The Spring Equinox belongs to the mid-spring season. From the perspective of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) health preservation, liver energy is flourishing while kidney energy is relatively weak. Therefore, in terms of diet, one should reduce sour foods and increase pungent ones to support the kidneys and nourish the liver, avoiding the pitfalls of foods that are excessively hot, cold, ascending, or descending. At the same time, it's important to strengthen the spleen and stomach, and to invigorate the spleen to expel dampness. This means avoiding foods that are very hot or very cold; instead, seek balance. Citizens can choose diets that maintain the coordinated balance of the body's functions according to their specific situations. For instance, when cooking cold-natured foods like fish, shrimp, and crab, one can use warm-natured condiments such as scallions, ginger, wine, or vinegar to prevent these dishes from being too cold and damaging the spleen and stomach, which could cause abdominal discomfort. When consuming yang-invigorating dishes like chives, garlic, or papaya, they should be paired with yin-nourishing foods like eggs to achieve a balance of yin and yang.
Additionally, dishes like braised eel, pig's kidneys with Eucommia, and garlic-braised eggplant have effects of tonifying deficiency, lowering blood pressure, and cooling the blood to stop bleeding. Spring bamboo shoots are sweet and cold in nature, with benefits such as nourishing yin and enriching the blood, resolving phlegm, aiding digestion, relieving restlessness, and promoting urination. These are all foods that are particularly suitable for consumption during the Spring Equinox.