Moistening the Lungs and Relieving Cough: TCM Teaches You How to Eat Pears
Introduction: Pears can nourish yin, moisten the lungs, relieve coughs, and clear lung heat. However, for different types of coughs, the methods of eating pears vary, and so do the results. Below, a TCM expert introduces several ways to eat pears that can alleviate different symptoms and eliminate various types of cough.
Boiling Pears with the Skin Can Nourish Yin, Moisten the Lungs, and Clear Lung Heat
When boiling pears, the skin and core should be boiled together. The pear core is sour, and the pear flesh is sweet. The combination of sour and sweet helps generate yin, which is beneficial for nourishing yin and moistening dryness. The pear skin, after being cooked, becomes bitter and cool in nature, and can help clear lung heat and promote bowel movements. This is the principle of "sour and sweet generate yin, and bitterness can clear heat." Boiling the entire pear, including the skin and core, has the effect of nourishing yin, moistening the lungs, and clearing lung heat.
For different types of coughs, boiling pears in combination with scallion roots, ginger, dried tangerine peel, or dark plum will also yield different therapeutic effects. The details are as follows:
1. Pears Boiled with Dried Tangerine Peel
Dryness can lead to fluid deficiency and phlegm production, manifesting as a cough with little sputum that is yellow or white. For this condition, you can add some dried tangerine peel, or partially hollow white radish, to the boiling pears. Eating the pears and drinking the soup can moisten dryness, resolve phlegm, regulate qi, and relieve cough.
2. Pears Boiled with Scallion and Ginger
Currently, we are in the Frost's Descent season, when cool-dryness prevails. Dryness evil and cold evil often combine to invade the body, causing symptoms such as a dry cough and a clear, runny nose. Patients with these symptoms can add two or three slices of ginger and five or six sections of scallion root to the boiling pears. Simmer for 5-6 minutes, then eat the pears and drink the soup once or twice a day. Scallion root and ginger are warm and pungent in nature, and have the effect of expelling exterior cold with warm pungent properties. They can dispel cold evil, and when boiled with pears, they work synergistically to eliminate cool-dryness.
3. Pears Boiled with Dark Plum
For those with a long-standing or severe dry cough, you can add 10 grams each of dark plum and licorice to boil with the pears. Eat the pears and drink the soup. Dark plum is sour, and licorice is sweet. When boiled with pears, their effect of nourishing yin, moistening the lungs, and relieving cough is enhanced. Dark plum also has the effect of astringing the lungs to stop cough. This soup is sweet and refreshing, making it very suitable for children. Drinking it as tea in the autumn can also nourish yin and moisten dryness, and prevent dryness of the mouth, nose, throat, and skin.
Special Reminder: The dietary therapy methods mentioned above are not suitable for people with a weak or cold spleen and stomach to consume in large quantities or for a long period.