Summer Heat Toxin: What to Eat for Detoxification
Introduction: Summer is abundant with heat toxins, which can easily damage body fluids and deplete Qi. Therefore, summer foods should focus on clearing heat, relieving summer heat, strengthening the spleen and benefiting the stomach. The diet should mainly consist of light, refreshing, palatable, diuretic, damp-dispelling, nutritious, and easily digestible foods.
Summer Heat Toxin: What to Eat for Detoxification
Water Spinach is Most Detoxifying
The scientific name for water spinach is Ipomoea aquatica. It is rich in nutrition, with even higher vitamin content than tomatoes. Due to its abundant crude cellulose, water spinach plays a unique role in promoting intestinal peristalsis, relieving constipation, and detoxifying. Classical Chinese medical texts record that water spinach is cool-natured. Its pounded juice can be taken to relieve food poisoning, and when applied externally, it can reduce swelling and eliminate toxic fire. Modern medicine believes that the juice of water spinach has an inhibitory effect on bacteria such as Staphylococcus aureus and Streptococcus, and can prevent infections. Eating it often in the summer can prevent heatstroke, clear heat and cool the blood, expel toxins, and prevent dysentery.
Blanched Water Spinach
Method: Bring water in a pot to a boil. Put the cleaned water spinach into the boiling water and blanch until it is about 90% cooked. Remove and drain. In a wok, saute minced garlic and chili until fragrant. Add light soy sauce, sugar, chicken powder, and sesame oil, stir briefly, and pour over the drained water spinach.
Sour and Spicy Water Spinach Stems
Method: Select tender water spinach stems, wash them, and cut into sections. Sprinkle with a little salt and let sit for a moment, then wash again. Heat oil in a wok, add the water spinach stems and stir-fry. Add an appropriate amount of salt, minced garlic, chicken powder, chili, and vinegar, stir-fry until cooked, then serve.
Plain Stir-fried Water Spinach
Method: Wash the water spinach, remove the leaves, and cut the stems into sections. Shred the green onions and ginger. Heat oil in a wok. When the oil is about 80% hot, add the shredded green onions and ginger until fragrant, then add the water spinach and stir-fry. Add salt and chicken powder, and stir-fry until cooked.
According to Traditional Chinese Medicine, in the summer, the body's Yang Qi is on the exterior, while Yin Qi is stored internally. Gastric juice secretion is relatively reduced, and digestive function is low. Therefore, one must avoid overeating cold drinks due to the desire to cool down. Excessive consumption can cause bloating, abdominal pain, and diarrhea. It not only fails to quickly replenish and regulate the loss of salts and fluids in the body, but also dilutes gastric juice, reduces its sterilizing power, and allows pathogenic microorganisms to pass through the gastrointestinal tract, causing gastritis, enteritis, and other issues.
The Most Detoxifying Fruit: Watermelon
It is the king of melons and fruits. It not only has edible value but also high medicinal value, making it an excellent product for relieving summer heat, quenching thirst, and promoting urination. It is known in folklore as the "Natural White Tiger Decoction." When facing extreme heat, especially with a fever, holding a watermelon to sleep is more effective for cooling than applying an ice pack.
However, watermelon is cold-natured, so one should not eat too much at a time.
Mung Bean Soup Can Detoxify
Mung bean soup is most suitable for drinking in the summer. Since summer is the plum rain season with high summer heat and dampness, and mung beans have the effect of resolving summer heat and dampness, it is not suitable for frequent consumption in the relatively dry spring, autumn, and winter seasons.
Ingredients:
250g mung beans, 50g Job's tears, 25g each of green plums, kumquat cake, Buddha's hand sugar radish, and Beijing cake strips, 500g sugar, 40 sugar-soaked lotus seeds, 10 golden-threaded honey dates, 10g osmanthus sugar, and 2 rose petals.
Method:
First, pick and clean the mung beans, rinse them with water, place them in a bowl, and steam over high heat for about 30 minutes until they are soft. Steam the Job's tears and honey dates in a small bowl at the same time. Then, chop the green plums, kumquat cake, Buddha's hand radish, and Beijing cake strips into pieces the size of mung beans, and divide into 10 portions. Finally, place a pot over medium heat, add 1200g of boiling water, and bring to a boil. Scatter the steamed mung beans, Job's tears, honey dates, 4 lotus seeds, and the chopped fruit ingredients into the soup. Sprinkle the osmanthus sugar and rose petals evenly into each bowl and serve.