Cooling Foods for Summer Heat
Welcome back, and welcome to summer! As we’re hitting the warmest time of year, let’s look at foods that cool heat. During the summer months, Chinese medicine relaxes its stance on eating only warm, cooked foods. If there is any time of year to eat raw foods, it’s during the heat of summer. Besides raw foods, you can also include foods that help cool the body and clear heat. You can almost imagine what a cooling food would be. Some easy examples are watermelon and cucumbers. Don’t they seem like they would clear heat from the body? Well, they do. Below is a list of foods that can help keep you cool this summer.
No need to overdo it with the cooling foods, even in the summer. Chinese medicine always wants your stomach to be around 100 degrees Fahrenheit. But feel free to add some cooling foods to your diet in this hot weather and use your constitutional diagnosis (from previous articles) to decide how much your body can handle before it begins to get too cold. If you run cold, eat less of the cooling foods. But if you run hot, you will be able to indulge in more summer foods. Remember to always pay attention to what your body is telling you. How do you feel after eating that watermelon? Just fine, but now your body has had enough? Or maybe you could eat a whole one without getting a stomachache! If you listen, your body will tell you.
Foods to Help Remove Excess Heat:
