7 ingredients are like a summer medicine and can be found in every household.

The summer climate is characterized by "heat" and "dampness." Due to the hot weather, people tend to sweat excessively and have high energy consumption, often experiencing discomforts such as poor sleep, fatigue, and listlessness. When these symptoms appear, in addition to seeking medical treatment, one can also regulate their condition through daily diet.

1. Bitter Melon is Best for Clearing Heat

Summer is hot, and the five organs correspond to the heart, which can easily make one irritable, prone to "internal heat" (a concept in Traditional Chinese Medicine), leading to symptoms like mouth sores. This is what is commonly referred to as "getting heaty" in layman's terms. The "Dian Nan Ben Cao" (Materia Medica of Yunnan) records: "Bitter melon enters the heart, spleen, and stomach meridians, and can clear heat, relieve summer heat, replenish qi, and quench thirst." From a nutritional perspective, bitter melon contains momordicoside and bitter principles, which can stimulate appetite, strengthen the spleen and whet the appetite, alleviating summer loss of appetite. The bitter principles also have a blood-sugar-lowering effect, making it especially suitable for diabetic patients to consume in the summer. There are no major limitations on cooking methods; quick stir-frying, cold salads, and soups are all good options. However, bitter melon is cold in nature and can easily harm the spleen and stomach. Therefore, pregnant women, children, individuals with poor health, or those who are sensitive to cold and have a deficient and cold spleen and stomach should not consume it excessively.

Shrimp with Bitter Melon

2. Mung Beans are Best for Detoxification

Mung beans are cool in nature and sweet in taste. They can clear heat and relieve summer heat, quench thirst, and promote urination, making them an excellent summer remedy for preventing heatstroke. The "Sui Xi Ju Yin Pu" (A Guide to Diet at Leisure) states: "Mung beans are sweet and cool. Eating them boiled clears the gallbladder and nourishes the stomach, relieves summer heat and thirst, promotes urination, and stops diarrhea." From a nutritional standpoint, the skin of mung beans is rich in polyphenols. When boiled with the lid on, minimizing contact with oxygen, the dissolved polyphenols have not yet oxidized, making their heat-clearing and detoxifying effects strongest. This is particularly suitable for people with vexation and thirst, a sore throat, or yellow urine. The ways to eat mung beans are even more diverse, with mung bean congee and mung bean cakes being excellent choices.

3. Garlic is Best for Sterilization

Garlic is an indispensable food on the summer dining table. Garlic is rich in trace elements such as iron and selenium, as well as beneficial components like organic sulfides, which can kill and inhibit bacteria. The sterilizing effect is best when eaten raw, as its active substances like alliin and alliinase come into contact with each other to form allicin, which has health benefits. Adding minced garlic to dumplings, chopped garlic to cold salads, or minced garlic to stir-fried greens are all very healthy ways to eat it. It should be noted that when stir-frying with garlic, the oil temperature should not be too high, and the cooking time should not be too long, in order to minimize the destruction of allicin by high heat.

4. Aged Vinegar is Best for Stimulating Appetite

Many people lose their appetite in the summer. This is because summer is prone to consuming body fluids, and the summer heat and dampness can impede the spleen, affecting its transportation and transformation functions. At this time, it is appropriate to eat some vinegar. Vinegar enters the liver and stomach meridians and can stimulate appetite, promoting the secretion of saliva and gastric juice. Adding a few drops of aged vinegar or rice vinegar when stir-frying or making cold salads not only improves the taste of the dish but also aids digestion and absorption, and enhances appetite.

You can also eat some cold dishes like old vinegar fungus, old peanuts with vinegar, or old vinegar jellyfish. In the summer, various microorganisms can easily grow and multiply, and the acetic acid in vinegar also has a bacteriostatic effect, which can play a good protective role on food.

Sweet and Sour Pork Tenderloin

5. Kelp is Best for Lowering Lipids

In the summer, people sweat a lot, leading to higher blood viscosity. Patients with hyperlipidemia might consider eating lipid-lowering foods, and kelp is a good choice. It contains sodium alginate and starch, which have lipid-lowering and blood pressure-lowering effects. Summer is also the season for late-night snacks, and consuming large amounts of greasy food can also raise blood lipids. At this time, boiling kelp, shredding it, and mixing it with shredded cabbage dressed with aged vinegar or rice vinegar is not only delicious but also helps to digest and relieve greasiness.

6. Ginger is Best for Expelling Cold

Everyone is familiar with the saying, "Eat radishes in winter and ginger in summer." In the summer, many people indulge in the cool air from air conditioners and eat cold drinks, which can easily expose them to wind and cold. The alternation of hot and cold can lead to colds, lower back pain, and leg aches. Ginger can release the exterior and expel cold, warm the lungs, and stop coughing. The gingerol in ginger can stimulate gastric juice secretion, promote digestion, and help increase appetite. The stomach's qi needs to rise in the morning, and eating some ginger at this time can strengthen the spleen and stomach. You can drink ginger and red date soup or hold a slice of ginger in your mouth in the morning.

7. Duck is Best for Nourishment

Summer involves high energy consumption. While clearing heat and relieving summer heat, one should also supplement appropriately. Ducks are aquatic birds that are not only rich in nutrients like protein, which are urgently needed in the summer, but duck meat is also neither too warm nor too hot. It can tonify deficiency, generate body fluids, and promote urination and reduce swelling, making it suitable for consumption in the summer when one is prone to "internal heat." However, since the duck skin is high in fat, it is best to remove it before eating.

Sweet and Tasty Orange Duck