How To Cope With The Cold Weather For Those With a Yang Deficiency Constitution

Chinese medicine meals are special meals with unique colours, aromas, tastes, shapes and effects, as well as health care, disease prevention and treatment, guided by the theories of Chinese medicine, culinary science and nutrition, combining Chinese medicine with certain foods of medicinal value in a reasonable formula, or soup, or dish, or congee, or tea.

All meals are medicine, and medicine is in food. Under the guidance of the theories of Chinese medicine, culinary science and nutrition, Chinese medicine and certain foods with medicinal value are combined in reasonable formulations, such as soup, dish, congee or tea, with a wide variety of special meals that have unique colour, aroma, taste, shape and effect, as well as health care, disease prevention and treatment. While carrying forward the culture of Chinese medicine, let us savour the taste of life and be grateful for the infinite possibilities that each ingredient brings to human health.

As the weather gradually turns colder and the temperature begins to drop significantly, the greatest feeling given at this time of year is coolness, not just coolness, but also injury to those with a Yang deficiency constitution. Yang deficiency constitution is a Chinese medicine term that refers to some characteristics of the human body in which Yang energy is deficient and cannot warm the body. Chinese medicine believes that the main causes of Yang deficiency constitution are the lack of innate endowment and the loss of nourishment after birth. "These people usually have these symptoms in autumn and winter: they are afraid of cold, their hands and feet are cold and they do not warm up easily, their faces are white, they have diarrhoea easily when they eat cold food, their body resistance is weak and they tend to have a runny nose, sneeze or even catch a cold when they are slightly exposed to wind and cold; some people also have Some people may also suffer from mental weakness, drowsiness all day; weak digestion; long and clear urine, frequent night urination and cold pain in the lower back; women may also suffer from cold and dysmenorrhoea in the womb, menstrual disorders, infertility and so on, to name but a few.

According to the Yellow Emperor's Classic of Internal Medicine, "Yang Qi is like the sky and the sun; if you lose your place, you will lose your life and not manifest." It is very clear that Yang Qi in the human body is like the sun in the sky, without which there is no life. All illnesses are caused by Yang Qi, so in order to live a long and healthy life, we must first replenish the Yang Qi in our bodies. So, with the onset of winter, what should people with Yang deficiency do when the weather turns cold?

Different body types have different ways of adjusting at each time of year when the external environment changes, and we have to choose the right way to maintain our health according to our own body type in order to achieve the best results.

People with Yang deficiency have a hard time in the cold winter months, easily attacked by cold evil and also more afraid of cold, cold hands and feet are the norm, this is the time to insist on warming Yang to dispel cold. When the body's Yang energy is flourishing, it is easiest to get rid of the cold. For people with Yang deficiency, food therapy can be used to warm up the Yang energy to gradually change the body's constitution. You can eat more sweet, warm and beneficial foods such as beef, lamb and dog meat, onion, ginger, garlic, pepper, leek, chilli and pepper, and less cold and raw foods such as cucumber, lotus root, pear and watermelon. Here, we recommend a medicinal dish for people with Yang deficiency constitution - Bacopa Monniera, Eucommia and Lentil with Dragon Bone - to enhance health.

Braised dragon bones with Morinda citrifolia and lentils
Ingredients: 500g of pork keel, 15g of Radix et Rhizoma Pachycarpus, 10g of Eucommia, 10g of lentils, 2 slices of ginger.

Directions: 1. Wash the pork keel and boil it in boiling water (to remove blood), wash and puree the barberry and eucommia, and wash the lentils. 2. Put all the ingredients into a soup pot, add an appropriate amount of water, first boil it over high heat, then switch to low heat and continue to boil for 3 hours, season and serve.

Effect: Warming the kidney and Yang, clearing heat and diuresis, dispelling wind and dampness.