Introduction: What to eat after the Start of Winter? The Start of Winter solar term marks the beginning of winter. After this, the weather will become increasingly cold, and people's resistance will also decrease. So, during this season, what can one eat to combat the cold?
Silver Carp
Warms the middle and replenishes Qi. Indications: Spleen deficiency and Qi weakness, shortness of breath and fatigue, or a cold and deficient spleen and stomach with reduced appetite.
Ingredients: Contains protein, fat, vitamin B2, vitamin PP, calcium, phosphorus, iron, etc.
Nature and Flavor: Sweet in flavor, warm in nature. Enters the Spleen and Lung meridians.
Preparation: Decoct, boil, or stew until cooked.
Pumpkin and Silver Fish Head
1. One silver carp (about 500g), with a little fresh or dried ginger and a pinch of salt, steamed and eaten. Suitable for those with a cold and deficient spleen and stomach, poor appetite, and a cold sensation in the epigastrium. 2. One silver carp, with 30g of red adzuki beans, boiled and eaten. Used for edema.
Hairtail
【Function】Nourishes blood, tonifies deficiency, harmonizes the middle, and stimulates the appetite.
Indications: Blood deficiency and malnutrition, withered and yellow hair, or reduced milk production postpartum; weak spleen and stomach, poor appetite, nausea, and listlessness.
Nature and Flavor: Sweet in flavor, warm in nature. Enters the Stomach meridian.
Preparation: Steam or fry until cooked.
Deep-fried Hairtail
Note: Hairtail was historically considered a "triggering food" (fa wu), and those with allergies should consume it with caution.
Lamb
Lamb is sweet and warm in nature, containing rich fat, protein, carbohydrates, inorganic salts, and essential nutrients like calcium, phosphorus, and iron. It is often regarded as an excellent food for winter cold protection and nourishment, with effects such as warming the middle, tonifying kidney deficiency, stimulating the appetite, strengthening the spleen, dispelling cold, and removing dampness.
Bighead Carp
Effects:
Bighead carp is a high-protein, low-fat, low-cholesterol fish that is beneficial for the cardiovascular system. It is rich in lecithin and vasopressin, which can improve memory. Its head is particularly high in brain marrow. Regular consumption can warm the stomach, relieve dizziness, benefit intelligence, aid memory, and delay aging.
Frequently eating bighead carp can also have a beautifying effect by moisturizing the skin. Bighead carp meat also has the effects of soothing the liver and resolving depression, strengthening the spleen and benefiting the lungs, tonifying weakness, expelling wind and cold from the year, and strengthening muscles and bones. It can be used for dietary therapy for cough, edema, hepatitis, dizziness, nephritis, difficult urination, and physical weakness.
Stir-fried Bighead Carp with Chilies
Suitable for: Most people can consume it.
Recommended serving: 100g per serving.
Dried Shrimp
Dried shrimp is sweet, salty, and warm in nature.
It has the effects of tonifying the kidneys and strengthening yang, regulating Qi and stimulating the appetite.
Relevant groups: Generally suitable for everyone.
1. Particularly suitable for middle-aged and elderly people, pregnant women, patients with cardiovascular diseases, those with kidney deficiency and impotence, male infertility, and weakness in the lower back and legs.
Braised Dried Shrimp with Winter Melon
2. Contraindicated for those with chronic illnesses, those currently experiencing "heatiness" (上火), elderly people with allergic rhinitis, bronchitis, or recurrent allergic dermatitis, and those with skin conditions like scabies.
Walnut
【Nature and Flavor】Sweet, mildly warm, and non-toxic.
【Meridian Entry】Enters the Lung, Kidney, and Liver meridians.
【Effects】Tonifies the kidneys and nourishes blood, moistens the lungs and directs Qi downward, moistens the intestines and stops leukorrhea, strengthens sinews and bones, unblocks and nourishes the blood vessels, moistens the skin and darkens hair, secures teeth, and tonifies deficiency and exhaustion.
【Indications】Walnut kernel treats lower burner deficiency cold, weak kidney Qi, frequent urination, weak limbs, lower back and leg pain, soreness in sinews and bones, deficiency-type cough and wheezing, uterine bleeding and leukorrhea in women. Walnut husk can treat dysphagia, spermatorrhea, and enuresis.
【Explanation】Walnut, also known as Persian walnut, is rich in nutrients. 500g of walnut meat is equivalent in nutritional value to 2500g of eggs or 3500g of milk, earning it the titles "health food" and "longevity fruit". In traditional Chinese medicine, food therapy is often preferred over medicine, and walnuts are considered one of the best foods for this purpose.
Walnuts are highly beneficial for brain nerves and are an excellent remedy for strengthening the intellect, nourishing the brain, and treating neurasthenia. Modern medical research has shown that walnuts are rich in trace elements like phosphorus, zinc, manganese, and chromium, which play an important role in maintaining cardiovascular health, normal endocrine function, and anti-aging.
Brown Sugar Walnut Pie
Regular consumption of walnuts can also reduce the intestines' absorption of cholesterol, making it very suitable for patients with arteriosclerosis, hypertension, and coronary heart disease. Traditional Chinese medicine believes that walnuts have a warming effect on the lungs and kidneys, acting as a good tonic. Regular consumption can not only help people gain weight but also make the skin fuller, reduce wrinkles, and turn hair black.
Walnut oil is delicious and aromatic, with good nourishing and medicinal properties. It is an excellent condiment for patients with neurasthenia, emaciation, hypertension, and coronary heart disease. Externally, it can be used to treat chilblains.
Chestnut
Chestnut is sweet and warm in nature, entering the Spleen, Stomach, and Kidney meridians. It can nourish the stomach and strengthen the spleen, tonify the kidneys and strengthen sinews, invigorate blood and stop bleeding. Regarding its dietary therapy effects, there are mainly the following three points:
1. Tonifies Qi and strengthens the spleen, and nourishes the stomach and intestines.
Chestnut is a dry fruit with a high carbohydrate content, providing the body with more energy and helping in fat metabolism. It ensures the supply of basic nutrients to the body and is known as the "iron crop" and "woody grain" for its effect of tonifying Qi and strengthening the spleen, and nourishing the stomach and intestines.
Pork Rib and Chestnut Soup
2. Prevents and treats cardiovascular diseases.
Chestnuts are rich in unsaturated fatty acids, various vitamins, and minerals, which can effectively prevent and treat cardiovascular diseases such as hypertension, coronary heart disease, and arteriosclerosis, benefiting human health.
3. Strengthens sinews and bones, and delays aging.
Chestnuts are rich in vitamin C, which can maintain the normal function of teeth, bones, blood vessels, and muscles. It can prevent and treat osteoporosis, soreness in the lower back and legs, pain in sinews and bones, fatigue, etc., delay human aging, and is an ideal health fruit for the elderly.
Chinese Yam
Chinese yam is sweet and neutral in nature, entering the Lung, Spleen, and Kidney meridians; neither drying nor greasy.
It has the effects of strengthening the spleen and tonifying the lungs, benefiting the stomach and kidneys, securing the kidneys and replenishing essence, improving hearing and eyesight, benefiting the five organs, strengthening sinews and bones, improving memory, calming the spirit, and prolonging life.
Indications for treatment include weak spleen and stomach, listlessness and fatigue, poor appetite, chronic diarrhea, chronic dysentery, lung deficiency and dryness, phlegmatic wheezing and cough, kidney Qi deficiency, soreness in the lower back and knees, weakness in the lower limbs, thirst and frequent urination, spermatorrhea, premature ejaculation, leukorrhea, turbid urine, red and swollen skin, and obesity.
It contains protein, carbohydrates, vitamins, fat, choline, amylase, and other components, as well as inorganic salts and trace elements indispensable to the human body such as iodine, calcium, iron, and phosphorus.
Cloud Ear Mushroom and Chinese Yam
Traditional Chinese medicine believes that Chinese yam has the effect of tonifying the spleen and stomach, and nourishing the lungs and kidneys. It can be used to treat chronic diarrhea due to spleen deficiency, chronic enteritis, chronic cough due to lung deficiency, chronic gastritis, diabetes, spermatorrhea, enuresis, etc.
Chinese yam, originally named Shuyu, tonifies without stagnation, is neither hot nor dry, can tonify the spleen Qi and benefit the stomach Yin, and its effect of nourishing the lungs and kidneys is supplementary. It is often used in many anti-aging formulas.
In "Ben Qiu Zhen": "When used in Yin-nourishing medicines, it should be used raw; when used in spleen and lung tonifying medicines, it should be stir-fried until yellow. 'This food, though its Qi is warm, is neutral in nature. It tonifies the Yin of the spleen and lungs. Therefore, it can moisten the skin and hair, promote muscle growth. Its sweet flavor with a hint of saltiness can also benefit the kidneys and strengthen Yin.'"
Dried Ginger
Can warm the middle and expel cold. It treats cold syndromes of the spleen and stomach, whether it is excess cold from external invasion or deficiency cold from insufficient spleen and stomach Yang. For deficiency cold of the spleen and stomach with epigastric and abdominal cold pain, vomiting, and diarrhea, it is often combined with Qi-tonifying and spleen-strengthening herbs like Codonopsis Root, Licorice Root, and Atractylodes Macrocephala, as in the Li Zhong Wan formula.
For excess cold of the spleen and stomach with abdominal pain, vomiting, and diarrhea, using this herb alone in powder form is effective, or it can be combined with warm herbs that dispel cold from the middle, such as Aconite Root (toxic) and Galangal.
Braised Chestnuts with Shiitake Mushrooms
An iron deficiency in the body is an important reason for winter cold aversion, as various nutrients cannot be fully oxidized to produce heat. Therefore, special attention should be paid to supplementing with iron-rich foods such as lean meat, fish, animal liver, poultry, egg yolks, mushrooms, beans, spinach, and celery.
In addition, it is also important to scientifically adjust the diet by eating more fresh vegetables and fruits rich in vitamin C to promote the body's absorption of iron.