Choose Your Chili According to Your Constitution
Eat chili according to regional preferences
Today, spiciness has become an indispensable taste in Northern Chinese cuisine. Look at the countless Sichuan restaurants and Thai eateries, all featuring varying degrees of spiciness. However, experts warn that Northerners eating spicy food may harm their eyes.
Spicy food varies by constitution
Due to differences in climate between North and South, body constitutions differ. For instance, Northerners generally have stronger digestive systems than Southerners. According to Dr. Zhao Zhi Fu, Director of the Psychosomatic Medicine Department at Guang’anmen Hospital, China Academy of Traditional Chinese Medicine: Northerners have internal heat and external cold, whereas Southerners have internal cold and external heat. For the eyes, the worst scenario is internal heat compounded by external heat.
Thus, excessive consumption of spicy food may directly damage the eyes: first causing a burning sensation, followed by blood vessel congestion in the eyeball, resulting in blurred vision. Long-term spicy stimulation may accelerate onset of conditions like conjunctivitis, retinal arteriosclerosis, dry eye syndrome, and vision decline—common age-related diseases appearing prematurely.
Who should avoid spicy food?
Dr. Zhao warns: those with flushed face, red ears, constipation, dark yellow urine, or bloodshot eyes should avoid spicy food. People with irritable temperaments should also refrain. Individuals moving from the South to the North, influenced by climate and environmental changes, gradually alter their constitution and should likewise adjust their spicy food habits.