🌿 Folk Prescriptions

In autumn, dietary regulation should follow the principle from *The Yellow Emperor’s Inner Canon*: "Nourish yin in autumn and winter," meaning one should eat more foods that nourish yin and moisten dryness to prevent autumn dryness from harming yin. Specifically, the following foods are recommended:
White fungus (Tremella fuciformis): Also known as white ear fungus, it is a premium tonic. It contains various amino acids, vitamins, and liver glycogen, offering benefits such as nourishing the stomach, moistening the lungs, generating fluids, invigorating spirit, strengthening the stomach, boosting qi, and enhancing brain function. It treats symptoms like weakness-related cough, hemoptysis, excessive vaginal discharge in women, frailty in the elderly, emaciation, and poor appetite. Compared to black fungus, it is slightly cooler in nature and stronger in nourishing yin and generating fluids.
Sugarcane: Sweet and slightly astringent in taste, neutral in nature. It clears heat, moistens dryness, harmonizes the stomach, stops vomiting, and detoxifies. Suitable for dryness due to insufficient body fluids—dry mouth, constipation, cough with little phlegm; gastric fluid deficiency causing dry vomiting; heat injuring body fluids leading to thirst and irritability. Ideal for autumn nourishment.
Bird’s nest: A precious tonic, made by swiftlets of the Apodidae family using saliva or saliva mixed with feathers to build nests. High in protein, it nourishes yin, moistens dryness, boosts qi, and promotes longevity. Effective for tidal fever, night sweats, dry cough with little phlegm, and hemoptysis due to lung yin deficiency. Also beneficial for esophageal obstruction and vomiting due to stomach yin deficiency, and spontaneous sweating due to qi deficiency.
Pear: Cool in nature, sweet in taste. It moistens the lungs, dissolves phlegm, stops cough, reduces heat, and calms the heart. Suitable for dry cough due to autumn dryness or heat injury to yin—dry mouth, thirst, constipation, internal heat causing irritability, cough, and yellow phlegm.
Sesame: Sweet and neutral in taste. It nourishes yin, moistens dryness, strengthens the kidneys, improves brain function, stops cough, and relieves asthma. Suitable for intestinal dryness causing constipation, dry skin due to fluid deficiency, dizziness and premature graying due to liver-kidney essence-blood deficiency, and postpartum blood deficiency with insufficient lactation.
Turtle meat: A delicious and valuable tonic, easily digested and absorbed, promoting blood circulation. It nourishes yin, cools blood, and boosts qi. Used for bone fever and tidal heat due to liver-kidney yin deficiency, lumbar pain, menorrhagia, leukorrhea, and prolapse due to qi deficiency.
Lotus root: Sweet and cool in taste. It is an excellent remedy for stopping bleeding and generating fluids. Rich in starch, calcium, phosphorus, iron, and various vitamins—especially high in vitamin C.
Spinach: Sweet and cool in taste. It nourishes yin, moistens dryness, nourishes blood, and facilitates bowel movements. Useful for dryness due to fluid deficiency—thirst, constipation, anemia, and bleeding disorders like epistaxis and hematochezia.
Black-boned chicken: Li Shizhen said: "Black-boned chickens come in white-feathered, black-feathered, spotted-feathered varieties, and some with entirely black bones and flesh. Observe the black tongue—then the flesh and bones are both black, and it is superior for medicinal use. Best for liver and kidney blood-related conditions. Use female chicken for males, male for females. The 'Wuji Wan' formula in gynecology treats women’s myriad illnesses. Cook the chicken until tender, mix with medicine, or grind the bones and use." Thus, black-boned chicken is regarded as a gynecological treasure. Used in autumn and winter medicinal cuisine, it nourishes yin, clears heat, strengthens the liver and kidneys, and fortifies the spleen to stop diarrhea. Commonly used for weakness, diabetes, diarrhea, prolapse, metrorrhagia, and leukorrhea. Especially effective for five-palm heat, tidal fever, night sweats, emaciation, flushed cheeks, and cough due to yin deficiency.
Pork lung: Sweet in taste, slightly cold in nature. It nourishes the lungs. For lung deficiency cough, use one pork lung, cut into slices with a bamboo knife, stir-fry in sesame oil until cooked, then cook with rice to make porridge. Alternatively, clean the lung, place five ounces of apricot kernels inside, stew until tender and eat. TCM believes the lungs correspond to autumn, so pork lung is suitable for autumn consumption—"treating organ with organ."
Soy milk: Made by soaking soybeans, grinding into juice, filtering out residue, and boiling. Sweet and neutral in taste. It nourishes deficiency, moistens dryness, clears lung phlegm, and promotes urination. Used for physical weakness, postpartum qi and blood deficiency. Also effective for chronic lung deficiency cough, phlegm-fire asthma, and urinary tract disorders.
Honey: A superb tonic and versatile medicine. *Shennong Bencao Jing* states: "Stabilizes the five organs, treats all deficiencies, boosts qi, nourishes the center, relieves pain, detoxifies, cures numerous diseases, harmonizes all medicines. Long-term use strengthens willpower, lightens the body, and extends life." Indeed, honey contains 39% fructose and 34% glucose—both monosaccharides directly supply energy, replenish fluids, and nourish the body. It has certain efficacy for symptoms of fluid deficiency, spleen-stomach yin deficiency, or qi deficiency causing stomachache.
Turtle meat: Meat from turtles, a fine tonic. It nourishes yin and reduces fire, and also enriches blood and clears heat. Used for tidal fever and hemoptysis due to yin deficiency with fire excess; effective for tendon and bone pain and weakness due to yin-blood deficiency. Caution: Do not consume with pork, amaranth, or melons. Can be seasoned with scallions, Sichuan pepper, or salt. Or wrap in clay and bake until cooked.
Olives: Hard-fleshed fruits, initially sour and astringent, leaving a sweet aftertaste. High in calcium—204 mg per 100 grams. Olives are divided into European and Chinese varieties. European olives (called "wu lan") are sweet and astringent, neutral in nature, with benefits of stimulating appetite, aiding digestion, detoxifying, and reducing inflammation and swelling. Chinese olives (called "qing lan") are known as "pulmonary and gastric fruits"—excellent for both food and medicine. They clear lung heat, dissolve phlegm, aid digestion, detoxify, and generate fluids. Treats sore throat, dry cough, poor appetite, indigestion, and pufferfish poisoning. In dry autumn, eating two or three olives daily can generate fluids and prevent upper respiratory infections.
Aside from these foods that nourish yin and moisten dryness, certain medicinal dishes can also be consumed. Examples include:
**Ginseng-Maidong Softshell Turtle (from Chengdu Tongren Tang Health Restaurant)**
Take a live softshell turtle weighing 500–1,000 grams. Cut off head and neck, drain blood, then blanch in boiling water for three minutes. Remove the black membrane on back and edges with a knife, peel off the white skin on legs, cut off claws and tail. Chop open the shell, remove internal organs, and rinse clean.
Place pot on stove, add water and turtle, boil, then simmer gently for about half an hour. Transfer to warm water, remove yellow fat, extract backbone and belly plate, and remove coarse bones from limbs. Wash and cut into 3 cm cubes, arrange in bowl.
Chop 100g lean ham into small pieces, dice 25g fresh lard, cover the turtle. Add half the seasonings (10g chopped scallion, 5g ginger slices, 3g salt, 250ml chicken broth, 7.5ml Shaoxing wine) and enough clear broth into the bowl.
Wrap 20g floating wheat and 10g Poria in gauze, place in broth. Grind 5g ginseng into fine powder and sprinkle on top. Seal with wet cotton paper, steam for 2–3 hours until tender.
Remove turtle from steamer, discard scallion and ginger, pour out original broth. Turn turtle into serving bowl. Pour broth into ladle, add remaining seasonings and 0.5g monosodium glutamate (10g scallion, 5g ginger, 3g salt, 250ml chicken broth, 7.5ml Shaoxing wine, 0.5g MSG), boil, skim foam, crack one egg into the broth, briefly cook, then pour over turtle.
This medicinal dish nourishes yin, boosts qi, and supplements deficiency. Beneficial for patients with yin deficiency, tidal fever, night sweats, fatigue, and shortness of breath. Autumn consumption prevents and treats dryness pathogen harming yin.
**Honey Steamed Lily Bulb (from *Food Therapy Pharmacology*)**
Mix 120g lily bulbs with 30g honey, steam until soft. Chew several slices, swallow saliva, and eat.
This medicinal dish nourishes the lungs, moistens dryness, and clears heat. Suitable for lung heat causing irritability, dry cough, or sore throat.
**Olive Sour Plum Soup (from *Dietary Therapy*)**
Wash 60g fresh olives (with pits), crush slightly, add three bowls of water, boil down to one bowl. Strain, add white sugar for flavor.
This medicinal dish clears heat and detoxifies, generates fluids, and quenches thirst. Suitable for acute pharyngitis, acute tonsillitis, sticky cough, alcohol intoxication thirst. Drinking a bowl after meals in autumn clears pharyngeal dryness, moistens dryness, and eliminates dryness pathogen harming the lungs.
**Rose Snow Pear Silver Ear Porridge (from *Chinese Herbal Cuisine Consultant*)**
Use three rose blossoms, 5g Fritillaria, two snow pears, 50g silver ear fungus, and 100g rock sugar. Wash rose blossoms, soak Fritillaria in vinegar, slice pears, remove hard roots from silver ear fungus when soaked. Add water to pot, place pears, silver ear fungus, Fritillaria, and rock sugar, boil for half an hour, add rose blossoms, simmer briefly, serve at leisure.
This medicinal dish boosts qi, nourishes yin, and stops cough. Suitable for lung deficiency cough, shortness of breath, dry cough.
**Adenophora Lotus Root Powder (from *Disease Dietary Therapy and Recipes*)**
Mix two spoonfuls lotus root powder, 5g rock sugar, 10g Adenophora, 10g Ophiopogon, 10g Mulberry leaf, and 5g Rehmannia. Boil for 30 minutes, filter to obtain 150ml liquid. Cool and refrigerate overnight. After several hours, pour clear liquid into pot, add rock sugar, boil until dissolved, then use boiling liquid to stir lotus root powder into a paste for consumption.
This medicinal dish nourishes yin, generates fluids, strengthens the stomach, and clears heat. Suitable for dryness syndrome with dry throat, thirst, reduced saliva, smooth tongue without coating, red dry tongue, painful cracked corners of mouth, and peeling skin.
If these foods and medicinal dishes are consumed regularly during dry autumn, they effectively prevent dryness pathogen invasion. Of course, this applies mainly to healthy individuals and those with blood or yin deficiency. Those with weak spleen function, frequent abdominal distension, or loose stools should avoid them, as they are slightly cool in nature. First, regulate spleen function; only after recovery should one cautiously consume nourishing yin foods and medicinal dishes.
Second, autumn diet should "reduce pungent, increase sour."
Reducing pungent means limiting pungent-tasting foods. Since the lungs belong to metal and connect with autumn, lung qi peaks in autumn. Reducing pungent flavors prevents excessive lung qi. TCM theory holds that metal overcomes wood—excessive lung qi can impair liver function. Thus, in autumn, one should "increase sour" to boost liver function and resist excessive lung qi. Based on this TCM nutritional principle, one should limit pungent foods like onions, ginger, garlic, leeks, and peppers, and instead increase sour-tasting fruits and vegetables. Recommended options include:
**Apple**: Nutrient-rich, one of the finest fruits. Besides fresh consumption, it’s used in food processing. TCM attributes to apples: generating fluids, moistening lungs, relieving annoyance, opening the stomach, and sobering up. For indigestion and qi stagnation, squeeze juice and drink. Apples contain high sugar—15g per 100g, with 5.93g fructose, the sweetest natural sugar, easily absorbed. Contains 0.2g protein, 0.1g fat, 5mg vitamin C, 9mg soluble phosphorus, 11mg calcium, and about 0.5% acid, mainly malic acid.
Modern medicine finds apples also relieve diarrhea and promote bowel movements. This is due to tannins, organic acids, pectin, and abundant fiber. Organic acids have astringent effects; pectin and fiber absorb toxins and fecal matter, thus stopping diarrhea. Meanwhile, organic acids stimulate the colon, and fiber promotes colonic movement, aiding constipation relief.
Apples also prevent and eliminate fatigue. Potassium in apples binds with excess sodium in the body and excretes it. Thus, after consuming too much salt, eating apples helps eliminate it. Therefore, eating apples or drinking apple juice benefits hypertension patients.
**Pomegranate**: Sweet, sour, astringent, warm in nature. It kills parasites, astringes, stops diarrhea, and treats chronic dysentery, chronic diarrhea, bloody stools, rectal prolapse, leukorrhea, abdominal pain from food accumulation, eczema, otitis media, and traumatic bleeding.
Pomegranate is nutritionally rich. Mature seeds contain 10–11% sugar, plus malic and citric acids. Vitamin C content is one to two times higher than apples and pears. Sweet ones taste like honey, high in sugar; sour ones cause a watery sensation at the teeth, with sweetness emerging after acidity.
For hoarseness and dry throat, chew 1–2 fresh fruits (remove seeds), eat slowly (spit out pits), 2–3 times daily. For chronic diarrhea, use one fresh fruit, crush with skin, add a pinch of salt, boil and drink, three times daily.
**Grape**: Sweet and sour in taste. Fresh grapes are sweet and tangy, generating fluids and quenching thirst, opening the stomach and aiding digestion. *Lu Chuan Ben Cao* records: "Grapes nourish and strengthen, enrich blood, strengthen the heart, promote urination. Treats waist pain, stomach pain, fatigue, blood deficiency, palpitations."
Modern medicine finds grapes contain abundant grape acid, fructose, proteins, amino acids, citric acid, malic acid, vitamin C, carotene, riboflavin, and essential minerals like calcium, iron, and phosphorus—highly beneficial to health. However, those with weak spleen and stomach should avoid overeating, as it may cause diarrhea.
**Mango**: Sweet, sour, cool, non-toxic. It benefits the stomach, quenches thirst, and promotes urination. *Shi Xing Ben Cao* records: "Mango treats menstrual blockage in women, and stagnation of blood and qi in men."
Mango has excellent color, aroma, and taste, high nutritional value, rich in vitamins and sugars. Besides fresh consumption, it’s used in candied, dried, canned goods.
**Starfruit**: Sweet, sour, neutral in nature. Its fruit generates fluids and quenches thirst. Ancient medical texts say: "Starfruit quenches thirst, relieves irritability, removes heat, promotes urination, treats infant oral ulcers, and snake bites." For wind-heat cough in autumn, wash and eat fresh starfruit. For hot, painful urination, use 2–3 fresh starfruits, wash, chop, mash, extract juice, mix with warm water, drink twice daily. For sore throat, eat fresh starfruit, 1–2 pieces, 2–3 times daily. However, excessive consumption harms the stomach—especially those with weak spleen and stomach should eat sparingly.
**Pomelo**: Sour, cold, non-toxic. It regulates the middle energizer, reduces bloating, resolves phlegm, stops cough, strengthens the stomach, and relieves pain. Suitable for stomach diseases, indigestion, chronic cough, and phlegm-heavy asthma.
Pomelo fruit is sweet and sour, enjoyable to eat. Besides consumption, peel is used for candied fruit and juice. Pomelo is famed for high vitamin C content—up to 123mg per 100g. It also has more vitamin P than citrus or oranges, beneficial for cardiovascular and obesity patients. Its organic acids are mostly citric acid, which helps eliminate fatigue.
**Lemon**: Extremely sour and sweet. It generates fluids, quenches thirst, dispels summer heat, and stabilizes pregnancy. Citric acid, named after lemon, is the most abundant organic acid in fruits. Lemon-flavored beverages like lemon tea, lemon soda, lemon drink, and flavored foods require citric acid to achieve lemon’s distinctive fragrance and sweet-sour taste.
Citric acid binds with calcium ions to form a soluble complex, thus mitigating calcium’s role in blood coagulation. Hypertensive and myocardial infarction patients benefit from drinking lemon beverages. Additionally, citric acid prevents and removes skin pigment deposition—thus becoming a key ingredient in lemon perfume, moisturizers, and shampoos.
**Hawthorn**: Sour, sweet, slightly warm. Extremely nutritious. Per 100g fresh hawthorn fruit, vitamin C content reaches 89mg—third highest among fruits. Calcium content (85mg per 100g) is also high—ideal for children and pregnant women needing calcium. According to Beijing University of Chinese Medicine statistics, 49 preparations use hawthorn, including 46 pills and powders, 3 tablets. Hawthorn’s wide use stems from its ability to break up stasis, eliminate food accumulation, dissolve phlegm, detoxify, activate blood, invigorate, clear the stomach, awaken the mind, prevent heatstroke, and enhance appetite. It shows significant efficacy for over ten diseases, including hypertension, coronary heart disease, and diabetes.
These examples illustrate the benefits of eating sour foods in autumn. Of course, many vegetables also offer great benefits in autumn—details omitted here. In summary, moderately increasing sour intake strengthens lung function and prevents lung qi from becoming excessive and harming the liver.
Autumn dietary regulation mainly involves the above two points. Additionally, prevent "autumn melons causing stomach upset." In summer, watermelon is a refreshing treat—people call it nature’s "White Tiger Decoction." But after Start of Autumn, neither watermelon nor muskmelon or cucumber should be eaten freely—otherwise, it damages spleen and stomach yang qi. TCM health experts advocate eating porridge every morning in autumn. As Ming dynasty Li Ting said: "Eating porridge in the morning clears old buildup, promotes digestion, nourishes the stomach, generates fluids, and makes one feel refreshed all day—great benefits." So, what porridge is best in autumn?
**Sugarcane Porridge (from *The Book of Elderly Care and Feeding*)**
Use fresh sugarcane, extract juice (100–150ml), mix with water, and cook with rice.
This medicinal porridge clears heat, generates fluids, and moistens dryness. Suitable for post-illness recovery with fluid deficiency—irritability, thirst, dry cough, constipation.
**Polygonatum Porridge (from *Dietary Differentiation Record*)**
Use clean Polygonatum (10–30g), decoct to concentrate, strain. Or use fresh Polygonatum (30–60g), wash, slice, decoct to concentrate, strain, then cook with rice. Add appropriate sugar when porridge is done.
This medicinal dish strengthens the spleen and stomach, moistens the heart and lungs. Suitable for spleen-stomach weakness, fatigue, poor appetite, dry cough due to lung deficiency, or dry cough without phlegm, pulmonary tuberculosis with hemoptysis.
**Solomon’s Seal Porridge (from *Porridge Manual*)**
Wash 50g fresh, plump Solomon’s seal, remove roots, chop, decoct to concentrate, strain. Or use 20g Solomon’s seal, decoct, strain, add rice, add water, cook into thin porridge. Add rock sugar and simmer briefly.
This medicinal porridge nourishes yin, moistens lungs, generates fluids, and quenches thirst. Suitable for lung yin injury, dry cough, little or no phlegm, post-high fever thirst, dry mouth and tongue, persistent low-grade fever due to yin deficiency. Also useful as auxiliary therapy for heart failure in various types of heart disease.
**Adenophora Porridge (from *Porridge Manual*)**
Decoct 15–30g Adenophora, strain, add rice to cook. When porridge is ready, add rock sugar and cook into thin porridge. Or use fresh Adenophora (30–60g), wash, slice, decoct to concentrate, add rice and rock sugar to cook porridge.
This medicinal dish nourishes the stomach, moistens the lungs, resolves phlegm, and stops cough. Suitable for lung heat and dryness, dry cough with little phlegm, or lung qi deficiency and lung-stomach yin deficiency causing chronic cough without phlegm, dry throat.
**Pearl Jade Two Treasure Porridge (from *Medical Reflections on Western and Eastern Medicine*)**
First boil 60g raw Coix seed until soft. Then mash 60g raw yam, cut 30g persimmon cake into small pieces, and combine to cook into a porridge-like paste.
This medicinal porridge strengthens the lungs and spleen, nourishes the stomach. Suitable for internal yin deficiency with heat, chronic cough with dryness, diarrhea, poor appetite—all spleen-lung qi deficiency conditions.
**Raw Rehmannia Porridge (from *Dietary Essentials*)**
Chop 25g raw Rehmannia (fresh) finely, add appropriate water, boil for about half an hour, strain. Repeat once, combine juices, concentrate to about 100ml. Wash 75g rice, cook into white porridge. Stir in Rehmannia juice while hot, add a little sugar to taste.
This medicinal dish nourishes yin, strengthens the stomach, cools blood, and generates fluids. Suitable for yin deficiency tidal fever, night sweats, chronic cough, hemoptysis, poor appetite, emaciation, irritability due to heat, thirst, red eyes upon waking that persist.
The above autumn porridges are indeed beneficial for health, especially in early autumn when many places still experience humid heat, leading to spleen-stomach weakness and reduced resistance. At such times, warm foods—especially hot medicinal porridges—are highly beneficial. This is because key ingredients like rice or glutinous rice in medicinal porridges have excellent functions in strengthening the spleen and stomach and boosting central qi. Ancient scholars praised them highly. *Bencao Jing Shu* calls rice the "supreme grain, indispensable for human life." *Sui Xi Ju Yinfan* states: "Rice is sweet and neutral, best cooked as porridge. Porridge and rice are the finest nourishing foods in the world. Poor people with weakness can substitute concentrated rice broth for ginseng decoction. Patients and postpartum women find porridge nourishing and ideal for recovery."