Many Chinese believe winter is a good time to gain some weight, but
summer is when to lose it. Hot and humid weather naturally inhibits
the appetite. But humidity can also stimulate the growth of micro
bacteria, which makes food easily go bad and endanger people's
health. So although young women want to be slimmer, it's also
important to eat healthy. Here are some ways to help you eat more
healthy in summer.
Open up the appetite
Heat and humidity can be natural inhibitors to your appetite. To
stimulate it, try the following tips below.
Have a glass of water an hour before meals, which prevents your
stomach from becoming dehydrated and stimulates your stomach for
upcoming meals.
Make colorful dishes. Green peppers, red tomatoes and yellow
pineapples can stimulate your appetite. Try avoiding eating too
much ice cream. Cold ice cream makes the stomach contract,
resulting in less blood flow as well as less oxygen supply to the
digestive system. Combined together, these effects on your body can
slow down your digestive system, which gives people the feeling of
always having a full stomach.
Try eating fresh radishes, which taste spicy and have a minty
flavor, stimulating your appetite. You can mix radishes with other
cooling vegetables, like asparagus, silk squash, and pumpkin, to
make salad. Or you can have radish paste mixed with some sugar and
vinegar, it can taste pretty good.
Have a cooling soup after your meal. Option one is green bean
soup, a traditional recipe and easy to prepare. Option two is to
mix yam, Chinese red dates, white fungus and lotus seeds together
in a sweet soup. Once done, leave it in a fridge to cool down, then
add some rock sugar.
Eat the clean food
People tend to drink more water in summer. This dilutes gastric
juices in the stomach, weakening its ability in killing harmful
micro bacteria. So here are some tips to stay healthy:
Wash fresh fruits and melons carefully before eating them. Rinse
them thoroughly under tap water first, then put them in hot water
for two to three minutes. Hot water kills most of the micro
bacteria.
Make sure your chopping board is clean. Have separate chopping
boards for raw and cooked food. Clean the boards not only with tap
water, but also dish soap and brushes. Pay special attention to the
corners and cutting marks while cleaning. The keep the board
upright and let it dry naturally.
Also, experts believe garlic is a natural antibiotic and can
combat against bacteria, including influenza and diarrhea. So you
may consider eating more cloves of garlic.
Have special diet care in summer
To survive the hot weather, your body needs to make a lot of
adjustments. The blood circulation, digestive and urinary systems
all go through significant changes. And to help with the body's
adjustments, a boosted metabolism is ideal to increase consumption
of nourishment in the body. As a result, it's necessary to take
special tonics in the summer to have more protein, vitamins, salt
as well as water in your diet. Here are two recipes.
Straw mushroom lettuce soup
Straw mushroom is a cooling vegetable that's rich in protein,
fat, sugar, coarse fiber, calcium, iron and vitamin B1, B2 and
C.
Ingredients:
200 grams of fresh straw mushrooms
300 grams of asparagus lettuce
10 grams of ginger
two preserved chilli peppers
salt for taste.
Method:
1 Wash the straw mushrooms, cut off their roots and then dice;
peel the asparagus lettuce, cut it into slices and then wash
them.
2 Stir-fry asparagus lettuce and straw mushroom together. Add
ginger slices, salt and preserved chilli peppers as well as 700
grams of water into the pot. Cook them until the lettuce slices
soften.
3 Take the ginger slices and chilli peppers out. The soup is
done.
Colorful bean porridge
This dish stimulates the appetite and beans are good for your
digestive system.
Ingredients:
1 gram of red beans, green beans, black beans, yellow beans
1 slice of orange peel
Some rice.
Method:
1 Put all beans, rice and orange peel in water and soak 4
hours.
2 Rinse them again before putting them all in a pot with clean
water and let it boil.
3 When it begins to boil, transfer the porridge into an electric
pot and let it simmer.
4 When it's done, add some rock candy. Then you can have a pot
of delicious sticky and soft porridge.
(China Daily August 21, 2007)
