Eel Is an Excellent Food for Winter Tonification
Eel is one of the world’s most mysterious fish—it can survive for up to 1.5 years without food, climb Niagara Falls upstream, and migrate from mainland China to the Mariana Trench in the Pacific Ocean to spawn, surviving without eating during the journey. Eel is a traditional delicacy, revered throughout China and many parts of the world as a precious food for tonification, recovery, healing, and beauty. In Taiwan, the Double Ninth Festival is celebrated as "Eel Day," symbolizing longevity—eating eel promotes health and long life. In Japan, people often eat grilled eel rice in winter to combat cold and maintain energy.
Eel nourishes the brain, clears cholesterol buildup in arterial walls and surrounding tissues, enhances physical strength and vitality, and provides skincare and beautification benefits—nourishing yin, enhancing complexion, boosting yang, and warding off cold. Ancient authoritative pharmacopeias such as *Zhangzhong Miaoyao*, *Shenghui Fang*, *Bencao Gangmu*, and Japan’s *Honcho Shokkan* all record eel’s miraculous therapeutic effects: tonifying deficiency, warming the intestines, dispelling wind, detoxifying, beautifying, curing wind-related ailments, treating wet foot qi, dampness-related lumbar-sacral arthritis, treating malignant sores, wasting diseases, fatigue, warming the waist and knees, restoring yang, treating pediatric malnutrition, and gynecological disorders. According to *Jishen Lu*: In Jinshan, a person suffered from tuberculosis (a contagious disease), spreading among others, resulting in many deaths. Victims were abandoned by the riverbank to prevent further spread. A fisherman found a woman still alive, took her aboard, fed her eel daily, and she gradually recovered—eventually becoming the fisherman’s wife.
Eel’s nutritional profile surpasses that of bass, chicken, beef, and quail eggs. Its content of vitamins, minerals, and trace elements is unmatched by land animals. Scientific research shows eel is one of the richest sources of EPA and DHA—helping lower lipids, prevent arteriosclerosis, and prevent blood clots. DHA promotes brain development in youth, enhances memory, and helps prevent cognitive decline and dementia in the elderly. Every 100 grams of eel contains as much DHA as 10 expensive American deep-sea fish oil capsules—highly beneficial for preventing cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases. Medical experts have also discovered that eel combines beneficial components from both fish oil and plant oil, making it an ideal source of essential fatty acids and amino acids. Eel is rich in zinc ("brain gold"), highly unsaturated fatty acids, and vitamin E—effective in preventing aging and arteriosclerosis, providing skincare and beautification benefits—making it a natural, efficient beauty food for women.
Since eel is an excellent choice for winter tonification, why not incorporate it into your daily diet?