In hot summer, wax gourd is a good ingredient with the same origin of medicine and food, and has the reputation of "the first melon in summer".

So how should we eat melons? How to cook can we better play the role of wax gourd in relieving summer heat and cooling down? Yang Li 'e, Department of Pharmacy, First Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, is responsible for Chinese pharmacists to provide advice to readers.

Old wax gourd water should be drunk carefully.

In mid-May, a news that "Grandma fed her granddaughter with melon and fruit water that had been put for 4 years and was poisoned and lived in the intensive care unit" rushed to the hot search, which triggered a heated discussion.

Yang Li 'e reminded that "winter melon water" may be a treasure to cool off the heat in the eyes of some elderly people, but they did not expect that after 3-4 years of fermentation, precipitation and dissolution, the nitrate produced in the pickling process will be reduced to nitrite. Drinking this "wax gourd water" will lead to nitrite poisoning. So we should abandon some so-called local methods and old ideas.

Winter melon soup without peeling.

Yang Li' e suggested that you might as well eat some fresh winter melon to clear away heat and relieve summer heat. Remember to keep the skin of winter melon when cooking soup. Winter melon is also a blind medicinal material, which has the effect of diuresis and detumescence.

Recommended medicinal diet: winter melon ribs soup, red beans with skin.

Ingredients: 250g of wax gourd with skin, 250g of ribs, 20g of red beans and 3 slices of ginger.

Steps:

1. Wash wax gourd with skin and cut into pieces for later use. Spare ribs and soak red beans in advance.

2. Put the above materials into a casserole, add a proper amount of water, turn it to low heat 1 hour after the fire is boiled, and add a proper amount of salt to taste according to personal taste.

Efficacy: clearing heat and relieving summer heat, promoting diuresis and eliminating dampness.

Source | Yangcheng Evening News Yangcheng School

Image | Respondents provided

Editor | Wang Min