Braised doufu for Heat symthoms
Heat/Cold
I am in the middle of a very busy period and I don’t have time to think about complicated dishes, let alone cook them.
To me cooking is fun, but when I don’t have time, I am happy to eat one simple dish with some rice. I try though to combine the ingredients and add spices according to TCM, to make the dish balanced and suited to my condition.
The other day I had some doufu (usually traslated with tofu in English) in the fridge. I love mápó dòufǔ (麻婆豆腐), a braised doufu which I usually prepare with Laoganma, a brand of chili sauces made in China (my Chinese sister “taught” me to eat it, more about that later). I felt I had already some heat in the body, thus I did not want to eat any spicy food because it produces heat.
I thus opted for braised doufu with garlic, ginger, soya sauce, oyster sauce and I added some onions, topping the dish with black sesame.
Doufu has a cold nature and it is great for Heat symthoms, both for those due to Summer Heat as well as hot flushes during menopause.
I did not want the dish to have a cold nature (thanks whoever, the hot flashes time is over), thus I balanced the cold by adding ginger, onions and garlic, which all have a warm to hot nature. Note that I do not eat the ginger and the garlic, or only a small amount by mistake (!). I love the flavours ginger and garlic give to dishes and I used it very often. But eating a large quantity of warm spices might overheat the Stomach and drying out of stomach fluids. Warm spices are beneficial to the Spleen as they provide Yangqi (= warmth) to help with the digestion, but the Stomach does not like dryness.
The black sesame is a very decorative and effective way to turn any dish into a TCM recipe. It is good for both the Liver and the Kidneys and it helps against premature graying for example, or constipation, especially in older age. Yellow sesame is similar but does not have such a strong effect on the Kidneys. If you have back pain, tinnitus, premature graying, black sesame is a better option.
Sometimes I grind the sesame to have a fine powder, which I sprinkle on the dish or add it in a yoghurt. As it has a neutral nature, it can be widely used. It is though better avoided if you have strong heat symptoms or diarrhea.
Less spice, better health
Heat/Stomach/Lungs/Liver/Intestine
Sichuan hotpot? Mápó dòufǔ? Lamian with spicy broth? I loved them all!
Several years ago, I stayed in Hangzhou with my Chinese sister for a couple of months. She is originally from Hunan, a region where they usually eat very spicy. In the fridge, she always had a jar of chili or black beans with chili from Laoganma. At first, I watch skeptically how she added a generous portion of spicy sauce on top of her white rice and ate it with pleasure. I tasted. It was spicy but had a nice flavour, which did not numb the tongue. From then on, we often ate the last handful of rice with Laoganma. By the end of the stay, I had acquired a taste for spicy food. Too bad for me.
Eating spicy food in excess is one of major dietary mistakes. Besides overheating the Stomach, spicy food can affect the Lungs as, similar with the Stomach, spicy food dries the Lungs.
Having Heat in the Stomach might give you a burning sensation in the epigastrium as well as a ravenous hunger. The Stomach burns the food too fast, and it feels empty all the time.
Heat in the Lungs can cause symptoms related in particular to the throat, and in the long run it can impair its function of protecting us from external pathogens. This will be though a topic for another post.
Now, let’s move to the Liver. You maybe already read in previous posts that the Liver is easily affected by stress, frustration, anger…feelings which are very common. Having a blocked Liver-Qi can affect our social life, as it often translates for example into irritated mood or PMS. Now, imagine we consume every other day spicy food or even less often, but either very spicy or on a regular basis, what happens? Heat. When the Heat goes in the Liver, we have a problem: the Heat is trapped because the Liver-Qi does not circulate and, quite naturally, it goes up, flaring all the way to the Heart, the Shen and the head.
This could result in restlessness, insomnia, severe headache and even a less pleasant temper.
Another issue excessive spicy food can cause is constipation. This can happen when the Heat from the Stomach migrates to the Intestine, drying the Organic Liquid which keep the intestine smooth and humid.
To summarize, excessive spicy food can affect the following:
Lungs: sore and dry throat, cough
Stomach: burning stomach, ravenous hunger
Liver: Heat goes to the head causing insomnia and bad temper
Intestine: constipation
Having said that, a little bit of spices such as ginger or garlic are good to help with digestion and provide heat, especially in winter.
The best mantra is: never eat too much of something. Too much of something good, can become harmful.
Disclaimer: everything I write about TCM is to share some knowledge and to raise awareness but please be aware that it is an oversimplification for the sake of communication, and it is not meant as a cure. If you have any health issue you want to solve with TCM, please consult a TCM practitioner. While most qigong exercises are harmless no matter the health issue, some food recipes or treatment I will mention, might have the opposite effect if you do not have the syndrome I write about. Thus, please take my TCM posts with a grain of salt and do not rush to do things without consulting a TCM doctor.