Spring diets should emphasize sweet flavors over sour ones. From a traditional Chinese medicine perspective, spring nutrition has been highly valued by generations of health practitioners. This season sees the rise of yang energy and vibrant vitality, yet it's also when pathogens and microorganisms proliferate and revive, making diseases prone to spread. A balanced diet can boost immunity and prevent illness.
Spring Diet: Sweet Over Sour
Sun Simiao, the renowned Tang Dynasty physician, noted in his Thousand Gold Prescriptions that spring diets should reduce sour flavors and increase sweet ones to nourish the spleen. This means minimizing sour foods and prioritizing sweet ones to fortify the spleen and stomach qi.
Traditional Chinese medicine associates spring with the liver among the five internal organs. Excessive liver qi during this season can adversely affect the spleen and stomach, hindering normal digestion and nutrient absorption. Sweet foods nourish the spleen and stomach, while sour flavors enter the liver. The astringent nature of sour foods, when consumed excessively, impedes the springtime rise of yang energy and the smooth flow of liver qi. This further intensifies already overactive liver qi, causing greater harm to the spleen and stomach.This is one reason why chronic gastritis, gastric ulcers, and similar conditions often flare up in spring. Eat More Jujubes and Chinese Yam Modern medical research indicates that regularly consuming Chinese yam or jujubes can enhance the body's immunity.Cooking a porridge with jujubes, Chinese yam, rice, and millet not only helps prevent the recurrence of gastritis and gastric ulcers but also reduces the risk of contracting infectious diseases like influenza, making it an ideal springtime dish.
Beyond jujubes and Chinese yam, other sweet-tasting foods include: rice, millet, glutinous rice, sorghum,Job's tears, cowpeas, lentils, soybeans, cabbage, spinach, carrots, taro, sweet potatoes, potatoes, pumpkin, black fungus, shiitake mushrooms, longan, and chestnuts. Individuals may select according to personal preference, with greater consumption recommended. Additionally, limit intake of cold-natured foods like cucumbers, winter melon, and mung bean sprouts, as they hinder the springtime rise of yang energy within the body.Increase intake of warming foods like scallions, ginger, garlic, chives, and onions to dispel cold and disperse yin energy.
Moreover, most northern regions of China experience windy and dry spring conditions, often causing symptoms like sore throat, bad breath, and constipation due to internal heat.Appropriately increasing intake of yin-nourishing, moisture-replenishing foods like honey, pears, bananas, lily bulbs, rock sugar, sugarcane, and white radish can provide some relief.
Those with gastritis should pay extra attention to diet
Spring is the season when chronic gastritis, gastric ulcers, gallstones, hepatitis, and similar conditions are most prone to recurrence. Therefore, individuals with these conditions should be particularly mindful of their diet.Regularly consuming porridges like Chinese yam porridge or millet porridge is advisable, while acidic foods like hawthorn and black plum should be strictly avoided.
Spring diets should emphasize sweet flavors over sour ones. For those with gallstones or hepatitis, spring dietary management should not only follow the principles of reducing sourness, increasing sweetness, and nourishing yang energy, but also minimize greasy foods to prevent recurrence of liver and gallbladder issues.