What foods should we eat more of in winter?

With the arrival of winter, the weather is getting colder and colder. How should we adjust our diet in this cold weather? Traditional Chinese medicine tells us that we should eat more warm and nourishing foods to nourish the five internal organs, strengthen the body's resistance, cultivate vital energy, and promote the rise of Yang energy within the body. This will not only make the body stronger but also provide excellent protection against the cold.

Based on the different nutrients contained in food, winter diets should have the following characteristics:

Eat more staple foods and moderate amounts of mutton, quail, and sea cucumber. Protein, fat, and carbohydrates are known as heat-producing nutrients. Therefore, in winter, we should appropriately increase our intake of staple foods and oils to ensure a supply of high-quality protein. Foods such as dog meat, mutton, beef, chicken, venison, shrimp, pigeon, quail, and sea cucumber are rich in protein and fat, producing a lot of heat. Traditional Chinese medicine believes they have the functions of tonifying the kidneys and strengthening yang, warming the middle and lower body, and replenishing qi and blood, making them the best for keeping warm.

Being sensitive to cold is related to a lack of calcium and iron. A person's sensitivity to cold is also related to insufficient intake of certain minerals. For example, the amount of calcium in the body directly affects the contractility and excitability of the heart muscle, blood vessels, and muscles; iron deficiency in the blood is a major cause of iron-deficiency anemia, often manifested as low heat production and low body temperature. Therefore, supplementing with foods rich in calcium and iron can improve the body's ability to withstand cold. Foods containing calcium mainly include milk, soy products, kelp, seaweed, shellfish, oysters, sardines, and shrimp; foods containing iron mainly include animal blood, egg yolks, pork liver, soybeans, sesame seeds, black fungus, and red dates.

Kelp and seaweed can promote the secretion of thyroid hormones, generating heat. The human thyroid gland secretes a hormone called thyroxine, which accelerates the oxidation of many cells in the body, increases the body's heat production capacity, enhances the basal metabolic rate, speeds up blood circulation in the skin, and helps resist cold. Iodine-rich foods can promote the secretion of thyroid hormones. Foods rich in iodine include: kelp, seaweed, laver, jellyfish, spinach, Chinese cabbage, and corn.

Animal liver and carrots can increase cold resistance. Cold weather causes significant changes in the body's vitamin metabolism. Increasing the intake of vitamin A and vitamin C can enhance cold resistance and adaptability, and has a good protective effect on blood vessels. Vitamin A mainly comes from animal liver, carrots, and dark green vegetables, while vitamin C mainly comes from fresh fruits and vegetables.

Sesame seeds and sunflower seeds provide essential elements for the body to withstand cold. Cold weather increases the body's need for methionine. Methionine can provide a series of methyl groups necessary for adapting to cold through transmethylation. Therefore, in winter, it is advisable to consume more foods rich in methionine, such as sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, dairy products, yeast, and leafy green vegetables.

Eating spicy food can help ward off the cold. Chili peppers contain capsaicin, ginger contains aromatic volatile oils, and black pepper contains piperine. These are all spicy foods, and eating more of them in winter can not only increase appetite but also promote blood circulation and improve cold resistance.

In addition, one should avoid or eat less sticky, raw, and cold foods in winter, as these foods are yin in nature and can easily damage the yang energy in the spleen and stomach.

How to eat a healthy breakfast

Several easily digestible foods are essential for breakfast. While most organs get sufficient rest during sleep, the digestive organs are still digesting and absorbing food left in the gastrointestinal tract from dinner, only gradually entering a resting state in the morning. Eating breakfast too early will inevitably interfere with the stomach and intestines' rest, keeping the digestive system in a state of fatigue and disrupting the rhythm of intestinal peristalsis. Therefore, it is best to eat breakfast 20-30 minutes after waking up around 7 am, as this is when appetite is strongest. Additionally, there are two things to do and two things to avoid when having breakfast.

Soft foods are better than hard foods: In the early morning, the spleen is sluggish, often leading to poor appetite, especially in the elderly. Therefore, greasy, fried, hard, or highly stimulating foods should be avoided for breakfast, as they can easily cause indigestion. Breakfast should consist of easily digestible, warm, and soft foods such as milk, soy milk, noodles, and wontons, ideally with some porridge. Adding health-promoting ingredients like lotus seeds, red dates, yam, longan, and barley to the porridge will enhance its benefits.

Less is more: Overeating exceeds the digestive capacity of the stomach and intestines, leading to undigested and unabsorbed food. Over time, this can impair digestion, causing gastrointestinal disorders. Furthermore, large amounts of food residue stored in the large intestine are broken down by bacteria. The breakdown products of protein, such as phenols, can pass through the intestinal wall into the bloodstream, posing a significant health risk and increasing the risk of vascular diseases. Therefore, breakfast is essential, but it should not be too heavy.

■ Helpful Tips

Recommended foods for breakfast:

Foods rich in high-quality protein include eggs, milk, sausages, and soy milk.

Foods rich in vitamin C include: fruit juice, vegetables, and fruits.

Staple foods rich in carbohydrates: bread, steamed buns, twisted rolls, etc.

Liquid foods rich in water: rice porridge, milk, soy milk, fruit juice, etc.

Foods that stimulate appetite: fruit juice, tomato juice, pickles, etc.

The way you wash your face should vary depending on your skin type. Everyone knows how to wash their face, but the techniques involved are vastly different! Achieving soft, supple, radiant, and smooth skin isn't as simple as just applying cleanser, rinsing with water, and drying with a towel. Human skin is categorized into five types: dry, oily, normal, combination, and sensitive. Using different methods for each skin type is crucial for achieving beautiful skin.

Dry skin: Skin is dry, rough, and lacks elasticity. When washing your face, you can soak rose petals in water, add a few drops of honey, wet your entire face with a towel, rinse with warm water, and then gently pat your face dry with the towel. This will help keep your face moisturized, smooth, and delicate, maintaining a suitable level of oiliness.

Oily skin: This type of skin is shiny and smooth, but easily attracts dirt and dust, has large pores, and is prone to acne. It should be thoroughly cleansed two to three times daily to keep the face feeling fresh. Steam washing is best, as it opens up pores, removing accumulated dirt and unclogging them, while also replenishing the moisture needed for cell metabolism. Adding a few drops of white vinegar to warm water when washing your face can more effectively remove excess sebum, dead skin cells, and dust.

Neutral skin: Firm and elastic, smooth and moist but not oily, with small pores and no pigmentation. Cleanse the skin thoroughly once a week and perform a facial massage (generally lasting 20 minutes). Use your middle and ring fingers to make small circles from bottom to top and from the inside out. After the massage, you can use a face mask and nourishing cream to keep the skin neither dry nor oily.

Combination skin: Depending on the type of facial skin, care can be applied separately for oily, normal, or dry skin, or a combination of both, with the aim of keeping the face clean and moisturized. For this skin type, a nourishing cream with less oil is best.

Sensitive skin: The most important thing is to avoid over-stimulating and burdening the skin, and to choose facial cleansers that do not contain allergens such as fragrances, pigments, and preservatives.

In addition, regardless of skin type, please pay attention to the following three points:

First, when washing your face, do not rub your face vigorously with a wet towel. A towel that is not dry for a long time can easily breed various bacteria and damage the skin. Make sure to wring the towel dry before gently wiping your face.

Secondly, it is best to wash your face with lukewarm water at 20℃～25℃. At this temperature, the water quality is very close to the water inside the skin cells, making it easier to penetrate the skin and thus making the skin delicate and rosy. Finally, do not use soap to wash your face, otherwise it will damage the protective film on the facial skin and cause the sebaceous glands to produce too much oil.

The healthiest and the worst foods

Best vegetables, ranked in order: sweet potato, asparagus, cabbage, cauliflower, celery, eggplant, beet, carrot, shepherd's purse, kale, enoki mushroom, pickled mustard greens, and Chinese cabbage.

Best fruits: In order, papaya, strawberry, orange, tangerine, kiwi, mango, apricot, persimmon, and watermelon.

Best meats: Goose and duck meat have a chemical structure similar to olive oil, which is good for the heart. Chicken is considered the best source of protein.

Best cooking oils: corn oil, rice bran oil, and sesame oil are the best. It is even better to mix vegetable oil and animal oil in a ratio of 1:0.5.

Best soup: Chicken soup is the best. In particular, hen soup can help prevent colds and bronchitis, making it especially suitable for consumption in winter and spring.

Best brain-boosting foods: vegetables such as spinach, leeks, pumpkin, scallions, cauliflower, bell peppers, peas, tomatoes, carrots, bok choy, garlic sprouts, and celery; nuts such as walnuts, peanuts, pistachios, cashews, pine nuts, and almonds; brown rice and pork liver.

The world's top 10 junk foods: fried foods, pickled foods, processed meat products (dried meat, meat floss, sausages), biscuits (excluding low-temperature baked and whole-wheat biscuits), canned foods (including fish, meat and fruit), preserved fruits (dried plums), frozen desserts (popsicles, ice cream), and barbecued foods.

Five dietary principles for preventing influenza

(1) Choose easily digestible liquid foods such as vegetable soup, thin porridge, egg soup, egg custard, milk, etc.

(2) The diet should be light and low in oil, which can meet the nutritional needs and improve appetite. White rice porridge, millet porridge, red bean porridge, sweet pickles, pickled mustard greens, pickled vegetables or fermented bean curd and other side dishes can be provided. The food should be light and refreshing.

(3) Ensure adequate hydration. Drink plenty of acidic fruit juices such as hawthorn juice, kiwi juice, jujube juice, fresh orange juice, and watermelon juice to promote gastric juice secretion and increase appetite.

(4) Eat more foods rich in vitamins C and E, as well as red foods, such as tomatoes, apples, grapes, dates, strawberries, beets, oranges, watermelons, milk, and eggs. This will help prevent colds.

(5) Eat small, frequent meals. Once the fever subsides and the appetite improves, you can switch to a semi-liquid diet, such as noodle soup, clear chicken soup noodles, small wontons, vegetable porridge, meat floss porridge, liver porridge, and egg drop porridge.

Do not eat the following vegetables with their skin on.

Potato peels contain glycoalkaloids, which can cause poisoning when they accumulate in the body to a certain level. Because this poisoning is chronic and the symptoms are not obvious, it is often overlooked.

When persimmons are unripe, tannins are mainly found in the flesh, but after ripening, they concentrate in the peel. Once in the human body, tannins react with proteins in food under the action of stomach acid to form precipitates called bezoars, which can cause various diseases.

Sweet potato skin contains a lot of alkali, and excessive consumption can cause gastrointestinal discomfort. Sweet potato skin with brown or dark brown spots is infected with 'black spot fungus,' which produces 'ipomeamarone' and 'ipomeamarol,' which can damage the liver and cause poisoning if ingested. Mild poisoning may cause nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea, while severe poisoning can lead to high fever, headache, shortness of breath, convulsions, vomiting blood, coma, and even death.

Water chestnut skin is contaminated because water chestnuts often grow in paddy fields, and their skin can accumulate harmful and toxic biological waste and chemicals. Furthermore, water chestnut skin may contain parasites; consuming unwashed water chestnut skin can lead to illness.

Ginkgo peel contains toxic substances such as ginkgolic acid, hydrogenated ginkgolic acid, hydrogenated ginkgolic acid, and ginkgol, which can damage the central nervous system and cause poisoning after entering the human body. Furthermore, cooked ginkgo flesh should not be consumed in large quantities.

Lotus root juice has many medicinal uses. Raw lotus root is cold in nature and has the effects of clearing heat and relieving irritability, cooling blood and stopping bleeding, and dispersing blood stasis. Cooked lotus root is warm in nature and has the effects of nourishing the heart and blood, strengthening the body, and invigorating the spleen and stomach. The medicinal effects of lotus root are quite remarkable. The Compendium of Materia Medica calls lotus root "spiritual root" and believes that the elderly can regulate their stomach and improve their appetite, nourish blood and marrow, and calm the mind and strengthen the brain by eating lotus root regularly. Postpartum women should avoid eating raw and cold foods, but lotus root is an exception because it can dispel blood stasis. Lotus root has the effect of clearing the lungs and stopping bleeding, making it most suitable for patients with pulmonary tuberculosis.

Making lotus root juice is very simple: peel and wash the lotus root, then crush and squeeze it out. The recommended serving size is 10 ml per kilogram of body weight, which can be divided into several servings.

The medicinal uses of lotus root juice are as follows: 1. Mix lotus root juice with egg white (one egg can be used in three portions), store in a cool place, and use as a mouthwash 2-3 times daily. This is effective in relieving colds and sore throats. 2. For patients with unexplained nosebleeds, drinking a small cup of fresh lotus root juice 1-2 times daily is effective. 3. When experiencing fever and severe thirst, drinking fresh lotus root juice can reduce fever and relieve thirst. 4. Mixing lotus root juice with ginger juice or diluting it with boiled water and drinking it twice daily, one small cup each time, can quickly relieve fatigue caused by alcohol intoxication. 5. For menopausal women experiencing irregular menstruation, irregular bleeding, or emotional instability and restlessness, adding a little salt to lotus root juice before consumption can have an auxiliary effect.