If you are afraid of the cold, look here! This is how you should replenish your body during the coldest days of winter

January 8th is the first day of the "Three Nines". "Don't go out during the first and second nines, and walk on the ice during the third and fourth nines". There is a saying among the people that "the coldest days are the coldest". This period is the coldest time of the year and is suitable for nourishing the body. Let's take a look at the advice of health experts!

Fear of cold: Ginger is the best food to drive away the cold

Fear of cold is a common characteristic of many elderly people. As people age, their metabolism slows down, and it is easy to develop a deficiency of Qi and blood. Therefore, autumn and winter are very rare times for the elderly to treat diseases.

When it comes to tonic food, some people immediately think of precious medicinal materials such as ginseng, deer antler, and cordyceps. Every Chinese New Year when they go home to honor their parents, they will buy these tonic medicines. This is a wrong concept. The most common food is also the best medicine, and often the cheaper the food, the better the effect.

Tips: Drink ginger tea and soak your feet in ginger water. As the saying goes, "If you have ginger in winter, you won't be afraid of wind and frost." It is just right to eat ginger in winter. Because ginger is spicy, it can generate heat in the body and dispel the cold of winter. Therefore, patients who suffer from colds can often drink ginger soup to drive away the cold and prevent common diseases such as colds.

There are two things to note when eating ginger: first, peel the ginger in winter; second, do not eat ginger at night. If you want ginger to be hot, you have to peel it. In winter, we eat ginger to drive away the cold, so we have to peel it.

Ginger and red dates tea: Wash the ginger and slice it; wash the red dates and remove the cores; put the ginger and red dates in a cup, pour in boiling water, cover the pot and simmer for 10 minutes, then you can drink it after it cools down.

Soak your feet in ginger juice: In winter, frail elderly people are prone to cold hands and feet, and should soak their feet before going to bed. Adding ginger juice to the foot washing water can better relieve the symptoms of cold hands and feet.

Kidney tonification: chestnut porridge

Winter is the season for inactivity and is the perfect time to nourish the kidneys. The kidneys are very important among the five internal organs and are the foundation of health. Human aging is fundamentally caused by the weakness of the kidneys. Therefore, winter is a good time to nourish the kidneys, resist aging, and strengthen the body.

However, you cannot take random supplements to nourish your kidneys. There is also a misunderstanding among the people that in order to nourish the kidneys, one must eat organs related to reproduction, such as the kidneys and external genitalia of male animals. This is actually biased. The external genitalia and kidneys of male animals cannot be eaten casually, and many vegetables and fruits also have the effect of nourishing the kidneys. It is particularly important to note that it is not suitable to eat kidneys in winter. Not only does it fail to provide nourishment, it is harmful instead.

Tips: Eat more chestnuts. Although many meats have tonic effects, from a health perspective, vegetarian food is healthier than meat. To nourish the kidneys in winter, you can eat more vegetarian foods that have kidney-tonifying effects, such as chestnuts.

Chestnuts are sweet and warm in nature. They have the effects of nourishing the stomach and spleen, replenishing the kidneys and invigorating qi, and they are not as greasy as meat. It is often used to nourish the kidneys in health-preserving diet therapy.

There is no need to stick to any specific cooking methods when eating chestnuts in winter. You can eat sugar-fried chestnuts as a snack, pair chestnuts with meat to make dishes such as chestnut chicken, or use chestnut flour instead of staple food. The most famous of these is chestnut flour steamed bread.

If you eat chestnuts often, it is more convenient to make them into chestnut porridge. Chestnut porridge also has outstanding kidney-tonifying effects. As the folk saying goes, "Aches in the waist and weak legs indicate a lack of kidney energy, and chestnut porridge is a tonic." After entering winter, the amount of meat in the diet increases. Drinking chestnut porridge regularly can regulate the body and nourish the spleen and stomach, and alleviate the burden that meat brings to the spleen and stomach.

Chestnut porridge: 10 chestnuts, 100 grams of polished rice, and appropriate amount of white sugar. Shell the chestnuts and cook with the rice until it becomes sticky, then add sugar to taste. In addition to chestnuts, walnuts are also good kidney-tonifying foods. Walnuts, like chestnuts, can be eaten as a snack or crushed and added to porridge to make walnut and chestnut porridge.

Chestnuts and cabbage: Chestnuts are not easy to digest, and the crude fiber in cabbage can promote digestion and defecation. Therefore, eating cabbage and chestnuts together can achieve an ideal tonic effect.

Tonify Qi: A rooster every nine days

Meat is an essential part of winter nutrition. Although eating less meat is good for the body in general, the elderly are weak and it is difficult to meet their tonic needs by relying solely on a vegetarian diet. They should eat some meat in winter.

However, there are differences between different meats. Traditional Chinese medicine has conducted very detailed research on meat. Different types of meat have different properties, flavors and meridians. Not all meat can be eaten for tonic purposes.

People who are relatively healthy and neither weak nor suffering from excessive heat can eat more chicken in winter. As the saying goes, "Eat a chicken on the ninth day of the ninth lunar month, and you will be healthy in the coming year." Chicken is slightly warm and neutral in nature, and has little stimulation to the human body. Chicken can provide rich nutrition and slightly resist the winter cold without causing internal heat, making it an excellent product for winter health preservation. Chicken is best cooked by stewing, and chicken stewed with mushrooms is a classic chicken stew dish.

Tips: Chicken soup, rice cooked with milk. Chicken stewed with mushrooms is a good tonic dish, simple and convenient. In addition to stewing, making chicken soup is also a good way. Chicken soup is a type of broth and is the raw material for many dishes. When you buy fresh chicken, you can use the uneaten parts such as the skeleton to make soup, or you can make a special chicken soup. For example, you can add sea cucumber to chicken soup and stew it into sea cucumber chicken soup.

Sea Cucumber Chicken Soup: half a free-range chicken, 2 sea cucumbers, soak the sea cucumbers and clean them; put the sea cucumbers in boiling water, cook over high heat for 10 minutes, remove and let cool, then cut into small pieces; wash the free-range chicken, cut into pieces, blanch it, add cooking wine, salt and light soy sauce to marinate; add clean water to the pot, put in chicken pieces, sea cucumbers, ginger slices and scallion segments, and stew over high heat; after the water boils, simmer over low heat for 30 minutes and add salt to taste.

Moxibustion to replenish qi and nourish blood

Between the 19th and 39th days of winter is the best time to nourish the body in winter. In addition to dietary supplements, moxibustion in traditional Chinese medicine is also a very popular way of supplementing the body during this season. Moxibustion therapy can warm the yang and replenish qi, and it also has certain preventive and therapeutic effects on some stubborn diseases.

Moxibustion is a method of using burning moxa sticks to fumigate specific acupuncture points, combined with external Chinese medicine, to achieve the purpose of preventing and curing diseases through the effects of meridians and acupoints. Moxibustion can replenish qi and nourish blood. It is the easiest moxibustion method to master and can be used for home treatment. Commonly used acupoints include Guanyuan, Zhongwan and Zusanli. Moxibustion with moxa sticks for 10 to 15 minutes every day can warm the spleen and kidneys and promote the function of spleen and stomach.

Tips: Pay attention to the time of moxibustion. If you suffer from insomnia, you should apply moxibustion before going to bed. Do not perform moxibustion on an empty stomach before meals or immediately after meals. If you experience dizziness, blurred vision or other dizziness during moxibustion, stop moxibustion immediately.