As spring blossoms and warms the air, has our body awakened from winter's slumber? Spring brings not only scenic beauty but also delicious foods—fragrant scallions, uniquely flavored chives, vibrant green spinach, and shepherd's purse cherished by scholars and connoisseurs. Visiting rural fields to experience this season firsthand offers a truly delightful experience.Let's explore these vegetables together. Consistently incorporating them into your diet can help you navigate the spring months safely.
What should you eat for spring wellness?
1. Scallions and Chives
Traditional Chinese medicine advises eating scallions in the first lunar month and chives in the second. What's the reasoning behind this? It stems from spring's climatic characteristics and the properties of these vegetables.First, green onions: pungent in flavor, they promote sweating, disperse cold, detoxify, and enhance flavor. Chives, spicy, warm, and non-toxic, aid digestion and provide warmth, often used to tonify kidney yang deficiency and strengthen semen retention. Spring is not only a season of physical awakening but also one where pests and bacteria become active.
Especially after winter, most people feel spring has arrived and start shedding layers quickly. Combined with our weakened immunity at this time, catching a cold or falling ill is easy if we're not careful. Scallions have antibacterial and diaphoretic properties. When simmered into soup with ginger and consumed to induce sweating, they effectively dispel cold, clear heat, and treat common colds.
Regular consumption of leek porridge aids yang energy, moderates bowel movements, and strengthens the middle jiao while unblocking meridians. It is suitable for those with cold-sensitive backs, qi deficiency, and aching, cold lower back and knees. Leek porridge warms the spleen and stomach while boosting yang energy. 2. Spinach Spinach is a seasonal spring vegetable.Traditional Chinese medicine holds that spinach nourishes blood, stops bleeding, and moistens dryness. The Compendium of Materia Medica states: "Spinach unblocks blood vessels, opens the chest and diaphragm, regulates qi and harmonizes the middle burner, quenches thirst and moistens dryness—its roots being especially potent." It offers beneficial adjunctive treatment for spring ailments like hypertension, dizziness, diabetes, and anemia caused by liver yin deficiency.Individuals with hypertension, constipation, or headaches may consider blanching spinach in boiling water, chopping it finely, and mixing with a small amount of sesame oil and salt. Consuming this twice daily as a vegetable dish yields therapeutic benefits.
For diabetes, boil 60g of washed spinach roots with 15g of chicken gizzard lining as a tea substitute. Alternatively, chop spinach roots, grind chicken gizzard lining, and cook into congee with rice. For night blindness, mash 500g of fresh spinach, extract the juice, and take one dose daily in three divided servings—consistent use is key for effectiveness.Though spinach excels as both vegetable and medicine, excessive consumption is inadvisable. Its oxalic acid content binds with calcium from other foods in the body, potentially forming calcium oxalate deposits that hinder calcium absorption. Teacher Xiao Zhao recommends blanching spinach before eating to remove most oxalic acid.
3. Shepherd's Purse
As early as the Spring and Autumn Period, ancient Chinese valued shepherd's purse for its delicious flavor. By the Tang Dynasty, it became customary to make spring pancakes with shepherd's purse and eat them on the first day of spring.
Many literati and scholars also cherished shepherd's purse. Du Fu, impoverished, often relied on "old shepherd's purse growing in wall shadows" to sustain himself. Su Dongpo favored a soup made with shepherd's purse, radish, and rice, naming it "Dongpo Soup."Why emphasize shepherd's purse in spring? Its neutral, mildly warming nature nourishes yang energy, and its spring growth aligns with traditional Chinese medicine's principle of seasonal harmony. Shepherd's purse holds significant medicinal value: the Compendium of Materia Medica records it as "neutral in nature, sweet and bland in taste; it strengthens the spleen, promotes diuresis, stops bleeding, detoxifies, lowers blood pressure, and improves vision."The entire plant is used medicinally, offering benefits such as improving vision, cooling the body, reducing fever, promoting urination, and treating dysentery. Its flowers and seeds can stop bleeding and treat hematuria, nephritis, hypertension, hemoptysis, dysentery, measles, dizziness, and eye pain.
Clinically, shepherd's purse is commonly used to treat various hemorrhagic conditions such as hematuria, functional uterine bleeding in women, retinal hemorrhage in hypertensive patients, and gingival bleeding. Its potent hemostatic effect primarily stems from its oxalic acid content. Being neutral in nature, shepherd's purse is generally suitable for consumption by most individuals and is particularly beneficial for patients with coronary heart disease, obesity, diabetes, and colorectal cancer.However, shepherd's purse has a laxative effect, so those with loose stools or diarrhea should consume it with caution. Additionally, due to its hemostatic properties, it should not be taken concurrently with anticoagulant medications. Shepherd's purse contains oxalic acid, so blanching it in hot water before consumption is beneficial for health.