How to Eat to Combat Dryness in Autumn: Reduce Pungent, Increase Sour Foods, and Eat Less Ginger
Every autumn, many people talk about the topic of "autumn dryness," but few truly understand what it is. Literally, "autumn dryness" means the dryness and internal heat that comes with autumn. What are the manifestations of autumn dryness? Let's take a look together.
Recently, many people have found that a series of annoying symptoms, such as a dry nose and throat, a dry cough with little phlegm, and dry skin, have started to "plague" them from time to time. These are typical signs of being affected by "autumn dryness." Autumn dryness is an illness that occurs when a person is exposed to the pathogenic dryness during the autumn season. It is further divided into "warm dryness" and "cool dryness." The former appears in early autumn when the weather is still hot or after a long period of sunny days without rain; the latter begins in late autumn when the weather turns cool. It can lead to the depletion of body fluids, causing symptoms like dry skin and fluid loss, and it affects the lungs, which in Traditional Chinese Medicine is known as the "pathogenic dryness."
1. Hoarseness
Among the symptoms of autumn dryness, the cough is the most unbearable. In fact, the condition of the mouth and throat is also the easiest way to tell if your body is dry. Those with milder symptoms may experience hoarseness, a sore throat, and mouth ulcers; some may cough continuously with a hoarse and wheezy voice, which tends to flare up at night, making it impossible to sleep peacefully; and those with weaker constitutions may have this autumnal cough persist into winter or even develop into more serious conditions like chronic bronchitis.
2. Nasal Sensitivity
According to Traditional Chinese Medicine, nasal sensitivity is mostly caused by lung deficiency. Every autumn, nine out of ten people suffer from nasal sensitivity. The nasal mucosa is particularly prone to dryness in autumn. Once it becomes dry, people tend to pick their noses. Since the nasal mucosa is rich in capillaries, the drier it gets, the more frequently people pick, which can eventually lead to nosebleeds. Others may experience a constant runny nose and sneezing.
3. Dry Skin
In a dry environment, the skin is especially prone to becoming dry, itchy, and even cracked. If you frequently scratch your skin, itch, or even lick your lips, it means your skin has lost moisture. At this point, the most important thing for you is to rehydrate. Drink more water daily, and it's best to carry a hydrating spray with you in your daily life to keep yourself moisturized. You can also drink more soups that help relieve autumn dryness.
4. Convulsions
In the dry autumn, people can fall into two extremes: those with good immunity and a cheerful disposition will sleep soundly, while others with weaker immunity may become restless and even experience convulsions. People with this phenomenon must be very careful and seek medical treatment early.
5. Dry Hair
In autumn, dryness can lead to poor blood circulation, preventing blood from delivering nutrients to the hair follicles. This can cause hair to become dry, brittle, and yellow. If you notice that your hair turns yellow and falls out excessively as soon as autumn arrives, it means autumn dryness has caught up with you. This is when you should take countermeasures.
6. Constipation
In autumn, excessive evaporation of moisture in the body, combined with weakened gastrointestinal function, leads many people to experience dry, hard stools. Constipation can be a minor or major issue, and once it afflicts you, the trouble is no ordinary one. After all, it's a problem in a private area, and even seeing a doctor can be inconvenient. Therefore, to live comfortably and normally, you must prevent the onset of autumn dryness.
Recipes Suitable for Autumn Consumption:
Sun Simiao, the "King of Medicine" from the Tang Dynasty, proposed in his "Essential Formulas for Emergencies Worth a Thousand Gold" that the diet in autumn should "reduce pungent flavors and increase sour ones." The principle is twofold: first, in autumn, lung energy is abundant while liver energy is deficient. In the Five Elements theory, "metal overcomes wood." Therefore, to prevent excessive lung energy and deficient liver energy, diet must be adjusted. Pungent flavors enter the lungs, while sour flavors enter the liver.
Meanwhile, autumn health preservation requires the body's Yang energy to be conserved. Pungent flavors promote dispersion, while sour flavors promote astringency. Reducing pungent and increasing sour flavors helps in "nourishing Yin in autumn and winter." This means reducing pungent-dispersing foods, such as using less ginger, green onions, dried tangerine peel, and eating less or no spicy hot pot, beef, or mutton. Generally, ginger is a health-promoting ingredient with effects of removing fishy odors, expelling superficial illnesses, dispelling cold, and resolving phlegm. It is one of the most beloved medicinal and edible foods for Chinese people. However, ginger is unsuitable for consumption only in autumn among the four seasons, and it is not suitable to eat it at night. One should eat more sour fruits like apples, pears, pomegranates, mangoes, pomelos, grapes, star fruits, and hawthorns. Nature has provided great convenience for our timely health preservation. During the season for eating sour foods in autumn, a large number of fruits ripen and fall. Therefore, eating seasonal foods is a part of timely health preservation.
At the same time, the dry climate in autumn can cause pathogenic dryness to harm the body, leading to discomforts such as a dry cough, sore throat, dry skin, and constipation. Consuming more cool and moistening foods can effectively prevent the harm caused by pathogenic dryness.
Below are a few recipes suitable for autumn consumption:
Lotus Root and Pork Rib Soup
Ingredients: 500g lotus root, 500g pork ribs, a little yellow wine, ginger, green onions, and salt.
Method: Cut the pork ribs into one-inch pieces and blanch in boiling water for about 2 minutes, then discard the water. Wash the lotus root and slice it. Place the lotus root and ribs in 1500ml of warm water, add a little yellow wine, ginger, and green onions. Bring to a boil, then simmer over low heat for about 90 minutes. Add a little salt before serving.
Function: Tonifies the spleen and benefits the lungs. Suitable for all body types.
Snow Pear and Tremella Soup
Ingredients: 2 snow pears, 50g tremella (silver ear fungus), 100g rock sugar.
Method: Slice the snow pears. Soak the tremella until soft and remove the hard base. Add water to a pot, then put in the pears, tremella, and rock sugar. Boil for half an hour, then it is ready to eat.
Function: Tonifies Qi, nourishes Yin, and stops coughs. Prevents autumn dry cough. Especially suitable for those with Yin and blood deficiency.
Steamed Honey Lily Bulb
Ingredients: 120g lily bulb, 30g honey.
Method: Mix the ingredients evenly and steam until soft. Hold a few pieces in the mouth from time to time, swallowing the saliva and chewing.
Function: Tonifies the lungs, moistens dryness, and clears heat. Applies to lung heat with vexation, or dry-heat cough with a dry, sore throat.
Sugarcane and Chinese Yam Porridge
Ingredients: Juice from fresh sugarcane (about 100-150ml), 50g Chinese yam, 50g japonica rice.
Function: This porridge clears heat, generates fluids, nourishes Yin, and moistens dryness. It is suitable for the recovery stage of febrile diseases, with vexation and thirst caused by insufficient fluids, lung dryness and cough, and dry, hard stools.
Rehmannia Root Porridge
Finely chop 30g of fresh Rehmannia root. Use an appropriate amount of water and boil it over a flame for about half an hour, then strain the liquid. Repeat the decoction process once. Combine the medicinal liquids and concentrate them to about 100ml. Wash 75g of japonica rice and cook it into a plain porridge. Mix in the Rehmannia juice. A little sugar can be added before serving.
This medicinal diet has the function of nourishing Yin and benefiting the stomach, and cooling the blood to generate fluids. It can be used for Yin deficiency with tidal fever, night sweats, chronic cough, coughing up blood, poor appetite, emaciation, vexation from heat, thirst, red eyes upon waking that are slow to disappear, etc. ("Essential Principles of Correct Diet")
Chinese Yam and Coix Seed Porridge
60g raw coix seed, 60g raw Chinese yam (crushed), 30g persimmon powder (cut into small pieces). Cook these together into a porridge.
Function: Tonifies the lungs, strengthens the spleen, and nourishes the stomach. Suitable for all conditions of deficiency of the spleen and lung Qi, such as internal heat from Yin deficiency, laborious cough with dryness, diarrhea, loss of appetite, etc.