Introduction: Summer weather is hot and can easily lead to heatstroke and irritability. So, what can you eat to relieve summer heat and clear heat? The editor has recommended three types of heat-relieving and heat-clearing foods. Eating more of these foods in the summer can help you clear heat and detoxify, relieve coughs and promote fluid production, promote urination and reduce swelling, and effectively prevent and treat heatstroke.
1. Cucumber
Keywords: Clearing heat and promoting urination
Cucumber is cool in nature and sweet in taste, and has the effects of clearing heat and detoxifying, promoting urination to reduce swelling, quenching thirst and promoting fluid production. It can be used for symptoms such as fever and thirst, heat toxin sores, jaundice with hot strangury, and yellowish-red urine. "Ben Cao Qiu Zhen" describes cucumber as "sweet and cold in nature, able to clear heat and promote water." "Dian Nan Ben Cao" states that it "relieves convulsive heat-toxin and clears vexation and thirst."
Because cucumber's nature is cool, excessive consumption can easily deplete vital energy and damage the spleen and stomach. Therefore, those with insufficient qi and blood, those who are chronically ill and weak, the elderly or teenagers, pregnant women, those with a cold stomach and diarrhea, and those with cold limbs should not eat too much of it. "Dian Nan Ben Cao" states: "It agitates cold phlegm; those with a cold stomach who eat it will experience abdominal pain, vomiting, and diarrhea." Cucumbers should not be eaten raw on an empty stomach. It is best to add them at the end when making soup to avoid discoloration and nutrient loss from prolonged cooking.
2. Luffa
Keywords: Relieving summer heat and clearing fire
Both the tender luffa and its flowers are edible and are nutritious, containing various amino acids, vitamins, and necessary minerals for the human body such as calcium, phosphorus, and iron. They also contain disease-preventing and health-promoting active ingredients like saponins and cucurbitacins.
Not only is luffa rich in nutrients, but its medicinal value is even higher. It has the effects of clearing summer heat and cooling the blood, detoxifying and promoting bowel movements, expelling wind, resolving phlegm, moisturizing the skin and enhancing beauty, unblocking meridians, promoting blood circulation, lowering blood pressure, and promoting lactation. The entire luffa plant can be used for medicinal purposes. The root, vine, and leaves can relieve coughs, resolve phlegm, invigorate blood circulation, and unblock meridians, and also have antibacterial effects. Fresh luffa leaves can be used to treat stubborn tinea.
Luffa flower is slightly bitter and cold, and can clear heat and detoxify. It can be used to treat lung-heat cough, sore throat, rhinitis, hemorrhoids, etc. Luffa seeds have the effects of clearing heat, resolving phlegm, moisturizing dryness, and detoxifying. Luffa sponge is also a commonly used traditional Chinese medicine that has the effects of clearing heat and detoxifying, invigorating blood circulation to unblock meridians, and promoting urination to reduce swelling.
3. Kai-lan
Keywords: Promoting urination and resolving phlegm
Kai-lan, originating from southern China, has a long history of cultivation and belongs to the cabbage family. It is one of China's specialty vegetables and is a popular home-cooked dish in southern regions such as Guangdong, Guangxi, and Fujian.
Because of its thick, upright stems, dense cellular tissue, low water content, and a waxy layer on the表皮, it is crisp but not hard, and爽脆而不韧. Su Dongpo once wrote a poem praising it: "Kai-lan is like a mushroom, crisp and beautiful, a sound for the teeth and cheeks."
The nutritional value of kai-lan is very rich. Its content of carotene and vitamin C is very high, far exceeding that of vegetables like amaranth, which are generally considered to be high in vitamin C. Most importantly, kai-lan contains rich glucosinolates, which are powerful anti-cancer components. Regular consumption can also lower cholesterol, soften blood vessels, and prevent heart disease, and its anti-cancer and antioxidant effects should not be underestimated. From the perspective of Traditional Chinese Medicine, kai-lan is sweet and pungent in nature, and has the effects of promoting urination to resolve phlegm and detoxifying to expel wind, making it very suitable for summer consumption.