Introduction: Summer health preservation focuses on mental well-being. Maintain a pleasant and stable mood; avoid extreme emotions of sorrow or joy, as this can exacerbate internal heat. With a calm mind, one feels cool, achieving the goal of health preservation.
How to help your family stay healthy through the scorching summer is a common concern for everyone. Here, we recommend 5 categories of diets, hoping to help you and your family stay healthy together.
1. Best Condiment – Vinegar
In hot weather, people often lose their appetite. To regulate appetite and stimulate the taste buds, using vinegar for seasoning is one of the simplest methods. You can use vinegar to dress cold vegetables or cooked meats, or pickle cucumbers, beans, etc., as appetizers. This helps to stimulate saliva production and whet the appetite. Moreover, vinegar is considered warming in nature. When dressing cool vegetables like cucumbers and eggplants, it prevents them from being too cold. Additionally, summer is a high season for intestinal infectious diseases. Vinegar has certain antibacterial properties, so having some vinegar with meals when eating out can help prevent these diseases.
2. Best Vegetable – Bitter Vegetables
During the hot summer, the body's metabolism is vigorous and prone to producing "internal heat," manifesting as fever, irritability, thirst, dark urine, and constipation. Eating more bitter vegetables with heat-clearing and detoxifying effects can help alleviate these symptoms. Common bitter vegetables include bitter melon, dandelion greens, and lettuce, which can be eaten cold or stir-fried. Research shows these bitter vegetables are rich in alkaloids, amino acids, bitter principles, vitamins, and minerals, and have the functions of relieving summer heat, reducing fever, eliminating irritability, refreshing the mind, and strengthening the stomach. Professor Zhou Jian reminds that when cooking bitter vegetables, you can add some chili or garlic to prevent them from being too cold.
3. Best Soup – Tomato Soup
Tomatoes are rich in vitamin C, which can improve symptoms like indigestion, poor appetite, and a dry mouth and throat. The lycopene in tomatoes also has anti-aging and anti-cancer properties. Cooking and heating tomatoes breaks down their cell walls, making lycopene easier to release and be absorbed by the body. On a hot day, a bowl of tomato soup not only stimulates saliva production to quench thirst but also whets the appetite and aids digestion, making it very beneficial for summer health preservation.
4. Best Meat – Duck
There is a saying, "In the great heat of summer, duck is better than medicine." From the perspective of Traditional Chinese Medicine's principle of "treating heat with cold," duck is more suitable for consumption during the hot and dry summer. The *Compendium of Materia Medica* records that duck meat "greatly tonifies deficiency and fatigue, and is best at eliminating heat toxicity," making it suitable for people with internal heat and a tendency to get "heaty." Duck is high in protein and low in fat, and rich in vitamin E and trace elements. Professor Zhou Jian suggests that making duck congee or stewing duck can provide excellent nourishing effects.
5. Best Drink – Hot Tea
When it comes to cooling down and quenching thirst, most people think of cold drinks and iced beverages. Professor Zhou Jian believes that while cold drinks can provide temporary relief, they are too cold and can damage the spleen and stomach. In fact, to combat summer heat, you might try a cup of hot tea. It not only has health benefits but also promotes sweat gland secretion, helping the body release heat and lower its temperature. As an old Chinese saying goes, "Hot tea is the best for cooling down."