Seven Foods to Combat Dampness in Spring
According to Traditional Chinese Medicine theory, "dampness" is a symptom indicating internal dampness accumulation. This disrupts the smooth flow of qi and blood, creating an imbalance that requires elimination through dietary or medicinal therapies.
Raw Job's Tears
【Nature & Taste】Sweet, bland, slightly cold, non-toxic.
Meridian Affinity: Spleen, Stomach, Lung, Large Intestine.
Effects: Clears heat and dampness, dispels wind-dampness, promotes urination, benefits the lungs and expels pus, strengthens the spleen and stomach, fortifies tendons and bones.
【Indications】Rheumatic body pain, damp-heat foot ailments, damp-heat muscle spasms and contractions, damp-bi syndrome, edema, lung atrophy and lung abscess, coughing up pus and blood, throat obstruction and abscess swelling, intestinal abscess and heat-induced dysuria.
Dietary Remedy: Coix Seed Rice Wine
Boil 100g coix seeds into thick rice porridge.Separately cook 500g glutinous rice into dry rice. Mix with the coix seed porridge, let cool, then add appropriate amount of yeast (same method as making glutinous rice wine). Ferment into rice wine. Consume daily with meals as desired. Strengthens spleen and stomach, dispels wind-dampness, fortifies tendons and bones. Treats rheumatoid arthritis.
Winter Melon
【Nature and Taste】Sweet, bland, cool
【Effects】Promotes diuresis, reduces swelling, clears heat, and detoxifies.
【Main Indications】Edema, phlegm-induced wheezing, summer heat, hemorrhoids, etc.
Recommendation: Simmer winter melon with skin intact alongside carp, which fortifies the spleen, strengthens the stomach, and promotes diuresis. Suitable for those with dry mouth, edema, or difficulty urinating.
Black Sesame Seeds
Black sesame seeds are sweet and neutral in nature. They nourish the liver and kidneys, moisturize the internal organs, and lubricate the intestines. Suitable for those with liver-kidney deficiency, premature graying, or post-illness weakness. Also treats fluid deficiency and intestinal dryness. Recommended for soups or sesame paste, using minimal sugar during preparation.
Corn
Corn has a sweet and neutral nature, strengthening the spleen, stimulating appetite, promoting diuresis, and alleviating urinary disorders. It is suitable for individuals with edema and urinary disorders. It is recommended to boil corn into a decoction as a tea substitute, ideally adding corn silk during cooking; it can also be combined with winter melon peel, adzuki beans, etc.
Black Beans
Black beans have a sweet and neutral nature, nourishing the kidneys and yin, strengthening the spleen, and dispelling dampness.Suitable for those with spleen deficiency and edema. It is recommended to simmer black beans in soup or boil them as a tea substitute.
Red Beans
【Nature and Flavor】Neutral, sweet and sour
【Effects】Dispels dampness and reduces swelling (edema, beriberi, jaundice, diarrhea, bloody stools, abscesses), clears heat and reduces jaundice, detoxifies and expels pus.
【Dietary Remedy】
30g red adzuki beans, 10g chicken gizzard lining. First grind chicken gizzard lining into powder. Cook red adzuki beans as usual. When beans are nearly done, add chicken gizzard powder and stir evenly. Serve as breakfast. This formula clears heat, drains dampness, eliminates food stagnation, and resolves blood stasis. Suitable for women with facial acne, melasma, or obesity.
Hawthorn
【Properties】Sweet, sour, warm
【Meridian Tropism】Enters the spleen, stomach, and liver meridians
【Functions and Indications】
Relieves food stagnation, dispels accumulations, promotes blood circulation, and disperses stasis. Suitable for those with belching, acid regurgitation, abdominal pain, hyperlipidemia, blood stasis-induced amenorrhea, dysmenorrhea, or postpartum abdominal pain due to blood stasis. Recommend crushing about 12 hawthorn berries, adding a small amount of sugar, and boiling in water as a tea substitute.