It is now early spring, and the temperature is still relatively cold. Moreover, the temperature has been fluctuating significantly recently, marking the transition from cold to warm. During this period, scientific dietary conditioning is very helpful for maintaining good health and preventing diseases. Eat a light diet to clear "spring heat".
People are prone to "heatiness" in spring, experiencing symptoms like a yellowish tongue coating, a bitter taste in the mouth, and a dry throat. Therefore, the diet should be light, avoiding greasy, raw, cold, and irritating foods. Those with obvious signs of heatiness can eat some heat-clearing foods, such as mung bean soup, honeysuckle tea, chrysanthemum tea, and water infused with lotus seed cores. Pungent and sweet foods help the "spring yang".
Slightly pungent foods, such as scallions, ginger, chives, and garlic sprouts, are foods that nourish the "spring qi". The ancient medical text "Qian Jin Fang" from the Tang Dynasty has a saying: "In the second and third months, it is easy to eat chives." Eating these foods is very beneficial for the body's generation of "spring yang". Reduce sourness and increase sweetness to protect the spleen and stomach.
Traditional Chinese Medicine believes that spring is the season when the liver, one of the five organs, governs the body. It is advisable to appropriately consume pungent, warm, and ascending foods, while reducing raw, cold, and sticky foods to avoid harming the spleen and stomach. Therefore, in spring, one should eat more sweet foods and fewer sour foods. Yellow and green vegetables prevent "spring drowsiness".
"Spring drowsiness" makes the body feel tired and the spirit listless. One should eat more red, yellow, and dark green vegetables, such as carrots, pumpkins, tomatoes, bell peppers, and celery, which are very helpful for restoring energy and eliminating spring drowsiness. Carefully select foods to reduce diseases.
As the temperature gradually rises in spring, bacteria, viruses, and other microorganisms also begin to multiply and become more active, easily invading the human body and causing disease. Therefore, the diet should provide sufficient vitamins and minerals. Fresh vegetables like tatsoi, kale, and broccoli, and fruits like citrus and lemons, are rich in vitamin C and have antiviral effects. Yellow-green vegetables like carrots and spinach are rich in vitamin A, which can protect and enhance the mucous membranes of the upper respiratory tract and the epithelial cells of respiratory organs, thereby resisting the invasion of various pathogenic factors. Be cautious of gastrointestinal diseases.
Diseases such as stomach and duodenal ulcers are prone to flare up in spring. The diet should avoid consuming broths, chicken soups, fish soups, animal organs, and irritating condiments rich in substances like creatine and purine alkaloids, because these foods strongly stimulate gastric acid secretion or form gas, causing bloating and increasing the burden on the gastrointestinal tract. Expel phlegm and nourish the lungs to stay healthy.
Chronic bronchitis and bronchitis are also prone to flare up in spring. It is advisable to eat more foods that expel phlegm, strengthen the spleen, nourish the kidneys, and moisten the lungs, such as loquats, oranges, pears, walnuts, and honey, which can help alleviate symptoms.