If someone feels unwell and goes to see a Chinese medicine doctor, the doctor will tell them to eat less or not to eat cooling foods, not only ice water, and ice cream but also beer, milk, green tea, fruits, etc. Traditional Chinese medicine believes that a large number of cooling foods will harm your health.
I used to love ice cream so much, but my digestion got worse as I got older. Since I said goodbye to ice cream, my visceral function has improved.
We all know that the human body has temperature, in the North Pole and the South Pole, it is impossible to live without clothes. All life activities are carried out on the basis of maintaining temperature. Everyone has innate vitality, which is the sun of the body, and protecting this sun is the foundation of health. The digestion and conversion of food require a warm environment and vitality (the sun of the body). The heat and cold balance are also under the condition of maintaining temperature.
For thousands of years, Chinese people have had their own dietary wisdom and philosophy, mostly relying on the “Huang Di Nei Jing”, which is China’s earliest medical classic. It believes that “medicine and foods are of the same origin” and that how to eat and what to eat is essential to keep healthy. In ancient China, if a person was ill, first adjusted his diet to restore his health, and then they thought of using Chinese medicine.
The first principle of the Chinese diet is to understand the cooling and warm properties of foods and to eat them in a targeted manner. Chinese medicine treats foods from their nature, divided into cold warm, and neutral foods. Generally speaking, the property is not physical temperature, but natural property. But some physical temperature is too low, which can also change the nature of foods
Our daily foods are best based on neutral food. When eating cold foods, use warm seasoning or ingredients. For example, crabs are dipped in ginger vinegar when eating. Here we have to mention the Dream of Red Mansions, one of the four masterpieces. the heroine’s chest hurts after eating crabs. the male protagonist asks the servant to soak Albiziae Cortex（He Huan Pi) in wine for her to drink. This is also using heat to balance the cold.
There is a Chinese saying: eat radish in winter and ginger in summer, without having to find a doctor to prescribe a prescription. In winter, the body is cold outside and hot inside. You can eat a bit of cold food like radish, to balance the internal heat, not too much.
in summer, The weather is hot, and the surface of the human body is very hot, but the inside of the body can easily become cold. Because in the hot season, people often drink cold drinks, eat iced food, or stay in air-conditioned rooms for a long time. These behaviors can cause the gastrointestinal tract to catch cold and lack Yang Qi, causing problems such as spleen and stomach deficiency, malnutrition, and even diarrhea.
At this time, eating ginger can help warm the body and dispel cold, expel cold accumulated in the body, promote the circulation of qi and blood, and restore gastrointestinal function.
Traditional Chinese medicine can change the properties of the medicine through “processing”, and foods are also possible. Foods that have been baked, fried, grilled, etc., will become neutral or warm even if they are originally cold. such as pan-fried eggs, and baked pork.
Although cold foods can help clear fire and detoxify, Chinese medicine can assist in the treatment of some fever syndromes, such as dry stools and swollen gums, but it should not be too much.
According to traditional Chinese medicine, there are six types of diseases that affect human health: wind, cold, heat, dampness, thirst, and fire, among which cold is more harmful to health. A famous ancient medical book in China is called Treatise on Febrile Diseases. Why is it called cold damage and not heat damage? Many diseases are initially caused by cold. For the human body, cold evil can cause joint pain (such as rheumatoid arthritis), chronic inflammation, or cold spot damage if it penetrates deep into bifurcation, joints, or internal organs, as well as diseases caused by cold. The treatment process is slow and Patients need to avoid exposure to cold for long periods of time.
My digestive function was impaired, which was also initially caused by the cold in the winter.
Therefore, in order to prevent health damage, please try to avoid physical colds. For example, drinking ice water, eating ice cream, living in a cold environment for a long time, wearing fewer clothes in winter, giving the cold air a chance to invade, etc.
