Herbal Cuisine Helps “Eat Away” Dryness
Autumn and winter are the driest seasons of the year. Dryness can cause nasal dryness, sore throat, dry skin, cracked lips, and increased wrinkles. Traditional Chinese medicine classifies dryness into different syndromes and recommends specific dietary strategies to “eat away” dryness based on these patterns.
Dryness in Lung and Wei (Defensive Qi)
Main symptoms: fever, headache, slight aversion to wind and cold, dry nose and mouth, dry cough without phlegm, sore and dry throat.
At this stage, focus on pungent, dispersing, and moistening foods. For example, Sang Xing Yin: use 10g mulberry leaf, 5g apricot kernel, 5g adenosma root, 15g pear peel, and 3g rock sugar, boil together and drink as tea.
Dryness Damaging Stomach Fluids
Main symptoms: dry mouth and thirst, reduced urine output, constipation, dry heaving, pale red tongue without coating or with cracks, fine pulse.
At this stage, adopt nourishing stomach and moistening dryness dietary therapy. For example, Snow Pear Juice: take one large sweet pear, slice thinly, soak in cold boiled water for half a day, sip frequently. Five Juices Decoction: mix pear juice, lotus root juice, fresh reed rhizome juice, ophiopogon juice, and lotus root juice in appropriate proportions, mix well, and drink chilled. Sesame Porridge: use 6g sesame seeds, 30g white rice, and sugar or honey as seasoning. First roast sesame seeds until fragrant, then cook rice into porridge, add sesame and sugar/honey just before serving.
Dryness Damaging Liver and Kidney
Main symptoms: dry, lusterless skin, night sweats, five palms feeling hot or low-grade fever, dry cough, blood in sputum, smooth tongue without coating, pale color, fine weak pulse.
At this stage, adopt nourishing yin and enriching blood dietary therapy. For example, Hemp Seed Porridge: use 20g hemp seeds, 80g white rice, cook into porridge. Heavenly Gate Wintergreen Porridge: use 30g heavenly gate wintergreen, 50g white rice, cook into porridge. Donkey-hide Gelatin Porridge: crush 30g donkey-hide gelatin, stir-fry and grind into powder, then mix with cooked glutinous rice porridge and stir evenly.
Caution: These dietary therapies should be tailored to individual symptoms and ideally used under guidance from a licensed TCM practitioner.