Eating Dragon Fruit in Winter is Good for Your Health
Core Tip: It's time to nourish yourself in winter, but why eat cooling foods? Come and find out:
Recently, the temperature in Nanjing has been consistently low in the mornings and evenings, and spicy cuisines like Sichuan, Hunan, and hotpot have remained all the rage. Experts remind us that in winter, we shouldn't just stick to high-calorie foods to increase our body heat; eating some cooling foods is also beneficial to our health.
Mr. Zheng, a business manager at a private company in Nanjing, often dines out for business, mostly in high-end hotpot restaurants or Sichuan restaurants. In the past few days, Mr. Zheng has felt some discomfort in his throat. A visit to the hospital revealed he had pharyngitis, and Western medicine alone didn't seem to be very effective.
The winter air is dry and cold, and many people tend to favor spicy, high-calorie foods. With relatively less physical activity, it's easy for internal heat to build up without being released in a timely manner, leading to a condition of "internal heat accumulation." Depending on where the heat accumulates in the body, there can be different clinical symptoms. For example, heat in the upper burner can manifest as upper respiratory tract infections, pharyngitis, tonsillitis, or oral ulcers. Heat in the middle burner can be seen as a thick tongue coating, yellow urine, constipation, or thirst. Heat in the lower burner can often trigger or worsen conditions like cystitis or hemorrhoids.
For readers with healthy digestive systems, consuming some cooling foods in winter according to your body's condition can be beneficial to your health. For instance, drinking cool boiled water in winter can help prevent colds and pharyngitis. Drinking a glass of cool boiled water in the morning, in particular, can enhance the liver's detoxification ability and the kidneys' excretion function, promote metabolism, and boost the immune system. In terms of fruits and vegetables, you might consider consuming moderate amounts of white radish, winter melon, snow pear, and dragon fruit.