What foods can help cool you down and prevent illness in the summer?

During the scorching summer heat, the body sweats and excretes salt and electrolytes. Without proper replenishment, the body will become dehydrated and lose electrolytes. To overcome this, we should know how to choose appropriate foods in summer meals to provide nutrition and help cool and detoxify the body.

Eating Houttuynia cordata helps improve airway function.

Houttuynia cordata (fishy-smell herb) is high in dietary fiber, beneficial for the digestive system and can treat constipation. It is also a good food for people with anemia. Furthermore, Houttuynia cordata has cooling, detoxifying, and expectorant properties, making it suitable for consumption during the summer months.

Eggplant has good anti-aging properties, but it should be consumed in moderation. (Illustrative image)

Eggplant has anti-aging properties.

Eggplant, also known as aubergine, is a popular summer vegetable. It is rich in vitamin E, which helps prevent bleeding and aging. Regular consumption of eggplant can slow down the aging process. Eggplant is also one of the few purple vegetables. The vitamin E and P content in the eggplant peel is unmatched by any other vegetable.

Malabar spinach

It is also known as Malabar spinach. There are two types: green and purple. The purple type is better, with a sweet, mild, slightly viscous taste and a cooling nature. Its medicinal properties include promoting blood circulation, diuresis, and laxative effects. It helps cool the blood, regulate qi and blood, cleanse the stomach and intestines, treat constipation, prevent accumulation, treat eye pain, breast swelling and pain, and blood stasis. It is delicious when boiled or used in soups. It is often used to treat conditions such as blood stasis or blood clots; crushed purple Malabar spinach mixed with vinegar is applied to the affected area (e.g., insect bites). For eye pain: take ripe Malabar spinach, squeeze out the juice, and put it in the eyes 3-4 times a day. Or for constipation: eat a plate of boiled Malabar spinach before bed.

Celery

Celery, also known as Chinese celery, has a sweet, fragrant, pungent taste, is non-toxic, and has a cooling effect. Its medicinal properties include relieving heat, reducing gas, relaxing nerves, and promoting urination. It aids digestion, regulates blood circulation, eliminates wind-heat, and strengthens the intestines. It calms the mind, treats headaches, regulates menstruation, and treats leukorrhea. It can be eaten raw or stir-fried with meat, shrimp, or fish. It can also be dried (in the shade) and brewed into a tea. To treat hypertension and headaches: take 150g of finely chopped celery, blend it with a can of Root Beer until thoroughly mixed, divide into two portions and drink daily, but every other day for 3 days. Repeat this occasionally. To regulate menstruation and treat leukorrhea: take 100g of fresh celery, 30g of fresh mugwort leaves, and 30g of turmeric, boil in 1 liter of water, and drink 3 times a day for 3 days.

Spinach

Also known as amaranth. There are two types: green amaranth and purple amaranth. Both have a sweet, fragrant taste and a cooling nature. Their medicinal properties include clearing heat, purifying blood, promoting urination, and calming the nerves. They treat headaches, reduce fever, aid digestion, improve blood circulation, and treat boils and sores. They are particularly effective in treating congestion, blood stasis, and hypertension. They can be boiled or used in soups and consumed daily. They can also be dried and brewed into a tea. For treating hypertension: take 15g of dried purple amaranth, 10g of *Cissus quadrangularis* leaves, and 10g of *Cassia fistula* seeds, boil in half a liter of water, and drink 2-3 times daily. For blood purification: take 15g of dried purple amaranth and 15g of *Centella asiatica*, boil in half a liter of water, and drink daily. For treating boils and sores: boil 20g of purple amaranth flowers and 20g of *Celosia argentea* flowers in 100ml of water and use the decoction to wash the sores. They can also be crushed and applied to the swollen area.

Sweet potato

Also known as sweet potato or sweet potato vine, it has a sweet, fragrant taste, is non-toxic, and has a cooling nature. Its medicinal properties aid digestion, promote bowel movements, reduce fever, and the tuber has antibacterial properties. It has similar functions to sweet potato vines, as it contains an insulin-like substance that can treat diabetes. Boiled sweet potato leaves treat constipation. Sweet potato tubers treat dysentery, diarrhea, constipation, hemorrhoids, gonorrhea, and typhoid fever.

Sweet potato leaves are used in cooking, either boiled or in soup. The vines are boiled to make a drink. The tubers are boiled or roasted and eaten, or the juice can be extracted and drunk raw. For treating dysentery: eat about 100g of raw sweet potato in the morning on an empty stomach; this will stop the illness immediately. For treating constipation: before bed, eat a plate of boiled sweet potato leaves or crush 100g of raw sweet potato tubers and drink the juice on an empty stomach, twice a day.

Centella asiatica

Also known as Centella asiatica, it has a fragrant, bitter taste, is non-toxic, and has a cooling nature. Its medicinal properties include stopping bleeding, reducing fever, disinfecting, and promoting diuresis. It treats high fever, nosebleeds, vomiting blood, vaginal discharge, leukorrhea, and diarrhea. It improves eyesight and treats boils, sores, panic attacks, and liver heat. It treats abdominal pain and bleeding in women. It nourishes the liver and regulates internal organs. It can be crushed raw and mixed with sugar to drink, 40-50g at a time, or boiled and eaten, or dried and brewed into a tea, 20g at a time. For boils and painful swelling, chew fresh Centella asiatica leaves and apply to the affected area. To treat dysentery, cloudy urine, and kidney stones, crush fresh leaves to extract the juice, mix with sugar, and drink twice daily for one week. For menstrual cramps and back pain: grind 20g of dried Centella asiatica leaves into a powder and drink with hot water twice daily on an empty stomach for three days.

Tofu

Sweet and refreshing, tofu helps to clear heat, relieve constipation, nourish the body, detoxify, and stimulate saliva production. Tofu is easy to prepare; it can be blanched and eaten raw, braised with turmeric, fried, stuffed with meat, sauced, or cooked in soup with tomatoes...

Tofu is also processed into medicinal dishes to treat illnesses, with up to 100 different remedies such as tofu and amaranth soup, tofu and cucumber soup, tofu and wood ear mushroom soup, tofu with loach fish, tofu with mushrooms, tofu with pork trotters, etc.

Bitter gourd (bitter melon)

Bitter in taste and cooling in nature, bitter melon is effective in improving eyesight, quenching thirst, relieving heat, tonifying qi, and promoting blood circulation. Bitter melon is very suitable as a summer food, often stir-fried with beef, used in bone broth, stuffed and steamed, sometimes boiled in water for bathing children with rashes, or brewed into a tea (sliced ​​thinly and dried for later use).

Radish

Sweet in taste and cool in nature, radish is beneficial for all five internal organs, quickly reducing gas, aiding digestion of grains, regulating body temperature, reducing inflammation, quenching thirst, making the body feel light, giving the skin a rosy, smooth complexion, and reducing wrinkles. In addition, radish also clears stagnation, prevents stagnant qi, detoxifies from alcohol, and stops bleeding... It is commonly prepared in dishes such as boiled, stir-fried with meat, stir-fried with heart, liver, and kidneys, and stewed with goat or pork.

Watermelon

Known in ancient times as "natural White Tiger Decoction," it signifies that its heat-clearing effect is just as strong as that of White Tiger Decoction, one of the typical herbal remedies for clearing heat and reducing inflammation.

Water chestnut

If you enjoy eating water chestnuts, this habit is extremely beneficial for you, especially in the summer. Water chestnuts are sweet, cooling, non-toxic, and have the effect of clearing heat, helping to prevent heat-related diseases such as respiratory infections, mouth and lip inflammation, gastritis and enteritis, and aiding digestion and phlegm removal. Water chestnuts can also treat red and swollen tongue, dry mouth, sore throat, constipation, and hangovers. When eating them raw, peel them thoroughly; you can also juice them for a refreshing drink.

Squash

Sweet in taste and cool in nature, winter melon helps to clear heat, relieve summer heat, generate fluids, and quench thirst. Winter melon is often used in shrimp or crab soups to cool the body. For people with edema, obesity, or difficulty urinating, winter melon cooked with fish or red beans is very beneficial as it helps reduce swelling and promotes urination.

Coconut

Sweetness is neutral in nature, nourishing and strengthening the body, invigorating qi, dispelling wind, generating fluids and quenching thirst. Coconut flesh is very crispy and fragrant, coconut water is cool and nutritious, mildly sweet, making it an excellent summer beverage.

Lemon

Sour in taste, neutral in nature, it has the effect of generating fluids, quenching thirst, clearing heat, calming the fetus, stimulating appetite, and aiding digestion. People with a hot constitution, or those with digestive disorders, loss of appetite, bland taste in the mouth, sluggish digestion, or frequent vomiting and hiccups... should suck on lemons with salt. Lemons are usually squeezed fresh and drunk, sometimes pickled in salt or dried to make candied lemons.

Tomato

Tomatoes have cooling and detoxifying effects, balance the liver, and combat heat. In addition, tomatoes are rich in easily absorbed vitamins, minerals, and trace elements, helping the body boost immunity, prevent infections, and provide strong antioxidant properties. A diet rich in tomatoes has been shown to slow down the aging process and reduce the risk of breast cancer, prostate cancer, colon cancer, and nasopharyngeal cancer.

Sugarcane

According to Traditional Chinese Medicine, sugarcane is sweet and cool in nature, with effects of clearing heat, generating body fluids, moisturizing dryness, and regulating qi. It is very good to use in summer to prevent inflammatory diseases with symptoms such as dry mouth and throat, high fever with dehydration, scanty and reddish urine, constipation... It can also be used for people who vomit frequently, have a dry mouth and feel restless, have constipation, and those who are poisoned by alcohol.

According to Dan Tri