Taboo: Consuming too much salt will cause the concentration of sodium chloride in the body to be too high. The increase in sodium ions will suppress the immune ability of respiratory tract cells, making it easy to catch a cold. Salt also inhibits the efficacy of drugs like antihypertensives, diuretics, and adrenaline, so the intake should be minimized when taking these medications.
Types: Divided by origin into sea salt, well salt, lake salt, rock salt, etc., and by processing precision into coarse salt and refined salt.
How to choose: High-quality refined salt should be pure white, with small crystals, loose and not clumpy, and without a bitter or astringent taste.
Sweetness
In ancient times, sweetness was called "Gan" (甘). In Chinese cooking, sweet flavors are used more in the south, with Wuxi cuisine in Jiangsu being the heaviest user of sweetness, with a saying that "it is sweet to the end, first in the mouth, with rich oil and dark sauce."
Seasoning effect: In cooking, it can be used alone to make sweet foods, or it can be part of various complex flavors to make food sweet and delicious. It can also be used to correct flavors, remove bitterness and fishiness, and has a certain effect of relieving greasiness.
Sugar
Effect: It can make dishes sweet, increase nutrition, make the surface of the finished product smooth, and turn golden or brown after heating. During exercise, it is necessary to supplement an appropriate amount of sugar, which can increase blood sugar levels, supply energy, save the consumption of muscle glycogen, reduce the proportion of energy supplied by proteins and fatty acids, and delay the onset of fatigue. Sugar water can also stimulate the stomach and help digestion.
Taboo: Excessive sugar intake can lead to cavities, and can also cause obesity, diabetes, arteriosclerosis, myocardial infarction, and even promote cancers such as breast cancer. Diabetics and hepatitis patients should try to consume as little as possible.
Types: Mainly divided into granulated sugar, powdered sugar, rock sugar, brown sugar, etc.
How to choose: The best choice is one with a correct color, sweet taste, no impurities, and no strange smell.
Sourness
It is widely used in cooking but generally should not be used alone.
Seasoning effect: It can remove fishy smells, relieve greasiness, enhance flavor and freshness, create aroma and color, whet the appetite, and increase the desire to eat. At the same time, it has astringent and binding effects, which can help with digestion.
Vinegar
Effect: Its main role is to increase sourness, aroma, and umami, and to harmonize flavors, relieve greasiness, and remove fishy and other odors. Vinegar can promote metabolism, and consuming vinegar is one of the effective methods to prevent arteriosclerosis and high blood pressure. Vinegar can also increase appetite and promote the secretion of digestive fluids, while also having strong bactericidal properties. It can kill various bacteria such as Salmonella and E. coli within 30 minutes. Eating more vinegar can also maintain the acidity of the intestines, achieving the effect of removing harmful bacteria. Boiling vinegar indoors and fumigating can have a certain preventive effect on colds; when you have a high fever, applying a towel soaked in diluted vinegar to the skin will lower body temperature; gargling with vinegar water can treat mild sore throats. For scalds, rinsing with vinegar can relieve pain and swelling, prevent blisters, and leave no scars after healing.
Taboo: Vinegar should not be consumed in large quantities, especially by patients with stomach ulcers, who should avoid it to prevent harm to the body. It is also not advisable to eat vinegar when eating mutton, as this can weaken the medicinal effects of both and produce substances harmful to the human body. Because vinegar is acidic, it must be avoided when taking drugs such as erythromycin and sulfonamides.
Types: Divided by production process into...