Winter is the most difficult season for many people who are physically weak. Cold hands and feet, stomach cold and pain are common. In addition, the fast-paced lifestyle disrupts the dietary requirements, making the body more vulnerable to the cold. In fact, winter can be managed through dietary and medicinal supplementation to maintain a healthy body.
【Diet Therapy】
Medicated Food One: Yam Coix Seed Porridge
Ingredients: 200g yam, 50g coix seed, 50g glutinous rice, 20g jujube.
Method: Prepare the ingredients. Peel and wash the yam, wearing gloves to avoid allergies. Wash the coix seed and soak it overnight. Wash the jujube and soak for 10 minutes. Cut the yam into pieces. Wash the glutinous rice and put it in an electric pressure cooker with about 1000g of water. Add the cut yam and washed jujube. Cook for about 20 minutes using the porridge function.
Benefits: Yam can regulate the digestive system, reduce subcutaneous fat accumulation, and prevent obesity. It also enhances immune function. Yam is also convenient to cook, suitable for lazy people.
Medicated Food Two: Radish Lamb Soup
Ingredients: 1000g radish, 500g lamb, appropriate amount of salt, pepper, scallion, and ginger.
Method: Remove the fascia from the lamb and cut it into about 3cm cubes. Blanch the lamb in boiling water to remove blood. Drain the water and put the lamb in a pot. Add an appropriate amount of water. Peel and wash the radish, cut it into diamond-shaped slices. Put the lamb in a pot with scallion and ginger, bring to a boil, then simmer over low heat for about 30 minutes. Add the cut radish and cook until the lamb is tender. Put the meat and soup into a bowl, season with salt and pepper.
Benefits: This soup is effective for common colds, chronic bronchitis, cold asthma, abdominal cold pain, physical weakness and aversion to cold, lumbago and weakness of the legs, yellow complexion and emaciation, deficiency of Qi and blood, and post-illness or postpartum physical weakness. Suitable for people with physical weakness.
Medicated Food Three: Winter Melon Aloe Vera Soup
Ingredients: 250g winter melon, 3 slices of aloe vera, 1 snow pear, 4 red dates, salt to taste.
Method: Wash and cut the winter melon and aloe vera into pieces. Wash and cut the red dates and snow pear into pieces. Put the winter melon in a pot and add enough water. Bring to a boil and then simmer over low heat until cooked. Add the red dates, snow pear, aloe vera, and a pinch of salt. Simmer briefly and serve.
Benefits: Winter melon is low in fat and sodium, and rich in potassium. It has diuretic and dampness-eliminating effects. Eating winter melon can avoid fat accumulation in the waist and help with quick weight loss. Aloe vera contains active ingredients that promote fat burning, inhibit the absorption of fat from post-meal food in the intestines, and promote the secretion of gastric protease, aiding in digestion.
Medicated Food Four: Astragalus Lamb Soup
Ingredients: 150g lamb, cut into small pieces, 6g astragalus, 5 slices of ginger, 10g spring onion, 5g star anise.
Method: Add the ingredients to a pot of cold water. Bring to a boil over high heat, remove the foam, and then simmer over medium-low heat until the lamb is tender. Add a little salt to taste.
Benefits: Warm yang and tonify Qi, invigorate the spleen and tonify the kidneys. Suitable for those with aversion to cold limbs, weakness of the limbs, lack of energy, lethargy, lumbago and weakness of the legs.
【Dietary + Medicinal Supplementation】
Qi Deficiency
Symptoms: fatigue, weakness, pale complexion, shortness of breath, laziness in speech, heavy menstrual flow with pale color, pale tongue, thin pulse.
Dietary supplementation: Stew lean meat and white ginseng with water to make a broth, stew mother chicken with raw astragalus.
Medicinal supplementation: Take Dangshen Paste and Ginseng Paste, one spoonful each, twice daily.
Blood Deficiency
Symptoms: pale or sallow complexion, pale lips and gums, fatigue, thinness, insomnia, irritability, scanty or absent menstruation, pale tongue, thin pulse.
Dietary supplementation: Stir-fry pig liver, eat carrot rice or eat raw carrots, soak Donkey-hide Gelatin in yellow wine for 24 hours, then stew it with peanuts and rock sugar until it becomes a paste. Take one spoonful each time, twice daily.
Medicinal supplementation: Take Shiquandabu Paste, Buqi Yangxue Paste, or Bazhen Decoction.
Yin Deficiency
Symptoms: afternoon heat, flushed complexion, thinness, dry mouth and no desire to drink, lumbago, weak knees, heavy menstrual flow with dark red color, red tongue, small and thin tongue body, thin coating, thin pulse.
Dietary supplementation: Stew pear with honey, brew American ginseng as tea (for those with both Qi and Yin deficiency), cook old duck soup.
Medicinal supplementation: Take Liuwei Dihuang Wan, Wujibaoyuan Wan, or Guiling Paste.
Yang Deficiency
Symptoms: pale complexion, fatigue, aversion to cold and cold limbs, clear and long urine, loose stools, pale and fat and moist tongue, thin coating, deep and slow pulse.
Dietary supplementation: Cook lamb soup with danggui and ginger, cook beef marrow soup, etc.
Medicinal supplementation: Take Shenglu Bugao Paste, Lurong Pian, or Jinkui Shenqi Wan, etc.
