"Eat radish in winter and ginger in summer", is it really eating radish in winter and ginger in summer?

I have to say that there are many kinds of health books on the market at present, and there are also various health programs on TV. Health concepts such as "eat radish in winter and ginger in summer" have also been touted.

But as a doctor, out of professional habits, some ideas are really worth learning, but there are always some theories that are not fully recognized.

"Eating radish in winter and ginger in summer doesn't need a doctor's prescription", which is a folk proverb. Everyone says so, but what is the truth? How should we guide everyone to treat this radish and ginger correctly?

I believe many people understand that we should eat more radishes in winter and more ginger in summer. In addition, there are different so-called famous artists who also give corresponding explanations. Generally speaking, in summer, people's yang will float outside, and at this time, the internal organs of the human body are weak and all are wet and cold, so you must eat something warm in summer. Therefore, choosing ginger and Xinwen will protect the human body.

On the contrary, people also have the function of self-protection in winter, and the body will recover the yang to protect the internal organs. At this time, it is easy to cause the pattern of stagnation and heat in the internal organs, so eating something cold and slippery, such as radish, can straighten out the qi movement.

This explanation makes sense at first glance, but when we think about it carefully, it is easy for us to question it.

First of all, there is nothing wrong with the human body's yang being biased towards the exterior and interior in summer, but is it cold and wet for the internal organs? Anyone who knows a little about Chinese medicine will understand that visceral cold and dampness is a very bad pathology.

Secondly, does eating warm things in summer really have a protective effect on the human body? We should know that people with excessive stomach fire, or people with excess heat syndrome and damp-heat syndrome, are often caused by spicy and stimulating diet.

In addition, is it easy for internal organs to stagnate in winter? There are many cases seen in clinic, but in winter, the symptoms will be very obvious. At this time, I would never advise such patients to eat some cold products.

Therefore, after understanding the above truth, it is necessary to verify the identity of "eating radish in winter and ginger in summer".

Radish is homologous to medicine and food. Chinese medicine believes that radish is flat, pungent and sweet, and can enter the spleen meridian or stomach meridian. In traditional Chinese medicine, it has the functions of promoting digestion, resolving phlegm and relieving cough, purging qi and relieving exterior syndrome, and detoxifying. In addition, modern medical research has proved that radish has anti-cancer and anticancer effects. For example, vitamin C and carotene contained in radish can prevent the synthesis of carcinogenic nitrosamines.

As far as I know, there are other folk sayings about radishes, except "eat radishes in winter and ginger in summer, and don't ask doctors for prescriptions", such as "radishes are on the market, but doctors are fine" and "radishes go to town, but doctors close their doors".

I will use radish seeds clinically, which is called radish seeds in Chinese medicine. Radish is flat, pungent and sweet, and can enter the lung meridian, spleen meridian and stomach meridian. In clinic, Raphanus sativus L. has the functions of resolving food stagnation, relieving flatulence, reducing qi and resolving phlegm. Radish is far more effective than radish. I often use it in different clinical symptoms such as food stagnation, abdominal distension and pain, constipation, cough, expectoration and wheezing.

Let's talk about this kind of ginger that can be used as medicine. I will use three kinds of ginger in the prescription, namely ginger, dried ginger and processed ginger. The "ginger" of "eating radish in winter and ginger in summer" should refer to the ginger that ordinary people can eat conveniently. So let's talk about this ginger in detail.

Considering the medicinal properties of traditional Chinese medicine, ginger is pungent and warm, and has the effects of dispelling cold, resolving phlegm and relieving cough, stopping vomiting and detoxifying. Clinically, it is often used to treat diseases such as exogenous wind-cold or stomach-cold vomiting, so the predecessors often called ginger "the holy medicine for vomiting". What do you mean? In other words, ginger is a very good medicine for vomiting, a holy medicine!

According to the theory of traditional Chinese medicine, ginger is actually a product that blindly supports yang. Since ancient times, Chinese medicine has said that "people can't live without Jiang Bairi".

Su Dongpo, a poet in the Song Dynasty, once recorded such a story in Dongpo Miscellanies. In Jingci Temple, Qiantang, there is an 80-year-old monk with a childish face. In other words, although the old monk is over 80 years old, his face is very young.

Su Dongpo asked the old monk how to stay young. The old monk replied, "I have served Jiang for forty years, so I am not old." I said that I have eaten ginger for 40 years, and it is not easy to get old. There is another legend. According to legend, the white snake stole the fairy grass to save Xu Xian. At that time, the stolen fairy grass was ginger buds, so Jiang Ye was called "rejuvenation grass" and ginger soup was also called "rejuvenation soup".

From the above analysis, radish and ginger do have a good health care function. Both of them mainly act on the spleen and stomach of human body, which can make our spleen and stomach healthy and smooth. So it naturally played a role in preventing and treating diseases.

But do we have to eat carrots in winter? Do you have to eat ginger in summer? Don't think so!

First of all, there is hardly any medicine in Chinese medicine that must be taken in a certain season. Let's take an extreme example. For example, drugs such as aconite and cinnamon are popular and exciting products. Can't you eat in summer? Chinese medicine pays attention to syndrome differentiation and treatment. If patients who come to see a doctor in summer really have kidney-yang deficiency syndrome, they can take pungent and hot products such as aconite and cinnamon.

Secondly, "eat radish in winter and ginger in summer" is a rhetoric method called intertextuality that is often used in Chinese. It is the upper and lower parts of a sentence. It seems that two things actually echo each other, explain and supplement each other, and say the same thing.

Let's give an example. In middle school, we all learned a poem "Out of the Great Wall" written by the famous poet Wang Changling, one of which is "The moon is bright in Qin Dynasty, and the customs are closed in Han Dynasty". When you see this sentence, you can't understand it as the bright moon in Qin dynasty and the border crossing in Han dynasty, but as the bright moon in Qin and Han dynasties and the border crossing in Qin and Han dynasties.

Similarly, for another example, a poem written by Du Mu is called "Bo Qinhuai". There is a sentence in this poem, "Smoke cage in Shui Han, the moon is full of sand", so you should also understand that smoke covers cold water and sand, and moonlight covers sand and cold water.

Through the above two examples, you will find that what we call "eating radish in winter and ginger in summer" should be understood as eating it in winter and summer, or even eating it all year round, but we just use the expression "eating radish in winter and eating ginger in summer" instead of eating it all year round. It is equivalent to several degrees in the Spring and Autumn Period, not only referring to the Spring and Autumn Period, but also referring to the four seasons of the year, and now we say "winter and summer" also refers to the four seasons of the year.

Then, I can't help but think of a sad sentence in the commentary of A Dream of Red Mansions: "I wonder how many tears I can find in my eyes, how can autumn flow to the end of winter and how can spring flow to summer?" ! It's just tears that flow all the year round!

Finally, according to the general growth law of radish and ginger, radish is generally harvested in autumn and winter after mid-September, and ginger can be harvested in July and August. Therefore, in the saying "eat radish in winter and ginger in summer", it happens to be seasonal food!

Therefore, after reading this lecture, you understand the truth, and you must be flexible in your cognition of some viewpoints in life. If you blindly copy mechanically, you will be hurt.

Finally, let's give another example. Nowadays, many people don't eat ginger at night, saying "eat ginger at night and play with arsenic". I said that if we really want to be so rigid, wouldn't all chefs lose their jobs? Because chefs use ginger for cooking three times a day all year round, right? In fact, we are omnivores, and we eat all kinds of things. What we need to do is to grasp the balance as a whole and not take it too seriously.