These few weeks, the weather has turned more cooling especially in the morning, and it will remain cooling till the Li Chun (立春) solar term (which will only start in early Feb 2025).
Hence, it is important to keep our body warm during this period, and for most people, I would recommend adding ginger into your diet.
One good way is to drink ginger tea in the morning, especially if you have a stuffy/running nose.
Ginger has three properties from the TCM perspective:
解表散寒 – This means ginger can help to expel the cold Qi in your body. A person can get cold easily when too much cold Qi enters the body. Thus, it is common for people to drink ginger tea when they get drenched in the rain.
温中止呕 – The second property of ginger is that it can help to warm the lungs and relieve vomiting. If you ever encounter a situation where you want to vomit because of motion sickness (seasick/carsick), ginger candy/tea/slices can help a lot.
化痰止咳 – Ginger can also help to relieve cough (phlegm-type cough) so ginger drink is recommended for people who are coughing (with phlegm).
However, you must avoid ginger if you are having heaty symptoms like yellowish urine color, sore throat or keep wanting to drink cooler drinks. This means your body is heaty and you should go for something cooler in thermal nature instead.
I personally like to purchase ginger tea blocks from my local TCM shop—I just need to add hot water to make a cup of ginger tea. You can also purchase ginger tea blocks/bags online nowadays.
Hope you find this information useful!