Diet

TCM Food Recommendations For Warm And Dry Weather

by
pear
The weather these few days is getting even warmer and drier than before. I got to know of a few people who noticed blood stains in their phlegm. Some people may also smell blood when they are coughing.
 
These symptoms could be due to the drying of your lungs (肺阴虚) as a result of the weather and your eating habits.
 
For people who are experiencing the above symptoms, especially during these few days and the upcoming months (when the air turns even drier), please avoid consuming spicy foods and biscuits (as biscuits tend to have a drying and heaty effect on the body).
 
The following are some foods that you can consume to moisturize your lungs to regain its balance:
 
1. Pear (梨) – Pear has a very good moisturizing effect on the lungs and it also helps to clear heatiness in our other organs. In fact, its lung-moisturizing benefits are even greater if you cook it! For recipe ideas, you can search for “小吊梨汤” on YouTube.
 
2. White fungus (白木耳) – White fungus is another great good for moisturizing our lungs. In the TCM classic,《增订伪药条辨》, it says 治肺热肺燥，干咳痰嗽；衄血，咯血，痰中带血. This means white fungus can effectively treat blood in phlegm and cough. It requires some effort to prepare and cook white fungus but nowadays, you can easily purchase white fungus dessert or white fungus drink in most TCM retail stores. Drink it consistently for 3 to 5 days to see relief.
 
3. The third option is not a food but a traditional ‘cough syrup’ that most people know of, which is 川贝枇杷膏. This syrup contains herbs that can nourish the lung Yin energy and treat blood in phlegm. This makes it a good alternative for busy people who really have no time to find pears and white fungus.
 
Hopefully we can see some rain in the next few days before we go into the drier season, especially from late August onwards.
 
Take care, friends!

Yin Nourishing Dessert

by
pear
Today, I’d like to share with you a good food/fruit to eat during these few weeks which is – the pear!
 
In my latest solar term post on Jing Zhe, I mentioned that it is recorded in 本草通玄 that pear has the properties of:
 
“生吃清六腑之热，熟吃滋五脏之阴”
 
It means:
1. When eaten raw, it can clear heatiness in the body.
2. When eaten cooked, it can nourish our Yin energy.
 
Here is a simple recipe of cooked pear with white fungus that you can try at home!

Ingredients (for 2 pax):
2. Pear
 
Steps:
1. Soak the white fungus for 1 to 2 hours, then tear them into smaller pieces. The smaller they are, the easier it is to achieve a softer texture.
 
2. Use a small knife to make a few slits on each of the red dates. This will give the red dates a softer texture after cooking.
 
3. Wash the pear and cut it into bite-sized pieces (with skin intact).
 
4. Cook the white fungus in water for 1.5 hours.
 
5. Add pear, lotus seeds, dried longan and red dates and cook for another 15 to 30 minutes.
 
6. This recipe does not require any sugar as the pear is a natural sweetener for the dessert! :)
 
Note:
1. The longer you cook the pear (up to 30 minutes), the softer it gets and the more potent will be the Yin nourishing effect.
 
2: This dessert is especially suitable for people who are Yin deficient (people who have difficulty sleeping, almost always feeling thirsty, easily frustrated, palms, feet and chest area feeling hot all the time).
 
Post-dietary review:
If you experience indigestion or your stomach feels bloated after eating this dessert, it means that your spleen cannot take Yin nourishing stuff.
 
In this case, you can eat some dried tangerine peel (ready-to-eat kind) to ease your symptoms.
 
Moving forward, you can strengthen your spleen by consuming more spleen-boosting foods like Chinese yam, red dates and Si Shen soup.
 
Hope you find this post useful!
 

Pumpkin & Pumpkin Seeds Benefits, Properties in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM)

by
Pumpkin tcm benefits

Both pumpkin and pumpkin seeds have good benefits and properties in the TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine) perspective.

Read on to find out what makes them both a good addition to your diet. Also, the following includes what kind of people should avoid eating them too.

Pumpkin TCM Properties

Pumpkin is neutral in terms of its thermal nature. This means most people can eat it for long term without causing any issues to the body.

Pumpkin benefits the lung, spleen, and stomach organ meridians so this means that the above three organs can benefit from pumpkin too.

Pumpkin is one of the rare foods that has the benefit of strengthening the spleen. A good spleen helps in the absorption of nutrients from foods to our body, so having a strong and healthy spleen is important.

The two strongest properties of pumpkin are:

  1. Detox: It can help to detox the body. This means it helps to reduce inflammation in the body.
  2. Relieve water retention: If you have water retention in any parts of your body, eating pumpkin will also help to relieve the water retention too. The excess water will be discharged through urine. So this explains why sometimes when you eat pumpkin porridge or pumpkin soy milk, you can experience frequent urination.

The only caution to note is that people with qi deficiency, try to reduce their intake of pumpkin. 

How To Add Pumpkin To Your Diet

There are two ways of adding pumpkin to your diet easily.

First, you can add slices of pumpkin to your rice cooker when you are cooking the rice. Pumpkin is easily cooked when placed in the rice cooker and makes good complimentary food together with your rice in any meal.

Another way is to add pumpkin to your soy milk machine (if you have the habit of making soy milk at home). Pumpkin soy milk can help to ease or prevent arthritis (joint inflammation) too. It is a good drink to make for the elderly to protect their joints.

Pumpkin Seeds TCM Properties

Pumpkin seeds are also neutral in their thermal nature. So this means almost anyone can eat pumpkin seeds without any issues.

Pumpkin seeds benefits the large intestine organ meridian.

Pumpkin seeds have the following two strong properties:

  1. Eliminate parasites in the body: In the past, pumpkin seeds are used to drive away worms and other parasites that reside in the human body, especially in the large intestine. 
  2. Maintain prostate health: The second property is that these seeds can help to maintain a healthy prostate. It can also help to relieve frequent urination when sleeping.

How To Add Pumpkin Seeds To Your Diet

You can eat pumpkin seeds as a snack or add them to your breakfast cereal. They are very versatile to be added to any meal too.

Where To Buy Pumpkin Seeds

Pumpkin seeds can be bought easily online nowadays. If possible, try to choose those that are organic and are ready-to-eat like this one.

Recommended Herbal Drinks for Humid Months (June, July & August)

by
chinese barley water

If you are living in Singapore (or any other country that is currently very humid), then this post is for you.

The impact of humid weather on our bodies is that it will create moisture (known as 湿) within our bodies. In the long term, this moisture will become damp and starts to create trouble for our health.

One sign of dampness in our body is water retention (appears in any part of the body). People with water retention most likely have some degree of dampness in them.

In fact, everyone who lives in a tropical country like Singapore will have some degree of dampness in the body. Dampness may not necessarily appear as water retention in certain body parts, it can also be hidden in our body and affects our digestion. Our spleen is very vulnerable to dampness.

chinese barley water

Thus, a good drink to have during humid weather is the Chinese barley drink. The main property of Chinese barley is getting rid of dampness. This, therefore, helps in relieving water retention.

Chinese barley also helps to cool the body so this makes it an ideal drink during humid months like Jun, Jul and Aug.

Read this post to learn more about Chinese barley drink and how to prepare an effective one to consume.

Another good drink to have is the green bean drink.

Not only can green beans help to detox our bodies, it can also quench thirst and cools the body just like the Chinese barley property.

Click here to read how to prepare an effective green bean drink anytime!

Also, if you are keen to find out what other types of herbal drinks and when should you drink them, then you might find this post useful!

Privacy Policy