Seasonal Wellness
What to Eat in Summer for Good Health
Summer wellness centers on nourishing the heart and calming the spirit. This article recommends heart-protective ingredients such as Poria, Ophiopogon, and lotus seeds; details the benefits of four common summer fruits — watermelon, cucumber, bitter melon, and peach; and highlights the unique role of bone broth in supplementing collagen, slowing bone aging, and supporting skeletal growth in adolescents. Eat more millet, corn, legumes, fish, and fresh vegetables and fruits, and reduce intake of animal organs, fatty meat, and overly salty foods to enjoy a healthy summer.
Heart-Protective Foods
Summer health-preserving items that nourish the heart and calm the spirit include Poria (Fuling), Ophiopogon (Maidong), small jujube (Xiaozao), lotus seed (Lianzi), lily bulb (Baihe), bamboo leaf (Zhuye), and platycladi seed (Baiziren). All of these can nourish the heart and calm the spirit. In terms of diet, one should eat more millet, corn, beans, fish, onion, potato, winter melon, bitter melon, celery, asparagus, pumpkin, banana, and apple, and eat less animal viscera, egg yolks, fatty meat, roe, and shrimp, as well as fewer overly salty foods such as salted fish and pickled vegetables.
Heart-Protective Melons and Fruits
The following four common summer heart-protective melons and fruits are recommended for frequent consumption.
Watermelon: Relieves vexation, quenches thirst, clears heat, and resolves summer heat. Suitable for conditions such as heat exuberance damaging fluids, summer heat and vexation with thirst, difficult urination, throat impediment (pharyngitis), and mouth sores.
Cucumber: With its green skin, juicy, crisp, tender, and delicious flesh, and a water content of approximately 97%, cucumber is an excellent food for generating fluids and quenching thirst. Fresh cucumber has the effect of clearing heat and resolving toxins, and also shows marked effectiveness in eliminating dampness, lubricating the bowels, and relieving pain. Those who suffer from summer constipation should eat more of it.
Peach: Generates fluids, moistens the intestines, quickens the blood, and disperses accumulations. Suitable for conditions such as vexation and thirst, blood stasis, difficult defecation, difficult urination, and abdominal distention and fullness. Eat two peaches daily after lunch and dinner.
Bitter Melon: Bitter melon is sweet and bitter in flavor and cold in nature; as the gourd matures, it gradually turns yellowish-red and becomes sweet in flavor and neutral in nature. It can clear heat pathogens, relieve fatigue, clear the heart, and brighten the eyes. Those who are weary from work may eat more of it.
Drinking More Bone Broth in Summer Is Beneficial to Health
The key to making good bone broth lies in the ingredients. Bone broth can play a role in slowing the aging process. This is because the most critical component within human bones is the marrow. The red and white blood cells in our blood are formed in the bone marrow. As we age and the body undergoes aging, the bone marrow's ability to produce red and white blood cells gradually declines. The diminished function of the bone marrow directly affects the metabolic functions of the human body. The collagen contained in bone broth can precisely enhance the body's capacity to produce red and white blood cells. Therefore, for middle-aged and elderly people, drinking some bone broth as a regulatory measure can slow bone aging. Likewise, bone broth is also beneficial to the skeletal growth of adolescents.