“Three Nines Supplement One Winter” for Health Next Year
The saying goes, “Supplement during the three nines, stay healthy next year.” Winter tonic supplementation is a traditional Chinese self-care method for disease prevention and strengthening weak constitutions.
Traditional Chinese medicine believes winter supplementation closely relates to balancing Yin and Yang, unblocking meridians, and harmonizing Qi and blood.
Older adults, whose bodily functions decline and immunity weakens, especially benefit from dietary supplementation in cold seasons. This greatly improves nutrition, enhances immune function, and accelerates recovery from illness—something medication cannot replace.
Winter supplementation should follow nature’s rhythm, focus on nurturing Yang, and emphasize nourishment.
Based on the principle of “tonify deficiency and warm cold,” consume more warming and hot foods, especially those that tonify kidney Yang, to enhance cold resistance.
Winter dietary supplementation should provide foods rich in protein, vitamins, and easy-to-digest nutrients.
Older adults should drink a small cup of ginseng wine or astragalus wine each morning to ward off cold, promote circulation, and protect against wind. Those with weak constitutions should eat stewed hen, lean meat, tendons regularly and drink milk, soy milk, etc., to strengthen the body.
Cut beef into small pieces, add yellow wine, scallions, and ginger, then stew in a clay pot until tender. Eat the meat and drink the soup, which benefits Qi tonification, quenches thirst, strengthens tendons and bones, and nourishes the spleen and stomach.
For elderly individuals with deficient Yang, cook lamb with radish, discard the radish (to remove lamb’s odor), then add 15 grams of cistanche, 15 grams of morinda root, and 15 grams of goji berries. Cook together and consume lamb and soup, which boosts Yang and warms the body.