The summer heat is coming, many friends find that recently the appetite is not good, the amount of food is reduced, see what is not appetizing, a little bit of greasy food nausea. Not only that, some people also have a series of symptoms such as weakness and tiredness, dizziness and distraction. In Chinese medicine, this phenomenon has a specific name, called “Resistance Summer”, and the symptoms usually improve on their own after the summer, but some people will have a relapse in the coming summer. Resistance to summer is also a precursor to heatstroke, which can lead to heatstroke if it develops further.
So what is the cause of resistance to summer?
According to modern medicine, it is caused by “phytodystrophy”. On the one hand, people sweat a lot in the hot summer climate, and the sweat takes away a lot of water and salt, making the body’s electrolytes out of balance, so the symptoms of tiredness and fatigue appear. On the other hand, after eating, food is digested, decomposed and absorbed in the gastrointestinal tract, and in this process, the blood vessels of the mucous membrane of the gastrointestinal wall expand to ensure blood supply, but because of the hot weather, in order to dissipate more heat, the blood vessels of the skin expand, so that the blood flowing through the skin increases, and the blood of the mucous membrane vessels of the gastrointestinal wall is relatively lacking, and the secretion of gastric juice and gastric acid decreases, which affects appetite and This affects appetite and digestion.
According to Chinese medicine, resistance to summer is due to the deficiency of both qi and yin and summer dampness trapping the spleen. Chinese medicine has the theory of the correspondence between heaven and man, and believes that the physiological rhythm of the human body corresponds to the seasons, day and night, morning and evening of nature, and that the life activities of human beings and the life phenomena of nature are also related to each other. How does it correspond to the five organs of the human body, while nature has only four seasons? It turns out that Chinese medicine divides summer into two parts, the first two months are summer and the last month is long summer, summer and long summer have different properties of the five elements, which also correspond to different internal organs.
Fire is hot for summer, and it corresponds to the heart. Among the five elements, summer and the heart are both fire, so summer is very closely related to the heart in the five organs of Chinese medicine. The heart is the master of blood, the master of the spirit, in the liquid for sweat, the hot climate in summer, the body’s yin and fluids with sweat loss, and the fluids can carry qi, qi also with the loss of yin and fluids and dissipation, so the summer is most likely to consume qi and hurt yin, the symptoms of qi and yin deficiency, manifested as fatigue, drowsiness, dizziness and sweating, distraction and thirst, dullness and thinness.
The tongue is fat with teeth marks, thin coating and weak pulse. In the long summer season, heat is forced down from the sky and dampness is steamed up from the earth, so dampness is most likely to hurt the spleen and earth. The symptoms include reduced appetite, stuffy stomach, loose stools, nausea, vomiting, drowsiness, thick and greasy tongue coating and slow pulse.
Now that we know the causes of resistance to summer, what can be done to get rid of the trouble of resistance to summer?
Some people say: “Summer mouth is tasteless, do not want to eat, eat some spicy flavor, it will be good”, is there any truth to this statement? We just said, summer is fire, easy to consume gas and injury, occasionally eat some spicy food can open the stomach, but if often eat, easy to aggravate the sweating, but also appear mouth and tongue sores, dry throat and thirst and other “fire” symptoms, therefore, spicy food to open the stomach is obviously not a good way, if you want to mouth a little taste, you can eat some appropriate Sour food, stimulate the secretion of digestive juices, to play the role of appetite, such as hawthorn, Chen Pi, sour plum, etc.; you can also eat some bitter food, such as bitter melon, lettuce, lotus seeds, etc., these vegetables not only clear the heat and relieve fatigue, but also rich in nutrients, containing a variety of amino acids, vitamins and minerals, to supplement the loss of trace elements in the summer sweat.
Some people also say: “summer does not want to eat, is hot out, then we eat more write cool things, it’s good”. Here we have to distinguish two concepts, “cool food” and “cold drinks”. Cool food can clear the heat and thirst, is a good assistant to get rid of “resistance to summer”, suitable for summer consumption of cool food mainly five melon (that is, cucumber, loofah, watermelon, winter melon, bitter melon), mung beans, green tea, horsetail, etc..
The “cold drink” is another concept, often refers to cool drinks, ice cream, ice water and so on, greedy cold drink is not desirable, summer dampness, the spleen and stomach itself is relatively weak, eat more cold easily damage the spleen and stomach Yang Qi, resulting in the spleen and stomach transport and transformation failure, water and dampness within the stop, then not only poor stomach, full abdominal distension, nausea and vomiting, loose stool diarrhea The cold drinks often contain high sugar content, eat more may also appear to increase glucose tolerance.
Therefore, to get rid of the trouble of resistance summer, we should start from the cause of “deficiency of Qi and Yin and summer dampness trapped in the spleen” and choose some medicines and foods that benefit Qi and nourish Yin and strengthen the spleen to resolve dampness. Here, I would like to introduce you a few dishes that are healthy and tasty, strengthen the spleen and nourish the stomach, and are helpful in relieving resistance to summer.
Rutabaga Mung Bean Porridge
Ingredients: 100 grams of fresh rutabaga, 50 grams of mung beans, 100 grams of round-grained rice.
How to do: Cut the rutabaga short, add water and boil for half an hour, then remove the dregs, then add mung beans and japonica rice and cook together until the mung beans are cooked. Because the heat is easy to sweat, sweat brings out a lot of sodium chloride in the body, so it is okay to eat slightly salty, you can add the right amount of salt in the porridge, like to eat sweet add some sugar can also be.
Effect: The function of this porridge is to clear heat and nourish the stomach, quench summer heat and thirst.
Mai Dong cucumber Kai Yang cold dish
Ingredients: maitake 10 grams, Kai Yang or shrimp, shrimp (containing calcium, zinc) 30 grams, cucumber half a catty.
Practice: maitong soak in warm water beforehand, the right amount of water boiled and put in maitong, it will rise, water left; cucumber slices or segments or strips, according to personal preference, the three things put together, a small amount of water put in, put sesame oil, vinegar, sugar or a little chili sauce, etc., mix well, made into cold dishes.
Efficacy: The function of maitake is to nourish yin and nourish the yin, it is edible and it is best to purchase high quality refined drinking tablets. The function of this dish is to clear heat and eliminate summer heat, appetite and beauty.
Diced black fish with wolfberry and eggplant
Ingredients: 250 grams of eggplant, 500 grams of black fish, 15 to 20 grams of wolfberry.
Practice: eggplant oil stir fry, black fish boneless cut into small dice, add wine, salt, monosodium glutamate, gravy powder mix, take oil stir fry spare, eggplant almost cooked with fish dice mix stir fry, wolfberry first soaked in warm water, 5 minutes before the pot into.
Efficacy: wolfberry can cool and brighten the eyes and nourish the liver. This dish has the effect of strengthening the spleen and appetite, helping to transport and benefit dampness, and nourishing the liver and kidney.
Ginseng, Poria and Atractylodes Carp Soup
Ingredients: one carp, about 250 grams, 10 grams each of ginseng, Poria and Atractylodes, 3 grams of licorice
How to do: Decoct the carp with ginseng, Poria, Atractylodes and licorice, remove the scales and guts, stir with oil, turn both sides, add wine, onion and ginger, put the right amount of water to boil and cook with the herbs, add seasoning, also add pepper to taste.
Efficacy: strengthens the spleen, benefits the qi, dries dampness and nourishes the stomach. To remind, protein-rich food just eat soup without meat, is not complementary. Because the protein to a certain temperature after solidification, it is difficult to integrate into the water, the water is only 50% at most, do not eat meat nutrition is very wasteful, so consumption of this soup should be eaten with fish.
In addition to food therapy, in life, we should also pay attention to eat less and more meals, proper exercise and to maintain adequate sleep. I believe that if we do these things, we will be able to stay away from “resistance to summer” and have a cool, comfortable and healthy summer!