Introduction: Boiled Fish, Spicy Crayfish, and other spicy dishes are all the rage in summer. Many office workers, after work or overtime, enjoy eating these heavily seasoned and spicy foods, which can easily lead to "heatiness" (Shanghuo). Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) believes that "fish generates heat." It is especially not advisable to eat too much fish in the summer, as fish meat is considered warm-natured and can easily cause heatiness. It is best to pair it with some heat-clearing foods, such as crucian carp and winter melon soup, cucumber stir-fried with fish slices, or tomato stir-fried with fish slices.
Current seasonal fruits, such as lychees, cherries, longans, guavas, coconuts, durians, and apricots, can also easily cause heatiness if eaten in excess, so one should not overindulge.
Indulging in late-night snacks or street food is another major cause of heatiness for office workers. Drinking alcohol, eating barbecue, and other similar activities can also trigger symptoms of heatiness. Therefore, it is important to maintain a healthy and scientific diet.
Meat consumption in the summer should also be moderate. Excessive intake of meat can lead to low calcium concentration in the body, which can increase irritability and a tendency to be short-tempered. Moreover, eating too much meat can lead to hardening of the arteries, which in turn raises blood pressure. High blood pressure is a significant cause of emotional instability, and emotional fluctuation is an important psychological factor in heatiness.
To prevent and treat heatiness, one can choose Niuhuang Shangqing Wan from Beijing Tongrentang. Its main ingredients include artificial cow-bezoar, mint, chrysanthemum, schizonepeta spike, angelica dahurica, ligusticum wallichii, gardenia, coptis, phellodendron, scutellaria, rhubarb, forsythia, red peony, angelica sinensis, rehmannia root, platycodon, licorice, and gypsum, with honey as an excipient. This medicine clears heat and purges fire, dispels wind, and alleviates pain. It is used for symptoms caused by internal accumulation of heat toxins and wind-fire attacking the upper body, such as headache, dizziness, red eyes, tinnitus, sore throat, mouth sores, swollen gums, and constipation. It is a traditional Chinese patent medicine for clearing heat and removing fire.
Traditional Chinese Medicine advocates that after the Summer Solstice, the focus of health preservation should be on "nourishing the heart," and drinking plenty of water is particularly important. An adult's daily water intake should be between 1500 ml and 2000 ml. If you sweat a lot due to work, you should increase your intake accordingly. We should drink water proactively and in a timely manner, rather than waiting until we feel thirsty. After the Summer Solstice, it is advisable to eat more sour-tasting foods. Because overly greasy diets can easily cause heatiness, they should be eaten less. Experts recommend eating more light seasonal vegetables and drinking cooling beverages like mung bean soup, plum soup, and herbal tea. If possible, you can also make fresh fruit and vegetable juices such as watermelon, tomato, pear, fresh lotus root, winter melon, and loofah juice. These have excellent health benefits and are unlikely to cause heatiness.