What food should I eat in spring?

Traditional Chinese medicine health culture has attached great importance to "adapting to the four seasons" since ancient times. There is an article in Huangdi Neijing Su Wen, which talks about the principle of keeping in good health at four seasons. It is believed that people between heaven and earth should conform to the natural laws of spring, summer, autumn and winter, and carry out reasonable diet, exercise and psychological health preservation. So, how should you keep in good health in spring?

Neijing pointed out: "Spring and March, this is the beginning of Chen. Heaven and earth are born, everything is glorious, lying at night and getting up early, striding towards the court and walking slowly, thus making life, living without killing, giving without taking, rewarding without punishment, which is the response of spring and the way to keep fit; On the contrary, it hurts the liver, and it is cold in summer and has few elders. " It means that the three months of spring are the season of rebirth and rising. Nature is in a vibrant state, everything is thriving and a hundred flowers are blooming. People should go to bed regularly at night, get up early every day, walk in the yard, wear loose clothes with long hair to show their ambition, don't kill, don't punish and don't plunder. Violation of this spring regimen may damage the liver, affect summer regimen, and may also lead to some seasonal diseases. Here, the ancients introduced the key points of spring health preservation from daily life and sports.

In fact, diet and health care must also conform to the characteristics of spring climate change. Zhou Li is divided into four categories, among which "food doctors" refer to the category of nutritionists. It can be seen that the ancients in China have attached great importance to the relationship between nutrition and health since ancient times. However, it should be pointed out that compared with modern medical nutrition, Chinese dietotherapy has a mature and perfect theoretical system, which is based on Yin and Yang, Five Elements, Zangxiang Meridian and Four Qi and Five Flavors, and attaches importance to the compatibility of five flavors, balanced nutrition and dialectical eating. , rich in content and unique. What's the nature and taste of food, not just nutrients? It is also necessary to clarify the yin and yang attributes of food such as cold, heat and cold. In spring, you can eat more foods such as Toona sinensis and bamboo shoots, and drink more green tea, mint tea and mulberry tea to cool down and prevent infectious diseases in spring. At the same time, you can eat more fruits, such as Sydney, apples and oranges. You can drink lily porridge, tremella porridge, bird's nest porridge, Sydney juice, almond dew, honey water, autumn pear cream, etc. For supplements suitable for cold winter and meat with warming effect such as mutton and dog meat, you should eat less or not.

For many diseases in spring, such as hypertension, blood pressure fluctuation and frequent liver fire, Kuding tea and chrysanthemum can be used to clear stomach fire, because Kuding tea and chrysanthemum are cool and can clear liver. In seasonal changes, the most common oral disease is stomach pain caused by liver-qi invading the stomach. Perilla frutescens, tangerine peel, citron, bergamot and Chinese rose can be used to soothe the liver and stomach. As for the wind-heat cold in spring, it is characterized by sore throat, fever and thirst. Honeysuckle, Trollius chinensis, mint and other spicy and cool products can be used as tea and often soaked in water to relieve exterior syndrome, dispel wind and heat, clear away heat and toxic materials, and benefit the throat. Early spring is warm and cold, often feeling cold, manifested as aversion to cold, stuffy nose, runny nose and so on. You can use pungent and warm products such as onion, ginger, angelica dahurica and perilla leaves, or cook tea, or add brown sugar, or eat thin rice porridge to relieve the exterior and dispel the cold. When you catch a cold in spring, a bowl of ginger soup and a quilt can often solve a sweat.

In addition, what I want to emphasize here is that cold drinks must be avoided after catching a cold. Because in clinic, it is often seen that the illness is prolonged because of eating cold drinks, cold food and cold medicine. Chinese medicine believes that cold, whether it is wind-cold cold or wind-heat cold, is mainly superficial disease. Neijing said: "Those who are in the skin will sweat." The general idea of treatment should be to dispel pathogenic wind, sweat and relieve exterior symptoms, and advocate outward divergence. And "sweat is not far from the temperature", if you use cold and cool, it is not conducive to relieving exterior symptoms and eliminating evil spirits. In today's era when cold drinks such as mineral water, cola, ice cream and iced tea are flooding, people are particularly prone to eat these cold things after catching a cold to relieve the symptoms of dry throat and mouth. Although we can have a good time in this way, it is often because of the stimulation of cold and cold, which leads to the exterior evil lurking in it and the disease will go in. The ancients called it "ice lurks evil", which is particularly easy to cause chronic cough. If the cold doesn't get better, it will cough again. The disadvantages of eating cold food are really too great.

There are also TCM dietotherapy remedies for nourishing the liver, such as oats, sesame seeds, wolfberry porridge, mulberry tea and so on. , more suitable for elderly patients with chronic diseases. For example, liver and kidney deficiency, blood deficiency, can often be manifested as hair loss, premature aging and so on. Dietotherapy can nourish liver and kidney, promote blood circulation and promote hair growth with black sesame and medlar. There is a famous prescription in ancient medicine in China called "Sangma Pill", which is composed of mulberry leaves and black sesame seeds, and it is good for hair care. Tea should generally drink green tea. Women who love beauty can also drink some scented tea appropriately. Roses, Chinese rose flowers and green plums can be soaked in water as tea, which has the effects of soothing the liver and relieving depression, regulating menstruation and beautifying.

Of course, we can't mechanically understand the four-season health preservation theory of traditional Chinese medicine. For example, when the yang is rising in spring, most people can't warm it, but for those who are usually cold, afraid of cold, have abdominal pain and like warmth, it is necessary to warm it properly. Still, don't drink too much cold drinks. In a word, individualized health care is the essence of TCM health care culture, and the theory of TCM health care can never be accepted.

Vernal equinox health: eat eight kinds of seasonal foods.

(1) Red dates and other spleen-strengthening sweets

Sun Simiao, a famous doctor in ancient China, said: "In spring, it is advisable to keep acid and sweeten it to nourish your temper." It means to eat less sour and eat more sweet in spring. Chinese medicine believes that when the liver qi is strong in spring, eating more sour food will make the liver qi excessive and damage the spleen and stomach, so eat less sour food. In spring, people have more outdoor activities than in winter, so they consume more energy and need more calories. But at this time, the spleen and stomach are weak and the digestive ability of gastrointestinal tract is poor, which is not suitable for eating greasy meat. Therefore, heat can be properly supplied by sweets. Jujube is such a good way to replenish spleen in spring.