In traditional concepts, people often focus on nourishing in winter and spring and gaining weight in autumn, while often neglecting the fact that the body loses the most nutrients in summer. In fact, during summer, the body sweats a lot and consumes a lot of energy. Combined with the hot weather and decreased appetite, nutrient absorption is limited, often resulting in a state of "inadequate intake". It is necessary to timely replenish the lost nutrients. However, warm and hot foods should not be chosen for summer nourishment. Clear nourishment is needed, and duck soup is a delicious and nutritious option for summer nourishment.
1. Duck soup is the most nourishing in summer
Duck meat is cold in nature and has a sweet and salty taste. It belongs to the spleen, stomach, lung, and kidney meridians. "Compendium of Materia Medica" once recorded: duck meat "mainly replenishes deficiency and fatigue, eliminates heat, promotes diuresis, relieves edema, reduces bloating, promotes the function of organs, reduces swelling and sores, and stabilizes epilepsy." It has the effects of replenishing deficiency and fatigue, nourishing the yin of the five viscera, clearing heat from deficiency and fatigue, promoting blood circulation and diuresis, nourishing the stomach and producing body fluids, relieving cough and calming convulsions, reducing snail accumulation, clearing heat and invigorating the spleen, diuresis and reducing swelling. At the same time, duck meat has high nutritional value, containing richer B vitamins and vitamin E than other meats, which can prevent various diseases.
Duck meat is rich in essential nutrients such as protein, fat, calcium, phosphorus, iron, and niacin, which have certain preventive and therapeutic effects on heart diseases. It is a good choice for summer nourishment. Duck meat can be cooked, steamed, roasted, smoked, stir-fried, and made into soup. Among these cooking methods, smoked and roasted duck meat can produce carcinogenic substances called benzo[a]pyrene, so they should not be consumed for a long time. Among other cooking methods, soup is the most suitable for summer. Because the body loses water quickly in summer, soup can not only replenish the body's lost water, but also make the nutrients in the soup easier to be absorbed by the body. Secondly, using the method of making soup can reduce the loss of nutrients in duck meat, and it is lighter compared to other cooking methods, making it more suitable for summer nourishment. Therefore, duck soup is the most suitable for summer nourishment.
2. Methods of making duck soup in summer
To make a clear and nourishing duck soup in summer, first choose suitable ingredients. The most suitable duck meat for making soup is old duck meat, which, when combined with yam, which has the effect of nourishing yin, can not only eliminate the greasiness of the duck but also increase the therapeutic value of the soup in nourishing yin, clearing heat, and removing fire, complementing each other. In addition to yam, winter melon is also a good ingredient to be paired with duck meat for soup. Winter melon has the effects of clearing heat and relieving summer heat, replenishing water, and eliminating dampness, which can enhance the nourishing effect of the duck soup. In addition, cabbage, mushrooms, sand ginseng, yuzhu, and honeysuckle can also be selected as ingredients for making duck soup in summer, which can all have the effects of clearing heat and nourishing the body. After selecting the appropriate ingredients, you can start making the soup. It is best to use cold water to make duck soup, as hot water will cause the protein on the surface of the duck meat to coagulate and form a protective film, making it difficult for the inner nutrients to dissolve in the soup. Therefore, when making soup, it should not be boiled directly over high heat, but slowly heated over low heat to dissolve more nutrients in the soup.
Do not add salt or other seasonings too early in the process of making the soup, as it will also hinder the dissolution of nutrients. It is best to add them right before the soup is ready. In daily life, people often believe that the longer the soup is cooked, the better it is. However, this is not true. Different ingredients require different cooking times, and they should be treated differently. The time for making duck soup is generally 1-2 hours. If the time is too long, it will cause excessive dissolution of fat in the duck meat into the soup, which can easily cause diseases such as hyperlipidemia and arteriosclerosis. It is also important to note that if green vegetables are added to the soup, they must be added before the soup is ready, as cooking them for too long will not only cause the loss of nutrients but also increase the potassium and oxalate content in the soup, which increases the risk of kidney stones for patients with chronic kidney disease and is not beneficial to health.
