Eat Spicy, Not Cold for a Healthier Summer Diet
Eating ice is a perfect enjoyment loved by many in the summer. However, besides bringing a cool and refreshing feeling, it also brings some hidden health risks. Conversely, although eating spicy food in the summer makes you sweat profusely, sweating helps expel toxins from the body, which is a very beneficial practice. Today, let's explore how to eat healthily during the summer.
On scorching summer days, many people are accustomed to eating ice and gulping down iced water to cool down, especially enjoying that instant feeling of penetrating coolness. However, nutritionists and traditional Chinese medicine practitioners unanimously agree that if you want to use food to relieve summer heat, cold desserts are not a good choice. Drinking water and allowing the body to sweat are the best ways to prevent heat from accumulating in the body.
Water at near-room temperature is better for the stomach
From a physiological perspective, having enough water and sweating when you should are the best ways to dissipate heat. To quickly cool down in the summer, the best method is actually to drink water at near-room temperature or warm water, which allows the water to quickly reach the small intestine to promote sweating and cooling. Although the cool feeling from eating ice and drinking cold water can extend from the mouth to the stomach, it only provides "localized cooling," making it difficult for the body's heat to dissipate, and you will still feel the summer heat. Moreover, a large amount of cold drinks can slow down stomach motility, delaying the time it takes for water to reach the intestines and slowing down water absorption.
If you find it hard to quit cold desserts, eat them in small bites
To enjoy both the feeling of penetrating coolness and cooling down, you don't have to completely avoid cold water and desserts. You can eat them slowly in small bites or drink them in small sips, prolonging the time they stay in your mouth until their temperature is close to your body temperature before swallowing. However, patients with allergic rhinitis and asthma should still avoid them to prevent worsening their allergic symptoms.
Ginger and Winter Melon Soup helps expel body heat
In addition to drinking water, I also suggest eating gourds to reduce summer heat, such as winter melon, cucumber, large cucumber, and bottle gourd. Traditional Chinese medicine believes that gourds have a cool nature, which can balance the summer's dry heat. Winter melon soup is a good choice, and it also replenishes fluids. For those who don't like hot food, you can choose cold cucumber salad. When making winter melon soup, adding a little ginger helps to whet the appetite and stimulate blood circulation. Only after the skin's capillaries expand can body heat be dissipated. In Southeast Asia, where it's summer all year round, spicy foods like chili, curry, and pepper are commonly used. Besides stimulating the appetite, they also promote sweating and dissipate body heat.
Cold food is hard to "put out the fire," warm food is better
When thinking about cooling down, people most often think of cold mung bean soup, winter melon tea, and watermelon, believing they can "balance the cold and heat." However, from a traditional Chinese medicine perspective, although cold food can provide temporary coolness, the body will actually produce more heat to counteract it, leading to a situation where the more you "cool down," the "hotter" you become. It's best to focus on "warm food." It might seem unbelievable to many that eating spicy food can cool you down in the summer, with concerns that it will increase "internal heat." However, as early as in Sun Simiao's "Essential Formulas for Emergencies" from the Tang Dynasty, it was mentioned, "Spicy flavors promote dispersion, while bitter flavors promote sinking." This means that spicy food helps dissipate internal heat, while bitter flavors are not conducive to the rise of yang energy in summer. Therefore, for summer diet, one should "increase spicy flavors and decrease bitter flavors" in terms of taste.
Southeast Asia's love for spicy food to remove internal dampness
In fact, people in Southeast Asia also eat spicy food to combat the heat, such as very spicy seafood salads and sour and spicy shrimp soup. Even when it's scorching hot, Koreans still eat kimchi stew. Spicy foods like chili, curry, pepper, mustard, green onions, and garlic are very suitable for Taiwan's hot and humid summer. They help promote sweating, remove internal dampness and summer heat, and also stimulate the appetite. For example, chili also has the effect of warming the stomach and liver. If you don't sweat when you should in the summer, you are more likely to develop skin problems in the winter.
Eat lettuce salad, increase spicy and decrease sour flavors
In the summer, many people love eating lettuce salads. At this time, you can slightly adjust the salad dressing by adding more spicy flavor and less sour flavor, otherwise, it will not be conducive to sweating. For example, with vinaigrette, you should add less vinegar, and in Tom Yum soup, the sour taste should also be reduced.