Introduction: Autumn has arrived, and the gradually cooling weather brings us a good mood, but we must also remember to improve our diet. Although appetite increases in autumn, women should avoid overeating and try not to touch raw, cold, and irritating foods, as the spread of bacteria accelerates in autumn. It is best to drink more porridge. Let's take a look at the dietary taboos and nutritious eating methods for autumn together.
I. Four Dietary Taboos for Women in Autumn
1. Don't supplement indiscriminately
Autumn is a suitable season for nourishment, but it should not be done indiscriminately. One should avoid supplementing when there is no illness and avoid indiscriminate supplementation that confuses deficiency and excess. It is important to supplement in moderation, avoid using medicine as a substitute for food, and remember that food supplementation is better than medicinal supplementation. Food supplementation should focus on nourishing yin and moistening dryness. Specific foods include black-bone chicken, pig lung, turtle meat, bird's nest, tremella, honey, sesame, soy milk, lotus root, walnut, coix seed, peanut, duck egg, spinach, pear, etc. When these foods are combined with other beneficial foods or traditional Chinese medicines, their effects are even better.
2. Eat less irritating food
In autumn, one should eat less irritating, spicy, and dry-heat foods, such as chili peppers and pepper. Instead, one should eat more vegetables and fruits, such as winter melon, radish, zucchini, eggplant, green leafy vegetables, apples, and bananas. Additionally, avoid the accumulation of damp-heat qi. This is because foods with a pungent aroma have a dispersing effect, so it is recommended to eat some pungent and aromatic foods like celery.
3. Don't overeat
In autumn, due to the pleasant climate and abundant food, people often overeat. Excess calorie intake will be converted into fat and accumulate, causing people to gain weight, a phenomenon commonly known as "getting autumn fat." In autumn, one should pay attention to moderation in diet and not indulge one's appetite with excessive eating and drinking.
4. Don't eat too raw or cold food
As the weather turns from hot to cool in autumn, the body's physiological metabolism changes to adapt to this change. It is particularly important not to eat too raw or cold food to avoid indigestion and various digestive tract diseases.
II. Autumn Superfoods for Women
1. White radish, cauliflower
White radish, cauliflower, and other cruciferous vegetables: They contain mustard oil. The spicy taste of mustard oil can promote intestinal peristalsis, prevent constipation, reduce the self-detoxification of toxins in the large intestine, and help prevent colorectal cancer.
2. Garlic
Garlic is a common condiment and one of the earliest medicines used by people to treat diseases and maintain health. It has high medicinal value.
3. Soybean
Soybeans and garlic can be considered two "standouts" that have made great contributions to human health for thousands of years. Soybeans are rich in numerous nutrients beneficial to the human body and are a natural, green, and healthy food.
4. Tremella (Silver ear fungus)
Also known as white fungus, tremella has a sweet and mild taste, is neutral and non-toxic, and affects the lung, stomach, and kidney meridians. It has the effects of promoting fluid production to moisten the lungs, replenishing qi and activating blood, nourishing yin and strengthening the stomach, and nourishing the brain and calming the heart. It is suitable for symptoms such as lung-heat cough, dry cough due to lung dryness, stomach-intestinal dryness-heat, and constipation.
Tremella is known as the "immortality elixir," "longevity product," and "king of fungi." It has a moisturizing but not greasy nature and is especially suitable for patients who are physically weak, recovering from a long illness and cannot take other tonics, or those with yin deficiency and internal heat or internal heat with a tendency to bleed.
It should be noted that it is contraindicated for those with a dry mouth at the onset of a cold, or for those with a wind-cold cold, such as those who are afraid of cold, have a cough, or have copious, clear, watery phlegm.
5. Job's tears (Coix seed)
Job's tears have a sweet and slightly cold taste, and they affect the spleen, lung, and kidney meridians. They have the effect of whitening and beautifying the skin. Their nature is mild and they nourish without being greasy, a fact that women who love beauty are certainly familiar with.
6. Onion, grains, and the flesh of many plants
They contain quercetin, a plant nutrient with antioxidant effects. It is the most widely distributed flavonoid compound in the plant kingdom and has been proven to have many pharmacological effects, such as antiviral, antitumor, and cardiovascular protective effects.
7. Sugarcane
Sugarcane is sweet, neutral, and non-toxic. It mainly helps to lower qi, harmonize the middle jiao, aid the spleen, benefit the large intestine, resolve phlegm and quench thirst, and relieve vexation and heat in the chest and heart. It has the effects of nourishing yin and moistening dryness, harmonizing the stomach to stop vomiting, and clearing heat and resolving toxins. For symptoms caused by insufficient yin fluid, such as a dry mouth, cough with little phlegm, and constipation, one can improve the symptoms by eating more sugarcane.
8. Pear
Since ancient times, the pear has been revered as the "king of all fruits." It has the functions of moistening the lungs, stopping coughs, resolving phlegm, and reducing fire. In autumn, if the climate is excessively dry, leading to thirst, constipation, or a dry cough; or if internal heat causes vexation and thirst, coughing, wheezing, and yellow phlegm, one can eat more pears. Before using pears for health preservation, consider whether they are suitable for your constitution. People with a weak constitution or a cold cough should not eat raw pears; they must be steamed, made into soup, or stewed with medicinal herbs. Those with long-term diarrhea should not eat many pears, as pears are cold in nature and eating too many can worsen diarrhea.
9. Milk
A well-known calcium-rich food, the calcium it contains is easily absorbed by the human body, making it an excellent choice for daily calcium intake. Drinking milk before bed can also help with sleep. A glass of hot milk in the cool autumn air is also very comfortable.
III. Recommended Porridge Recipes for Women in Autumn
1. Rice and Sugarcane Porridge
Method: Use fresh sugarcane to extract about 100-150 ml of juice, mix with an appropriate amount of water, and cook with rice.
Effects: Clears heat and promotes fluid production, nourishes yin and moistens dryness. Suitable for vexation and thirst caused by insufficient fluid during the recovery period of febrile diseases, dry cough due to lung dryness, and constipation.
2. Lotus Seed Porridge
Method: Soak the lotus seeds until they swell, then use a brush to rub off the skin in water, remove the lotus hearts, cook them until soft in clear water, and then cook with rice to eat.
Effects: Strengthens the spleen to stop diarrhea, benefits the kidneys to secure essence, and nourishes the heart to calm the mind. Suitable for spleen deficiency with poor appetite, leukorrhea due to deficiency, spermatorrhea, frequent urination, vexation, insomnia, and forgetfulness with many dreams.
3. Rice and Solomon's Seal Porridge
Method: First, wash 50 grams of fresh, plump Solomon's seal, remove the roots and rhizomes, chop it, and decoct it to obtain a concentrated juice, then remove the dregs. Alternatively, use 20 grams of dried Solomon's seal to make a decoction, remove the dregs, add rice, and cook with an appropriate amount of water into a thin porridge. After the porridge is cooked, add rock sugar and bring to a brief boil.
Effects: Nourishes yin and moistens the lungs, promotes fluid production and quenches thirst. Suitable for lung yin injury, dry cough with little or no phlegm, or after a high fever, with vexation, thirst, a dry mouth and tongue, persistent low-grade fever due to yin deficiency, and can be used as an adjuvant dietary therapy for cardiac insufficiency in patients with various types of heart disease.
4. Rock Sugar and Adenophora Porridge
Method: First, take 15-30 grams of adenophora, decoct it to obtain medicinal juice, remove the dregs, and cook with rice to make porridge. When the porridge is cooked, add rock sugar and cook into a thin porridge. Alternatively, use 30-60 grams of fresh adenophora, wash it, slice it, decoct it to obtain a concentrated juice, and cook with rice and rock sugar.
Effects: Nourishes the stomach, moistens the lungs, dispels phlegm, and stops coughing. Suitable for lung heat and dryness, dry cough with little phlegm, or chronic cough with no phlegm and a dry throat due to insufficient lung qi or lung-stomach yin deficiency, or thirst due to fluid damage after a febrile disease.
5. Job's Tears and Chinese Yam Porridge
Method: First, cook 60 grams of raw Job's tears until they are soft and well-done. Then, mash 60 grams of raw Chinese yam, cut 30 grams of persimmon frost into small pieces, and cook them together into a porridge.
Effects: Tonifies the lungs, strengthens the spleen, and nourishes the stomach. Suitable for various symptoms of spleen and lung qi deficiency, such as internal heat due to yin deficiency, dry cough from overwork, diarrhea, and loss of appetite.
6. Polygonatum Porridge
Method: Choose 10-30 grams of washed Polygonatum, decoct it to obtain a concentrated juice and remove the dregs, or use 30-60 grams of fresh Polygonatum, wash it, slice it, decoct it to obtain a concentrated juice, remove the dregs, and cook with rice. When the porridge is cooked, add an appropriate amount of sugar.
Effects: Tonifies the spleen and stomach, and moistens the heart and lungs. Suitable for spleen and stomach weakness, fatigue, reduced diet, lung deficiency with a dry cough or cough with no phlegm, and lung tuberculosis with hemoptysis.
7. Red Date and Glutinous Rice Porridge
Method: Cook Chinese yam, Job's tears, water chestnut, red dates, and glutinous rice together, and add an appropriate amount of sugar.
Effects: Strengthens the spleen and stomach, benefits qi and blood, promotes urination to stop diarrhea, and promotes fluid production to quench thirst. Suitable for post-illness weakness, anemia, malnutrition, loss of appetite, and chronic enteritis.
8. Rehmannia Porridge
Method: Finely chop 25 grams of fresh Rehmannia root. Use an appropriate amount of water to boil it over a flame for about half an hour, then filter out the juice and decoct it again once. Combine the medicinal liquids and concentrate them to about 100 ml for later use. Wash 75 grams of rice and cook it into white porridge. While it is hot, mix in the Rehmannia juice and stir. A little sugar can be added for flavor when eating.
Effects: Nourishes yin and benefits the stomach, cools the blood and promotes fluid production. Can be used for yin deficiency with tidal fever, night sweats, long-term cough, hemoptysis, poor appetite, emaciation, vexation and thirst in heat conditions, red eyes upon waking that take a long time to disappear.
9. Sesame Porridge
Method: Crush the sesame seeds and cook with rice.
Effects: Can treat dizziness, memory decline, and premature graying of hair.