Introduction: When dining, some people are always picky eaters, especially women, who refuse to eat ginger, garlic, and more. They often talk about the importance of health, yet they are neglecting their own, because the very foods they avoid are what the body needs most for good health.
Pepper dispels wind and strengthens the stomach
Pepper is warm in nature and pungent in taste, containing nutrients such as volatile oil, piperine, crude fat, crude protein, and starch. It comes in black and white varieties and can be used to treat indigestion, enteritis, bronchitis, colds, and rheumatism. Modern pharmacological research has also found that the piperine, piperic acid, and volatile oil in pepper have the effects of dispelling wind and strengthening the stomach. Patients with diabetes, gout, arthritis, hemorrhoids, cancer, bronchial asthma, and other conditions should avoid consuming pepper.
Ginger promotes sweating and lowers body temperature
Ginger is warm in nature and spicy in taste, containing oily volatile substances like gingerol, as well as gingerol, vitamins, ginger oil phenol, resin, starch, fiber, and small amounts of minerals. It can enhance blood circulation, stimulate gastric juice secretion, excite the intestines, promote digestion, and strengthen the stomach to increase appetite. Additionally, ginger can kill bacteria in the mouth and intestines, helping to clean the mouth. In the hot summer, eating ginger can also promote sweating to lower body temperature and refresh the mind, relieving fatigue, listlessness, loss of appetite, insomnia, bloating, and abdominal pain. This is why there is a Chinese proverb that says, "Eat radish in winter and ginger in summer, and you won't need a doctor's prescription." It is worth noting that while ginger is beneficial, those with yin deficiency and internal heat, as well as hemorrhoid patients, should avoid it.
Chili peppers prevent colds
Chili peppers are hot in nature and pungent in taste, containing various nutrients such as B vitamins, vitamin C, protein, carotene, capsaicin, citric acid, iron, phosphorus, and calcium. Their vitamin C content is exceptionally high, ranking among the top in vegetables. They have the effects of warming the middle jiao to dispel cold, stimulating the appetite to aid digestion, and promoting sweating to eliminate dampness. They also possess certain antibacterial properties and are quite effective in preventing colds, arteriosclerosis, night blindness, and scurvy. Chili peppers can also help prevent cancer and delay aging, with red chili peppers earning the folk nickname "red medicinal herb." Because of their intensely hot nature and strong irritability, they should not be eaten in large quantities. Those with eye inflammation, stomach ulcers, high blood pressure, toothaches, or pharyngitis should avoid them.
Garlic fights viruses
Garlic is warm in nature and pungent in taste, containing nutrients such as protein, fat, carbohydrates, B vitamins, and vitamin C. It also contains sulfur and selenium organic compounds (allicin) and various active enzymes. Furthermore, its content of elements like calcium, phosphorus, and iron is abundant. It has the effects of killing parasites, detoxifying, resolving food stagnation, promoting qi circulation, and warming the stomach. It is somewhat effective in treating dietary stagnation, cold pain in the epigastric abdomen, dysentery, malaria, whooping cough, carbuncles and swellings, edema, pain from insect or snake bites, and more. In addition, eating garlic can prevent the flu, treat fungal infections, and has the effects of lowering blood pressure, blood lipids, and blood sugar, as well as strong anti-cancer properties. It is one of the most powerful known plant antibiotics, earning the nickname "penicillin that grows in the soil." However, those with yin deficiency and excessive fire, diarrhea, hemorrhoids, gastrointestinal bleeding, and eye diseases should not consume it.
Sichuan peppercal relieves pain
Sichuan peppercorn is warm in nature and pungent in taste, containing components such as limonene, sanshools, unsaturated organic acids, and volatile oil. It has the effects of warming the middle jiao to strengthen the stomach, dispelling cold and eliminating dampness, detoxifying and killing parasites, and regulating qi to relieve pain. It is somewhat effective in treating food stagnation, hiccups, belching and vomiting, joint and muscle pain caused by wind-cold-dampness, dysentery, and roundworms. Modern pharmacological research has also found that it has certain local anesthetic and analgesic effects and shows significant inhibitory effects against various bacilli and cocci. However, patients with bronchial asthma, diabetes, gout, cancer, and pregnant women should use it with caution.
Onions prevent arteriosclerosis
Onion is warm in nature and pungent in taste, containing various nutrients such as protein, sugar, crude fiber, selenium, thiamine, riboflavin, prostaglandin A, amino acids, and calcium, phosphorus, iron, vitamin C, carotene, and B vitamins. Its volatile oil contains a substance that lowers cholesterol—diallyl disulfide. Onion has the effects of clearing heat and resolving phlegm, detoxifying and killing parasites, stimulating the appetite and transforming dampness, lowering lipids and blood sugar, aiding digestion, calming the liver and moistening the intestines, dispelling phlegm, promoting urination, inducing sweating, preventing colds, and inhibiting bacteria and preserving food. It can prevent and treat arteriosclerosis and also has anti-cancer properties. Because it combines nutrition, health care, and medicinal functions, onion is hailed as the "queen of vegetables" in some European and American countries. However, those with eye diseases or after suffering from a febrile illness should not eat it.