Water chestnut is sometimes called horseshoe. Because its shape is especially like the chestnuts borne on trees, it is also called “ground chestnut” in some places, which means it is a chestnut buried underground. The skin of water chestnut is purple-black, but the flesh inside is white, and the taste is juicy, crisp and delicious, and it has been known as “underground snow pear” since ancient times, and northerners call it “southern ginseng”. Water chestnut can be used as both a fruit and a vegetable, and is a popular seasonal food, while Chinese medicine also uses water chestnut as a Chinese medicine. Water chestnut is the bulb of the plant, it is not the root. Modern science believes that the phosphorus content inside water chestnut is the highest in all kinds of foods, so it can promote human growth and development and maintain certain physiological functions, especially for the development of bones and teeth. According to Chinese medicine, water chestnut is a very good remedy for clearing heat, cooling the blood and detoxifying the bowels. It also aids in the digestion of the stomach and is a good remedy for eliminating food and bloating. In ancient times, water chestnut was used as a heat-clearing and detoxifying medicine. Especially for those people who were poisoned by mineral medicine, such as “Wushi San”, which is a kind of stimulant, we usually use water chestnut to squeeze the juice to help them eliminate the wind poison, detoxify the poison of Dan Shi, and remove the real heat in the chest. In modern times, we use water chestnuts to detoxify alcohol. Many people are alcoholic and get up in the middle of the night after drinking alcohol and are parched and thirsty, with their throat like a pot roasting on fire. In this case, it is best to prepare fresh, peeled and washed water chestnuts for him and put them on his pillow and let him eat them after he wakes up from thirst. This will also detoxify the alcohol and protect the stomach mucosa. I now use water chestnuts to treat some patients with chronic atrophic gastritis, who have an intestinal epithelial-like metaplasia of the gastric mucosa, which is due to the reflux of digestive juices or bile that slowly digests its own gastric mucosa by itself. Chronic atrophic gastritis will appear hungry, even if the stomach and intestines are empty, do not want to eat, thirsty but do not want to drink water, a little food will appear full, and these patients will appear some psychological symptoms, such as difficulty falling asleep, early awakening, anxiety, agitation, and even some pessimistic mood. To treat this disease, we usually use drugs that nourish stomach yin, such as maitake, asparagus, northern sage, yellow essence and yucca. In fact, the best thing is to use water chestnuts, boiled water chestnuts, so that he can eat slowly, so that his gastric mucosa gradually thickens and returns to normal. Patients with chronic atrophic gastritis will develop early symptoms of gastric cancer or esophageal cancer at a later stage. Even if this happens, if he still has these symptoms of yin deficiency and fire in the stomach as mentioned above, we still recommend him to eat water chestnuts as a meal. For those who suddenly develop a swollen throat, especially due to fire in the stomach, we grind the juice of water chestnut and let him drink it. The efficacy of water chestnuts recorded in ancient medical texts is that they can eliminate tumors, so a recipe was left in ancient times to treat esophageal cancer with water chestnuts, steamed with their skin, and eaten every day. For example, when we make wontons, we can mix a little water chestnut inside the meat filling, and when we make lion’s head, we also put a little water chestnut, so that it is fresh and crispy, sticky and sweet, with a very good taste, and it also has a very good digestive effect when eaten. But pay attention to one thing, that is, when you eat water chestnuts should be steamed or cooked to eat. When you need to eat it raw, be sure to wash it and peel off the skin.