Eating spicy food in summer is good for health. In summer, the blood (heart) of the host should be nourished by red and slightly bitter food. On May 5, the long summer passed, which means that summer is coming, and clearing away heat and relieving summer heat has naturally become the top priority. But at the same time, according to the theory of TCM health preservation, we should eat the right things to avoid hurting the spleen and lungs. Sun Simiao, the drug king of the Tang Dynasty, once linked diet with seasonal changes, and changed three meals a day into a way of keeping in good health according to the different seasons and the nutritional needs of the body.

He put forward in "A Thousand Daughters' Prescription": On the seventy-second day of summer, you can save your suffering, increase your excitement and nourish your lungs.

Saving bitterness and increasing spiciness means eating less bitterness and adding more spiciness. According to the theory of five elements of Chinese medicine, heart fire is in season in summer. Although bitter food has the functions of clearing away heat and purging fire, relieving asthma and purging diarrhea, it will help the heart control lung qi, so it is not recommended to eat more in summer to avoid excessive heart fire. Because heart fire can suppress lung gold, and pungent taste belongs to lung meridian, in summer, despite the hot weather, people can still eat more pungent things, such as spicy radish, onion, ginger, garlic and so on. It has the functions of dispersing stagnation, promoting qi circulation, promoting blood circulation, inducing resuscitation and eliminating dampness, and can replenish lung qi, especially for people with lung qi deficiency.

Pungent flavor actually contains many different flavors, such as hemp flavor, spicy flavor, pungent flavor, etc., all of which belong to pungent flavor and are characterized by strong smell. Onion, ginger, garlic, pepper, all kinds of spices, and many Chinese medicines with unique smells are pungent.