Introduction: The general dietary principle for winter is to consume more warming and nourishing foods to replenish the body and resist the cold. It is also appropriate to eat some cooling foods to nourish yin.
Even though winter has arrived, many young friends still love to eat ice cream, drink cold beverages, and eat cold dishes. Recently, a trend has emerged online suggesting that drinking cold beverages and eating cold food in winter helps to "clear internal heat." This is clearly a misconception. Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) teaches that the human body needs a balance of yin and yang to be healthy. Both excessively cold and excessively hot foods are unsuitable for the body. Except when being treated for an illness, a patient might sometimes need to drink very hot congee and at other times need to drink something cool. In daily life, if you want to maintain health, you should avoid consuming foods that are too cold or too hot. The general dietary principle for winter is to consume more warming and nourishing foods to replenish the body and resist the cold. It is also appropriate to eat some cooling foods to nourish yin.
The Health Hazards of Ice Cream and Other Cold Foods and Beverages
Consuming ice cream and other cold foods and beverages can cause the blood vessels in the gastric mucosa to constrict and reduce gastric acid secretion, leading to decreased appetite and indigestion. Especially with frequent cold stimulation, long-term consumption can lead to stomach problems. For those with acute or chronic gastrointestinal diseases, it is even more important to eat less or avoid these foods to prevent worsening the condition. Additionally, eating chilled watermelon (which is not a seasonal fruit in winter and is therefore unhealthy in itself) can cause the salivary glands, taste nerves on the tongue, and periodontal nerves to become numb due to the cold stimulation. This not only makes it difficult to taste the sweetness of the watermelon but can also damage the spleen and stomach, causing pharyngitis.
TCM believes that long-term consumption of cold foods and beverages can cause a buildup of "cold evil" in the body, leading to diseases such as rheumatism and gastrointestinal stones. Women may also experience menstrual irregularities, uterine fibroids, and other issues. If the "cold evil" is too severe, it can lead to strange mixed symptoms of cold and heat.
Cold Beverages Cannot Truly Remove Internal Heat
Although the external climate is cold in winter, people wear thick clothes, live in warm homes, and are less active, so internal heat cannot dissipate properly. Coupled with the higher calorie content of winter diets, it is easy to lead to excessive heat in the stomach and lungs, or even a "heat accumulation in the three burners" phenomenon. This means: upper burner heat, manifesting as a red-tipped tongue and a thick yellow tongue coating, which can easily lead to diseases of the upper respiratory tract, pharynx, tonsils, and oral mucosa; middle burner heat, often caused by overeating greasy, sweet, or highly nourishing foods, manifesting as a thick tongue coating, dark urine, constipation, and severe thirst; lower burner heat, often caused by kidney deficiency, nephritis, cystitis, or hemorrhoids.
Cold foods and beverages can only remove some of the body's heat, treating the symptoms but not the root cause. To fundamentally solve the problem of internal heat, eating "cold" foods is not the solution. It is better to consume some "sweet-cold" foods, which are foods with a cooling nature, to balance it out. Turtle, soft-shelled turtle, duck, goose, chicken, eggs, kelp, sea cucumber, honey, sesame, tremella, lotus seed, lily, white radish, napa cabbage, celery, spinach, winter bamboo shoots, banana, orange, and apple are all considered cooling foods.
Cooling Foods Are Not the Same as Cold Foods; Cooling Foods Should Be Eaten Hot
As the saying goes, "Eat radishes in winter and ginger in summer." Radish is a cooling food. However, it should be eaten hot. A steaming bowl of radish soup is a great choice. For example, in winter, many people enjoy stewing beef. Beef is a warming food. If you add some white radish to the stew, it makes for a perfect balance of cooling and warming. Radish is cool, pungent, sweet, and has the effect of promoting qi, resolving stagnation, and reducing phlegm. Its "warming-drying" nature can be balanced with the "warm-drying" nature of beef, not only replenishing qi but also aiding digestion. Sticky rice with lotus root is also cooling, but eating it hot in winter also has good health benefits.
Be Cautious When Drinking Cold Beverages with Hot Pot!
Many people feel "refreshed" eating a hot pot in winter and then drinking a glass of iced Coke. However, for some patients with high blood pressure, drinking cold beverages immediately after hot pot soup can cause blood pressure to fluctuate sharply, and there is a risk of myocardial infarction.
Winter is a season when high blood pressure is prone to worsen. Drinking hot soup followed immediately by cold beverages can cause large fluctuations in blood pressure, possibly by 20 to 30 mmHg, leading to discomforts like headaches. If the heart's blood circulation is already poor, this can lead to oxygen deprivation and cause a myocardial infarction. Therefore, experts recommend that when eating hot pot, you should wait at least 3 minutes between drinking hot soup and cold beverages. It is also best to take small sips to minimize the impact on blood pressure changes.
Appropriate Consumption of Cold Dishes Can Aid in Weight Loss
In winter, it's cold, so people tend to eat foods high in fat and calories. Coupled with less outdoor activity, it's easy to gain weight, especially in the chest, abdomen, and buttocks. To avoid gaining weight, in addition to paying attention to physical exercise, eating some cold dishes can force the body to generate its own heat, burn more fat, and thus achieve weight loss!
Children Should Eat Less Raw and Cold Food in Winter
Of course, it's not a problem to occasionally eat cold food in winter. However, those with poor gastrointestinal function and children should be cautious. Due to their immature gastrointestinal systems, children can experience accelerated gastrointestinal motility after eating cold food in autumn and winter, disrupting their normal rhythmic contractions. The appendix is a blind-ended pouch extending from the large intestine. If a fecal block mistakenly enters it, it can cause obstruction that cannot be expelled, leading to local congestion, swelling, and inflammation of the appendix. When the appendix ruptures and perforates, the condition can progress rapidly, causing serious complications like peritonitis. Therefore, doctors advise that in winter, children should not be given raw or cold foods.
Consumption of Cooling Foods Should Be Based on Body Constitution
Medical experts remind us that although cooling foods have a calming, cooling, and anti-inflammatory effect, they are not suitable for everyone. People who usually have symptoms of yin deficiency, such as feeling hot, having hot palms and soles, or night sweats, can appropriately choose "sweet-cold" foods. For example, cardiovascular patients with symptoms like weakness, poor appetite, low-grade fever, dry stools, and edema can benefit from eating cooling duck meat in winter, as it can help replenish deficiency and clear heat. On the other hand, people with a "cold spleen and stomach" constitution should avoid consuming cold foods and cooling tonics.
Precautions for Consuming Cold Foods and Beverages
When eating cold foods and drinks, it is best to let them stay in your mouth for a moment. Allow your mouth to adapt to the cold before swallowing slowly. When your mouth is dry, it is best not to drink large amounts of cold water, as it will not quench your thirst and can harm your health.
Avoid eating cold foods and beverages before or after meals, and be especially mindful after eating. After a meal, the stomach's blood vessels dilate and blood flow increases due to digestion. Consuming cold foods and beverages can easily dilute gastric acid, affecting digestion, and can also overstimulate the stomach nerves, causing gastrointestinal dysfunction.
Cold foods and beverages are also very damaging to teeth. They can irritate the teeth, and over time, can lead to toothaches, bleeding gums, and diseases like allergic dentitis. Additionally, never eat cold foods and beverages that do not meet hygiene standards, otherwise you can contract infectious diseases like enteritis and dysentery, with dire consequences.