Summer Smart Eating: Cool Down, Relieve Irritability, Boost Appetite, and Reduce Discomfort
Introduction: Scorching summer heat not only increases fatigue but can also leave your digestive system feeling sluggish. What should you eat in the summer? What can you eat to protect your health? The Health Channel shares summer dietary methods to help you easily achieve the goals of cooling down, relieving irritability, boosting appetite, and promoting gut health through dietary adjustments!
As summer arrives, rising temperatures can easily make you feel hot and thirsty, and may also lead to dizziness, headaches, irritability, loss of appetite, and constipation. Health experts recommend paying attention to your fluid intake, drinking more than 2000cc of water daily, and using ingredients like salted plums, white radish, lotus seeds, and hibiscus to make soups and teas. This can help cool the body, generate fluids to quench thirst, whet the appetite, and aid digestion.
The summer heat and dampness can affect the body's circulation, deplete bodily fluids, and damage the spleen and stomach's energy, leading to a poor appetite. It's best to eat less fried and overly salty food to avoid increasing internal heat and "fire." Bitter and astringent foods like bitter melon, white radish, lotus seeds, and dark green vegetables such as kale can help strengthen the spleen, clear heart "fire," calm the mind, and relieve fatigue. Sour foods like salted plums, hibiscus, and dark plums can help relieve summer heat and dampness, generate fluids to quench thirst, boost appetite, and promote digestion.
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Ensure Adequate Fluid Intake
Drinking plenty of water can prevent dehydration, which can cause a dry mouth and irritability. Those who spend long hours outdoors or are very active should drink about 2500cc of water daily, while others should drink about 2000cc. Sip your water slowly to give your body time to absorb it.
Less Greasy and Heavy Food
It's best to eat less fried and salty food, such as fried chicken, to avoid increasing internal heat and depleting bodily fluids. Drinking iced beverages can also damage the spleen and stomach's energy, making it harder for damp-heat to dissipate and increasing the chances of digestive discomfort.
4 Ingredients
White Radish: Cool Heat and Cool Blood
White radish clears heat, cools the blood, and generates fluids. It is good for regulating the constitution of "heat" type, which is characterized by hard stools and high body temperature. Eat it 2-3 times a week, with 2 bowls of diced radish each time. You can cook it in a soup with pork ribs that nourish blood and qi. Alternatively, peel and cube 1/3 of a white radish, add water to cover it, bring to a boil over high heat, then simmer over medium heat for 40 minutes. Remove the radish, add soy sauce and bonito flakes, and eat.
Hibiscus: Relieve Summer Heat and Lower Lipids
Hibiscus can relieve summer heat and thirst, clear heat and reduce "fire," and lower blood lipids. Take 50 grams of hibiscus, add 500cc of water, bring to a boil over high heat, then simmer over low heat for 10 minutes. Let it cool and drink it all on the same day. You can drink this 2-3 times a week. However, those with weak digestive systems who are prone to stomachaches and bloating are advised to drink it after meals to avoid irritating the stomach.
Salted Plum: Relieve Poor Appetite
Salted plums have the effects of generating fluids to quench thirst, relieving irritability, whetting the appetite, and increasing it. Since most commercially available salted plums contain salt, it's best to eat only 1-2 per day. In addition to eating them directly, you can also steep 1-2 salted plums and 10 grams of perilla in 500cc of hot water for about 15-20 minutes until it cools, then drink it. Finish it on the same day, one cup daily.
Lotus Seed: Reduce "Fire" and Relieve Irritability Doctor's Advice: Don't Eat Watermelon Too Late Although watermelon can clear heat and quench thirst, it has a strong "cooling" nature. Furthermore, the body's water metabolism slows down at night, which can hinder the removal of dampness and make swelling more likely. It is recommended to eat it before 4 PM.