Chapter 3 Keep troublesome Far Away From Teenagers in Hot Summer Days

3.1 Why are you agitated with no appetite in summer?

Hot summer is the season to see the biggest energy consumption of human bodies. When you students study and play in the environment of over 30℃, your physiological conditions and metabolism will inevitably be affected. The most obvious symptoms are being vexed and flustered, all of which have something to do with the “heart”.

According to TCM, summer corresponds to the heart in five zang-organs . The heart is “the house of spirit” which mainly controls human emotions and consciousness. Hot weather is apt to cause exuberance of heart fire , so at this time people tend to be agitated and restless, which will affect study and sleep.

As also found out by modern medicine, when the temperature is over 33℃, the metabolism of the human body will be significantly improved, thus increasing the workload of the heart. Meanwhile, in hot weather, people sweat a lot due to the opening of sweat glands to dissipate heat, and blood volume is reduced with blood viscosity increased. Therefore, it will be more difficult for the heart to pump blood. In summer, the heart works harder and gets relatively poor nutrition, so it is easy to go wrong if you are not careful enough. Therefore, the key to preserve health in summer is to nourish the heart.

According to TCM, animal-related medicine is “the product of flesh and blood”. In the process of long-term evolution and development, animals and human beings have common characteristics in visceral tissue structure, chemical composition and physiological function. Therefore, animal-related medicine can treat some relevant diseases mentioned in TCM.

“To tonify organs by organs” is not only to tonify people by eating animal organs. It also means to regulate the physiological functions of relevant human organs through substances contained in animal’s internal organs to treat diseases. The pig heart has a very good effect on nourishing thehuman heart. TCM believes that the pig heart is cool in property and sweet in flavor, functioning to calm nerves and nourishing heart and tonify blood. Recipe of Suixi-Ju records that the pig heart can “tonify human heart, treat trance, palpitation, epilepsy, anxiety and other syndromes.”

In accordance with the analysis and proof of modern nutriology, the pig heart is a food rich in various nutrients which can help to strengthen myocardial nutrition and improve myocardial contractility. Whether the activity of myocardium is normal or not is closely related to the strength of heart function.

How to cook the pig heart as food? Here is a recommendation: Pig heart decoction with lotus seeds which can clear the heart and troublesome. The specific instruction: 1. A pig heart, 60 grams of lotus seeds and 30 grams of heterophylly falsestarwort root; 2. Wash the pig heart, lotus seeds and heterophylly falsestarwort roots and cut the pig heart into pieces; 3. Put all of them into the pot, add a proper amount of water, after the water is boiling under strong fire, turn to the mild fire to simmer for another 2 hours; 4. Add some seasoning, then you can enjoy it.

Choose those lotus seeds with green germs (i.e. pits of lotus seeds) in the middle. Because the pits of lotus seeds are bitter as they enter the heart and can “tonify heart by

Anecdotes about food-therapy heart”, it is suited to clear heart heat .

Heterophylly falsestarwort root is sweet and slightly bitter with neutral and slight cold mild property. It can not only replenish Qi, but also nourish yin and produce body fluid. Its neutral medicinal effect makes it a good tonic for moistening and tonifying the human body.

After the Slight Heat, when it is becoming hotter, it is easier for people to get troublesome or even have a worse temper unconsciously. All of these happen because of the excessive heart-heat. At this time, people may cook a pot of pig heart soup with lotus seeds. This soup can not only make you full, but also clear your heart and tranquilize your mind, dispel summer-heat and eliminate summer troublesome as well.

3.2 This summer cold drink is far better than Coca Cola

In hot summer, many students like drinking cold drinks to cool down, especially iced Coca Cola. However, it is surelynot a good and clever way.

According to TCM, summer corresponds to yang Qi in the human body. At this season, human skin, striae and interstice are loose and open, like the opening of a door to exchange yang Qi. At this time, having too much ice cream and cold drinks is like leading a wolf into the room. Despite feeling cool and comfortable at that moment, people really have their yang Qi hurt and the yin locked with cold Qi inside the body, finally as a risk factor for health.

In fact, we don’t have to drink those cold drinks to drive away summer-heat, which is equal to stop the thirst by drinking poisons. Many dietetic ingredients in our life have the effect of cooling and dispelling inner-heat, generating fluid and stopping thirst, such as sour plums, watermelons, mung beans, wax gourds and so on.

Today, let me recommend a home-made summer drink: mung bean, lotus seed and lily bulb drink. The specific instruction: 1. Choose 25 grams of dry lily bulbs, 50 grams of lotus seed (with pits), 50 grams of mung beans, and 20 grams of rock sugar; 2. Soak mung beans in water for more than 2 hours, wash lotus seeds, wash lily bulbs and break into pieces, set them aside; 3. Cook the soaked mung beans with water over strong fire until boiling and the beans are split, then turn to the mild fire, add some more water and lotus seeds and continue to stew; 4. Simmer for about 10 minutes, add rock sugar and lily petals for seasoning, and stir it while boiling, turn off the fire after the rock sugar is completely melted, and then drink it after it becomes cool

TCM believes that mung bean is cool in property and sweet in flavor and can clear inner-heat and remove poisons, dispel heat and vexation, stop thirst and invigorate the stomach. It can be used to prevent heat-stroke and treat food poisoning. According to Recipes of Suixi-Ju , mung bean is sweet and cool. It can be boiled and eaten to clear the gallbladder, nourish the stomach, dispel inner-heat and stop thirst. It is conducive to promoting urination and treating diarrhea. Therefore, mung bean has been used as a sharp weapon for dispelling inner-heat since ancient times.

Every summer, mung bean soup is always a regular summer drink for families. The green germ in the middle of the lotus seed is called the lotus plumule.

As recorded in Detailed Analysis of Warm Diseases : “Pits of lotus seeds enter kidneys from the heart, and can make heart-heat pass down to kidneys and then return, it can also make the kidney-fluid go up to the heart. In the theory of TCM, heart governs fire and kidney governs water. Pits of lotus seeds can help heart-heat go down and kidney- water go up, which plays a good role in “extinguishing fire”. Lily bulb is slightly cold in property and enters the heart meridian. So, it can pacify the heart, remove vexation and calm the mind. Because lily bulb, lotus seeds and mung beans are complemented among themselves, there is no drink better than these in stopping thirst.

Although cold drinks like coca cola can quench thirst for a while, they can only relieve the symptoms but not solve the problem. On the contrary, people will feel much thirsty and sticky in the mouth after drinking those drinks. Only by extinguishing heart

Anecdotes about food-therapy fire to eliminate the source of fire, can the problem be solved fundamentally.

3.3 The “heart fire” makes the urine scant and yellowish

In hot summer, people may feel mentally lazy and physically sluggish. People may also seldom go to the toilet to pea or even have scant and yellowish urea. Sometimes people may feel hot at the urethral orifice. In fact, all these are caused by “heart fire”.

According to the theory of TCM, the heart and small intestines are in externalinternal relationship. As a saying goes: “The fire at gate brings disaster to the fish in the pond”. The exuberant heart fire inevitably moves down to the small intestines, and then influences the function of the small intestines to separate lucidity and filtrate turbidity, thus resulting in the symptoms of painful urination, reddish urine, short urine and so on.

As we all know, urine is actually the excretion of the human body. It is useless garbage and should be discharged from the body in time. If the excretion system is “on strike” for a long time, poisons in urine will return to the human body and affect health.

There is a formula in TCM for clearing heat and promoting urination: “Decoction of three fresh ingredients ”. This formula is very simple. People can buy some fresh reed rhizome, fresh lophatherum herbs and fresh Lalang grass roots. 1. Take 30 grams of fresh Reed Rhizome, 10 grams of fresh lophatherum herbs and 20 grams of fresh Lalang grass roots each time; 2. After brewing in boiling water, add a little white sugar; 3. Drink it when it is cool. It can help you clear heat, promote urination and generate body fluid.

Reed rhizome is the medicine for clearing heat and purging fire. It is the general name of fresh or dry reed stems. It is sweet-cold in flavor with the effects of clearing heat and generating fluid, eliminating irritability, stopping vomiting and promoting urination. It works effectively in treating irritation and thirst caused by feverish diseases, stomach-heat vomit, lung-heat cough, as well as lung-pyesis and the pain caused by heat stranguria.

Fresh lophatherum herb is widely used in China, with a long history of medicinal and edible usage. It was first recorded in Miscellaneous Records of Famous Physicians treated diseases like “The phlegm heat in the chest, and cough with dyspnea”. As a traditional medicine for clearing heat and relieve toxin, it functions to clear heat and remove irritation, produce fluid and promote urination. It can treat diseases like irritation and thirst caused by feverish diseases, infantile convulsion, cough with hematemesis, reddish face, scant and yellowish urine, sores in the mouth and on the tongue. Besides, it can also clear lung heat and stomach fire .

Fresh lalang grass root is called “spear” because its leaf shape is like a spear. Its flowers and roots are white, so they are called “Baimaogen” in Chinese. The buds, flowers and roots of the lalang grass root have high medicinal value, especially its root effects of cooling blood and stopping bleeding, clearing heat and promoting urination. These three herbs (reed rhizome, lophatherum herb and lalang grass root) function to clear inner-heat and promote urination, and clear heart and dispel irritation. Moreover, because they are quite cheap, easy to take, quick and safe in its effects, they are called “Three treasures in summer” by Chinese people. Drinking their combination has a good effect on the prevention and treatment of scant and yellowish urine and heat syndromes. In addition, to spend the hot summer peacefully, mentality is also very important.

Qiu Chuji recorded his unique view on health preservation in summer in his News of Health Preservation . In his views, in hot summer, “It’s better for people to regulate breath and purify heart as if there are ice and snow in heart. The heat will be reduced when the heart is calm. You can’t make yourself vexed in hot summer, which will lead to more heat in the body. This is also the saying that “Calming heart naturally makes you cool”. No matter what your diet formula is, mentality always comes first.

3.4 With this diet formula, don’t worry about the scorching sun in summer

As a saying goes: “The fair skin can cover all the ugliness”. All girls wish to have smooth and fair skin, so when summer comes around, they are too scared to go out because of the scorching sun.

The ultraviolet rays are extremely strong in summer, so even if people go out occasionally, you had better go with sunshades, long sleeve clothes, sunscreen and any other sun-protective equipment. Yet even with these sun-protective methods, if not careful, people will be also mercilessly kissed by the sun and have traces caused by sunburnt, which can result in uneven skin color, sunburn and other problems.

In summer, to protect ourselves from the sun-burn, we should not only start from the outside, but also from the inside. If you make your skin fair with dietary therapy, you don’t have to worry too much about the scorching sun.

Let me recommend you a sharp tool for skin whitening: cucumber porridge . 1. Choose 100 grams of rice, 300 grams of fresh cucumber, 2 grams of refined salt and 10 grams of raw ginger; 2. First wash the cucumber, then peel, remove its pits and slice it. Wash rice and ginger and then smash the ginger; 3. After that, add about 1000 ml of water into the pot, put on the fire, add rice and ginger in turn, and boil over strong fire. When it is boiling, turn to the mild fire until the rice is rotten, then put in the cucumber slices. Finally, stew until the soup is thick and sticky, add salt as the seasoning and enjoy it.

Cucumber is a seasonal vegetable in summer. Because it is crisp and refreshing, it is the first choice as an appetizer for many people. Due to its cool property, 96% of its ingredients is water, so eating it can help to remove excessive heat inside the body with the effects of clearing heat and promoting urination, removing toxic and dispersing swelling, generating fluid and stopping thirst. Modern scientific research has proved that the cucumber enzyme of the fresh cucumber is a very strong biological enzyme. It can effectively promote the metabolism of the body, promote blood circulation and play a role in moisturizing and beautifying the skin. So, cucumber has been known as “The kitchen beauty-agent”. Frequent intake of cucumber porridge can eliminate freckles and whitening skin. Therefore, some people love to slice cucumber into pieces as facial masks in daily life.

In addition, dampness is prevalent in summer, and it is sticky and stagnant. Dampness can block Qi and blood. If Qi and blood move slowly, it will cause pigmentation. Raw ginger has a good effect of removing dampness. Modern research shows that it has a good antioxidant effect. So, eating raw ginger can resist aging and prevent skin spots.

Cucumber and raw ginger are things easily available , and their price is much cheaper than some of your cosmetics. Besides, they have nearly the same effects as those cosmetics. If you learn to make cucumber porridge, you not only don’t need to worry about being tanned in summer, but also can save a lot of pocket money.

Of course, in addition to cucumbers, there are some other well-known sun-screen and skin-whitening foods, such as lemon, which can not only whiten skin and remove freckles, but also remove toxin and lose weight. Tomato is also one of them. The cooked tomatoes have a high content of lycopene which is an anti-oxidant to greatly increase the skin procollagen content. Besides, Vitamin C in tomato can reduce skin melanin deposition, reduce and even remove skin black spots and freckles, and quicken the speed of the whitening of skin . So, fruits with high Vitamin C such as oranges, hawthorns and citrus are also good choices for sun-screen in summer.

3.5 Let the Eigh precious Ingredients cake “save” your stomach

I think the most terrible thing for a foodie is the hot summer. The temperature soars in this season, and people are also easily affected by such weather not only in their appetite, but also in losing interest in food.

As a saying goes: “The body is iron, rice is steel. We will be very hungry without a meal”. A normal diet is an important guarantee of good health. If the appetite is poor, it will cause a lot of side effects to the health. Especially for you students who are in the golden stage of growth and development, you must have your meals even though you have no appetite, otherwise you will be short of nutrition.

In fact, in summer, having no appetite to eat does not mean that you are not hungry, but because of the fact that the spleen and stomach are troubled by both heat and humidity in summer, and thus the spleen and stomach are not active in responding to food, and the brain’s response to signals of eating is somewhat slow.

In this case, you can make some cakes as appetizers, such as the “Eight precious ingredients cake ”. The method is also very simple, just like steaming “Mantou”, a Chinese-style bread.

The specific instruction:

1. Prepare 15 grams of Tangshen, 30 grams of white atractylodes, 30 grams of poria, 30 grams of common yam rhizome, 30 grams of hyacinth beans, 30 grams of coix seeds, 15 grams of gordon euryale seeds, 30 grams of lotus seeds, 15 grams of raw hawthorns and 15 grams of fried germinated barley. These medicinal herbs are sold in TCM drug stores. When buying them, you had better ask the assistants of those shops to grind them into fine powder, and then filter them through a fine sieve after getting home.

2. Take 200 grams of glutinous rice and rice respectively, grind them into powder, and mix them with the above medicinal powder evenly, then put these rice powder and

Anecdotes about medicinal powder into water, mix them into dough with a little white sugar.

3. Finally, steam the dough in a steamer. With this done, cut the steamed dough into cakes, bake them and store them. They are edible at any time.

With a long history, Eight precious ingredients cake is one of the traditional famous pastries of Han nationality in Shaoxing area of Zhejiang Province. It can tonify middle, replenish Qi, appetize stomach and invigorate spleen. It is said that during the reign of Emperor Guangxu of the Qing Dynasty, Cixi, Empress Dowager, did not have desire to eat and drink due to indigestion and depression. The imperial doctors were extremely anxious about it. After many doctors’ consultation for Cixi’ case, they reached an agreement that such symptoms were caused by the weakness of the spleen and stomach. After careful discussion, doctors prescribed eight materia medica which were also seen as food, i.e. poria, euryale seeds, lotus seeds, coix seeds, common yam rhizome, hyacinth beans, germinated barley, and lotus root starch, 100 grams for each. Then, all of them were ground into fine power with 350 grams of sugar added into it. Finally, the powder was mixed with water to make cakes called “spleen-invigorating cake”. After eating the cake for a few days, Cixi found her symptoms were completely gone. She even had better appetite and was full of energy . Being so happy, Cixi changed the name of “spleen invigorating cake” into “Eight precious ingredients cake ”.

Since then, “Eight precious ingredients cake” had become Cixi’s favorite food. No matter whether she was sick or not, she always ordered the imperial cook to make such cakes for her.

“ Eight precious ingredients cake ” in modern times is composed of ten kinds of materia medica, most of which can also be taken as food. Among them, Tangshen and white atractylodes rhizome are good medicines for nourishing spleen yang. Common yam rhizome, lotus seeds and hyacinth beans are used to nourish spleen yin. Poria and coix seeds are for removing dampness. Euryale seeds are astringent. Raw hawthorns and fried germinated barley are for invigorating spleen and digesting food. So, in this case,

Anecdotes about food-therapy the whole prescription has yin and yang, with rise and fall of Qi. When combined, it turns to be a magic medicine for regulating spleen and stomach. No wonder some people say Eight precious ingredients cake has been considered as the first cake to preserve health for over one thousand years.

After learning about TCM, you will find there is lots of fun in traditional Chinese medicine. Just like this “cake of eight precious ingredients ”, you can DIY on weekends, put them into a box, and take one or two pieces as snacks during break. By doing so, you don’t have to worry about your appetite. Of course, if you think it is too troublesome to DIY such cakes , you can also make tea with the above materia medica and drink directly, which can achieve the same effect.

3.6 Sound sleep at night leads to effective learning in the day-time

Every summer, the hot weather and the buzzing mosquitoes always make it difficult for us to sleep, which directly affects the quality of our learning the next day and distresses many students very much .

According to the theory of TCM, the decrease of sleep quality in summer is because that summer corresponds to the heart of five zang-organs . When yang enters the heart in summer, the heart will be full of heat. The heart also stores spirit. At night, the spirit should go back to rest in the heart, but the “house” is as hot as a stove. So, the spirit naturally can’t have a good rest, resulting in troublesome and sleeplessness of people.

Fresh lily bulb, as a diet ingredient, is a good helper for sleep. Here is a recommendation to help you fall asleep early: honeysuckle flower and lily bulb porridge.

The specific instruction: 50 grams of lily bulbs, 10 grams of honeysuckle flowers and 100 grams of non-glutinous rice. 1. Wash lily bulbs, honeysuckle flowers and nonglutinous rice; 2. Put the rice into a pot with water and cook until it is thick and sticky; 3.

Add lily bulbs and honeysuckle flowers and cook for another 10 minutes and take it out;

4. Add some sugar and you can enjoy it.

Lily bulb enters the heart meridian. Being slightly cold in property, it can clear heart and dispel vexation, calm the mind and spirit. Honeysuckle flower, as a commonly-used Chinese medicine with a long history, was first listed as the top grade in the Miscellaneous Records of Famous Physicians. It is cold in property and sweet in flavor, functioning to clear heart and purge heat.

After entering the body, these two materia medica, just like the refrigerator, can quickly drain the fire in our hearts, so that our mind and spirit can go home at ease to rest, then we can fall asleep quickly.

In addition to drinking honeysuckle flower and lily bulb porridge to help sleep, you cannot ignore the following details:

1. Many of you students have the habit of drinking coffee as refreshment . If you don’t want to keep awake at night, you had better not drink coffee after 2 pm, because the effect of caffeine can last for more than 8 hours.

2. Take a hot bath before going to bed. Try to take a bath one hour before going to bed. The water temperature should be or higher than 38℃, and the time should be no less than 20 minutes. In this way, toxins accumulated in your body in a whole day can be driven away and your fatigue can be relieved.

3. Stop eating food three hours before going to bed. TCM believes that “stomach disharmony causes difficulties in sleep”. Eating too much can easily lead to the reflux of gastric acid, thus affecting sleep.

4. Stop strenuous exercise four hours before going to bed to avoid being too excited to sleep.

5. Room light should not be too bright. To much brightness will make your brain too clear to sleep. During sleep, it is better to turn off all light sources.

6. Keep the indoor temperature suitable. Research shows that when the room

Anecdotes about food-therapy temperature is between 18 ~ 24℃ and the bed temperature is 27℃, you will enjoy the best quality of sleep.

3.7 What about making a herbal tea by yourself?

Every summer, we would have some young patients because of heat-stroke. I was very impressed for one case. Our emergency doctors were on duty when they received a 120 emergency call. It turned out that a high school student fainted in the afternoon when he was playing football with his classmates. The doctor immediately told the caller: “Move your classmate to the shade of a tree, wipe his forehead, neck and armpits with a wet towel, and wait for the arrival of rescue workers." Thanks to proper instructions, the student who passed out came to himself when 120 people arrived.

Heat-stroke is an acute disease happening in high temperature environment. The normal human body temperature is about 37℃, which is the result regulated by the thermoregulation center located in the hypothalamus, which makes heat production and heat dissipation roughly balanced. At room temperature, the human body dissipates heat by radiation, evaporation and other ways. When the environmental temperature is higher than the skin temperature, the human body mainly relies on the evaporation of sweat to dissipate heat. If the body produces more heat than it dissipates or if the heat dissipation is blocked, the excessive heat will accumulate in the body and damage organ function and tissues, then heat-stroke may happen.

The symptoms of heatstroke were long ago recorded in books of Chinese medicine in which they were called “summer-heat”. In ancient times, because there was neither air conditioner nor fan, heat-stroke happened more frequently among people. However, the ancients had a very clever way to prevent heat-stroke, that is, to drink “herbal tea”.

Guided by the theory of health preservation of TCM, herbal tea uses herbal materia medica as raw materials. It is a kind of beverage with the functions of clearing heat and removing toxin, promoting fluid production to quench thirst, and dispelling innerheat and removing dampness, etc. The products like “Wong Lo Kat”, “Heqizheng” and “Jiaduobao” are all herbal tea products.

Herbal tea has a long history. In 306 A.D., because of the epidemic of miasma, Ge Hong, a Taoist medical expert in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, came to Lingnan to study different materia medica for febrile diseases, which formed the herbal tea with profound cultural basis. Its formula and terminology have been handed down from generation to generation.

What kind of herbal tea can be made conveniently for us to drink? Here are several herbal tea products characterized by easy access to materials and convenient production.

Plum syrup : 100 grams of smoked plum and 500 grams of brown sugar. Wash the smoked plum and put it in the pot with brown sugar, add 1500 ml of water, boil it over the mild fire for 30 minutes, then filter out the plum, take the juice and put it in the refrigerator for drink. When drinking it, you can add some cool boiled water. Smoked plum tastes sour and is conducive to promote fluid to quench thirst. Plum syrup is a summer drink, especially suitable for sweating too much, thirst and other symptoms.

Mung bean decoction : some mung beans and white sugar of proper amount. 1. Cook the mung beans with 5 or 6 times of water over strong fire until it is boiling; 2. Turn to the mild fire to stew until mung beans are rotten; 3. Put in the white sugar, then you can enjoy it. As recorded in Recipes of Suixi-Ju: “mung beans are sweet and cool. Eating boiled mung beans can clear gallbladder and nourish stomach, relieve heat and it’s good for promoting urination and stopping diarrhea...” In summer, many families have the habit of cooking mung-bean soup to dispel heat because of its effects of clearing heat, removing toxin, eliminating vexation and quenching thirst.

Chinese chrysanthemum porridge : 15 grams of chrysanthemum, 100 grams of non-glutinous rice, and some rock sugar. First, cook the chrysanthemum in water for 3-5

Anecdotes about food-therapy minutes, remove the residue and get the juice, then put non-glutinous rice into the pot to cook porridge. When cooked, add rock sugar and chrysanthemum juice, cook again for a few minutes and then you can eat. Chrysanthemum has strong ability of pacifying and clearing liver as well as brightening vision. It also functions to clear heat, remove toxin and purge inner-fire.

Chrysanthemum porridge is suitable for treating vexation and thirst caused by summer-heat, as well as dizziness and headache.

Water chestnut and sugarcane juice : 500ml soybean milk, 150 grams of water chestnuts and 500 grams of sugarcane. Firstly, peel, chop and squeeze the water chestnuts and sugarcane, then mix them with soybean milk, cook until boiling, then cool them and drink at any time. Water chestnuts are cold in property with the effects of clearing away heat, removing toxin, cooling blood, generating body fluid, promoting urination, relieving stool, resolving dampness, dispelling phlegm, digesting food and removing distention. Sugarcane is sweet in flavor and cold in property, entering the lungs and stomach meridians. It can clear heat and remove toxin, promote fluid production to quench thirst, harmonize stomach and stop vomiting, nourish yin and moisten dryness. Wang Wei, a poet of the Tang Dynasty, wrote in his Give cherries as Imperial gifts to all officials that “high-ranking officials don’t need to worry about their internal heat after eating too many cherries, because they are offered with sugarcane syrup to clear heat.”

In fact, heat-stroke is completely preventable. Firstly, ventilate the environment. The flowing air can speed up the heat to dissipate. Even though the temperature is not very high, due to the high humidity and poor ventilation, heat-stroke can also happen. Secondly, drink plenty of water and replenish the lost water and salt at any time. Finally, prepare some drinks mentioned above to dispel summer-heat, then you don’t need to worry about heats-troke.

3.8 Eating more purslane herbs helps to stop your diarrhea

Summer is the season with high incidence of diarrhea, because the relatively frequent rain in this season provides suitable natural conditions for the growth and reproduction of intestinal pathogens. What’s more, in hot summer, many people like eating cold fruits and dishes to cool the body-temperature, thus, the frequent stimulation of cold food and hot weather would weaken gastrointestinal function or even lead to diarrhea.

As a saying goes: “A hero can’t stand going to the toilet three times because of diarrhea.” Frequent diarrhea will make you lose too much water and nutrients, which may lead to physical fatigue and poor immunity.

Then do you students have any good food therapies when you suffer from diarrhea? There is a classical formula widely spread among people, a formula which has been practiced by people for over one thousand years and is very effective for treating diarrhea.

The plant in this classical formula is purslane herb, a plant serving both as food and medicine. Purslane herb is a kind of wild grass which grows widely in the field. It is drought-and waterlogging-tolerant. Despite its plain look, it has high value in medicinal and food therapy. Purslane herb is sour in flavor, cold in property and non-toxic. It enters the large intestine and liver meridians with the functions of clearing heat, removing toxin, cooling blood, stopping bleeding and stopping dysentery. According to Compendium of Materia Medica and Meteria Medica for Dietotheropy , Chinese people often use purslane herb decoction to treat acute diseases like enteritis, dysentery and diarrhea. Modern research also shows that it has a strong inhibiting effect on shigella dysenteriae, typhoid bacillus and Escherichia coli, so it is known as “A natural antibiotic”.

Anecdotes about food-therapy

When treating diarrhea, you can prepare 100 grams of purslane herbs. Wash them with cool boiled water for several times and chop them; then mix them evenly with 20 grams of white sugar and 20 grams of garlic mud. Finally, you can take them, twice a day.

In this prescription, garlic also centers on warming the middle and invigorating stomach, as well as disinfecting and sterilizing. The sulfide in garlic has strong antibacterial and anti-inflammatory effects, with inhibitory and killing effects on a variety of cocci, bacilli, fungi and viruses, so it has turned out to be one of natural plants with the strongest anti-bacterial effects. This prescription works quite well in treating diarrhea.

Besides, purslane herb is also a weed with a unique flavor, which can be eaten raw or cooked. You can cook its soft stem like the way you cook spinach. In daily diet, suitable intake of some purslane herbs can also help you achieve the goal to prevent diarrhea.

3.9 Drinking lots of water in summer cannot stop your thirst ?

As a saying goes: “Although having no diseases in summer, you will still be somewhat weak”. That means, in summer, even though you are not ill, you still feel tired and weak.

This is because in hot summer, it is easy to sweat a lot, and even a little physical activity will make you perspire. Treatise on Cold Damage, a TCM classic, records that “In lunar May, yang Qi is on the exterior surface.” The excretion of sweat from skin pores also damages yang Qi over the exterior skin. All human activities, including the normal operation of all viscera functions, depend on the gasification of yang Qi. If yang Qi is deficient, the functions zang-fu will be weakened, thus leading to fatigue and weakness.

There are more fruits in summer and many people just eat them raw. In fact, to decoct soups by using some fruits and meats can not only keep the fragrance of fruits, but also replenish Qi and promote fluid production, and it is also very delicious. Guava and chicken decoction is one of such delicacies.

1. Prepare 1 guava, 30 grams of dried common yam rhizome, 30 grams of euryale seeds and one chicken.

2. Wash the guava and cut it into pieces;

3. Wash dried yam and euryale seeds separately;

4. Wash the chicken and chop it into large pieces and put them into pot with proper amount of water, then cook and blanch chicken blood and drain;

5. Add some water again to cook until boiling, then put in the chicken, guava, dried yam and euryale seeds. After it is boiling again, turn to the mild fire and stew for about 1 hour;

6. Add salt as theseasoning.

Guava’ meat is very soft, sweet and almost seedless. Its sour and sweet taste can enhance your appetite. Moreover, it is rich in nutrients, such as lots of proteins, fat, sugar, Vitamin A, Vitamin B, Vitamin C, calcium, phosphorus and iron. If you use it as medicine, it can help to regulate spleen and stomach and treat dyspepsia. Common yam rhizome is a good tonic which can tonify middle and replenish Qi. Euryale seeds can tonify spleen and stop diarrhea, replenish kidneys and consolidate human essence. Compendium of Materia Medica records that euryale seeds can stop thirst and replenish kidneys. TCM holds that “Kidneys are the root of Qi”. If kidney essence is insufficient and kidney qi is deficient, they will lead to the symptoms caused by Qi deficiency, like frequent asthma, shortness of breath, and vice versa. So, if you have such symptoms, chicken is a good tonic for strengthening body and tonifying Qi.

The decoction made with the above materia medica can not only invigorate spleen and replenish stomach to replenish Qi, but also promote fluid production because of the

Anecdotes about food-therapy guava in the soup. In summer, you students sweat a lot and often feel thirsty or have a dry throat, and some may still feel thirsty even after drinking a lot of water. This is caused by your insufficient fluid. This guava-chicken soup with special flavor can not only replenish Qi but also promote fluid production to quench thirst, so it is really a good tonic in summer.