Introduction: The custom of "eating eggs on the start of summer" has a long history. As the saying goes: "Eating eggs on the start of summer keeps you from summer heat fatigue." Legend has it that from the day of the start of summer, the weather becomes clear, warm, and gradually hot. Many people, especially children, may experience physical fatigue, limb weakness, loss of appetite, and gradual weight loss, a condition known as "summer heat fatigue." The goddess Nuwa told the people that on the start of summer each year, children could avoid summer heat fatigue by wearing cooked chicken, duck, or goose eggs around their necks. Therefore, the custom of eating eggs on the start of summer has been passed down to this day.
The start of summer usually falls in the fourth lunar month. As the saying goes, "In the fourth month, eggs are as cheap as vegetables." People would put eggs into the leftover "Seven-Family Tea" to cook them, creating "tea eggs." Later, people improved the cooking method by adding star anise, braised meat stock, cinnamon bark, and ginger to the "Seven-Family Tea." From then on, tea eggs were no longer just a seasonal food for the start of summer but became one of China's traditional snacks.
Why eat eggs on the start of summer? One explanation is that ancient people believed eggs, being perfectly round, symbolize a complete life. Eating eggs on the start of summer could pray for a safe summer. "Eating eggs on the start of summer keeps you from summer heat fatigue." In many places, there is a custom of eating "start-of-summer eggs," meaning that eating eggs on this day can prevent the common summer ailments of loss of appetite, body tiredness, limb weakness, and weight loss.
Another saying is: The start of summer is the best time to nourish the body, and eating one egg is equivalent to eating a whole chicken. After the start of summer, farm work becomes busy, and people are prone to fatigue. Eating red date eggs is meant to replenish physical strength.
This theory actually aligns with traditional Chinese medicine. TCM believes that eggs are neutral in nature, replenish qi deficiency, and have the function of calming the mind and nourishing the heart. Eating eggs when sick can help restore physical strength. In the past, when living conditions were not as good, red date eggs were hard to come by. Eating a start-of-summer egg was both a reward for hard work before the busy season and a hope for peace and a bountiful harvest.
Since eggs are gentle on the spleen and stomach and suitable for most people, even those with chronic illnesses like high blood pressure, eating eggs on the start of summer is beneficial for their health.
Duck eggs, on the other hand, are cooling in nature and can nourish yin and clear the lungs. They are suitable for people with yin deficiency and excess heat, as well as for those recovering from illness, with dry-heat cough, dry throat and sore throat, high blood pressure, or diarrhea and dysentery. If you are a young person with a high level of daily activity and no chronic illnesses like high blood pressure, you can try salted duck eggs. As long as they are not too salty, they can help clear heat and replenish minerals like salt.
In the Jiaxing region, salted duck eggs are also part of the start-of-summer eggs. People who raise poultry know that eggs laid by ducks after the beginning of spring are of the best quality and are excellent for making salted eggs. The salted duck eggs eaten during the start of summer are cured before the Qingming Festival and are ready to eat exactly one month later, at the start of summer, making them the first batch of the year's salted eggs. The first batch of salted duck eggs is eaten on the start of summer, which has a different significance from the salted duck eggs eaten during the Dragon Boat Festival.
Scrambled Eggs with Loofah
Eat Eggs in Moderation on the Start of Summer
The human body consumes a lot in the summer and should pay attention to supplementing nutrients. As the saying goes, "Eating eggs on the start of summer makes you strong enough to crush stones," which means that eating eggs gives people a lot of energy. Egg whites are a high-quality protein, and egg yolks are rich in lecithin, making eggs a very nutritious food.
Although eggs are highly nutritious, eating more is not necessarily better. Eating too many eggs can easily lead to excessive nutrition, obesity, and increase the burden on the liver and kidneys. Excess protein can overload the urea production system. Consuming too much protein can also produce large amounts of ammonia, hydroxyl, and phenolic chemicals in the intestines, which are very toxic to the human body. This can easily lead to symptoms such as abdominal bloating, dizziness, limb weakness, and coma, which is commonly known as "protein poisoning syndrome."
Therefore, it's important to eat eggs in moderation on the start of summer—one to two eggs a day is sufficient. Additionally, there are many ways to cook eggs: boiling, steaming, frying, and scrambling. In terms of nutrient absorption and digestibility, boiled and steamed eggs are at 100%, lightly fried at 98%, scrambled at 97%, poached at 92.5%, hard-fried at 81.1%, and raw at 30-50%. From this, it seems that boiling and steaming are the best ways to eat eggs.
Tomato and Egg Drop Soup
The Humble Egg: 10 Common Mistakes to Avoid
Eggs appear very frequently on our dining tables, but when we look closely, many people have questions about them. Can eating eggs lead to misconceptions? It's often said that you don't know what you don't know, and once you do, you realize how much we don't understand about this humble egg.
Common Misconceptions About Eating Eggs
Misconception 1: Brown-shelled eggs are more nutritious than white-shelled eggs. In the past, people always believed brown-shelled eggs were more nutritious, and they were also more expensive on the market. Tests show that the color of an eggshell is related to the breed of the chicken and has nothing to do with its nutritional value.
Misconception 3: "First-laid eggs" and "functional eggs" are more nutritious. Generally, eggs laid by chickens within 130-160 days of their first laying are called "first-laid eggs." There is no test evidence to show that the nutrient content of first-laid eggs is higher than that of regular eggs. In fact, first-laid eggs are smaller, about 40 grams each, and because they are underweight, they are not allowed to be sold in foreign countries. "Functional eggs" are eggs enriched with nutrients like zinc, iodine, selenium, and calcium through feed technology. This sounds good, but in reality, due to a lack of standards and difficulty in testing, many products are over-hyped.
Misconception 4: The darker the yolk, the more nutritious it is. The color of the yolk is related to the various pigments it contains, some of which, like carotene, do have nutritional value. However, current technology can easily deepen the color of the yolk, which is not related to nutrition and can even bring safety hazards.
Misconception 5: Balut (unhatched chicken eggs) is a nourishing food. Balut, or "dead-fetus eggs," are embryos from eggs that have been incubated partway and are often eaten as a nourishing food in many regions. In reality, balut is not highly nutritious and often contains many pathogenic bacteria.
Misconception 6: The longer you boil an egg, the better. The best way to eat an egg is when the white is fully set but the yolk is semi-set or runny. This ensures good digestibility and avoids nutrient loss.
Misconception 7: Eating raw eggs is more nutritious. Eating raw eggs can interfere with the absorption of biotin (a B vitamin). Although occasionally eating raw eggs won't cause biotin deficiency, it's easy to get bacterial infections from raw eggs.
Misconception 8: Postpartum women should eat a lot of eggs. It is a custom in China for postpartum women to eat a large number of eggs during their "confinement period." However, this is no longer suitable today when food is abundant. Postpartum women should ensure a diverse diet, eating meat, dairy, beans, grains, fruits, and vegetables in addition to one or two eggs a day to achieve a balanced diet.
Misconception 9: Eggs should not be eaten with soy milk. People who advocate this claim believe that soybeans contain trypsin inhibitors, which affect the digestion and absorption of protein in the body. However, when soybeans are made into soy milk, the trypsin inhibitors are destroyed during the heating process, so there is no problem eating them with eggs.
Misconception 10: You can't eat eggs when you have a cold. When you have a cold and a fever, your body's energy consumption is high, your resistance drops, and you may not have much appetite, leading to a lack of nutrition. Appropriately supplementing with protein-rich foods like eggs is beneficial for recovery. However, steamed egg custard and egg drop soup are the best choices, while fried or scrambled eggs are not easy to digest.
The humble egg holds many secrets. After reading the above, do you feel you know more about eggs?
Scrambled Eggs with Tomatoes
Gold fried rice
Gingerbread
You're so full of shit