When it comes to white food for non-vegetarians, meat like chicken or fish is good, because it's white. Xiong cautions against flavorful seasonings like scallions, ginger, garlic, leek and peppers during the autumn. "Lungs are active during the autumn, and too much seasoning will generate too much energy and hurt the qi of the liver," she says, recommending that you just let foods keep their original flavor.

According to Chinese traditional medicine theory, pears have the function of curing thirst and relieving coughs. They are especially efficient against fevers in the spring and autumn, but they're also considered to be "cold" in nature according to TCM, so they aren't suitable for people who are insufficiently cold of spleen or who have stomach or indigestion problems. Rather than eating pears directly, Xiong recommends drinking pear soup made by steaming or boiling peeled pears with jujube, carrots and sesame.

Sugarcane is another kind of "heat-clearing" fruit, which has a curative effect on some symptoms such as glucopenia (an abnormally small amount of glucose in blood), difficulty urinating, vomiting and fever. People who feel tired or dizzy due to overwork or hunger can eat sugarcane to regain their energy. But like pear, sugarcane is also a cold-nature fruit that is not suitable for people with stomach problems.

Also do not forget the old Chinese saying which offers us an easy recipe to deal with the autumn dryness: "Drink salt water every morning, drink honey water every night." Honey is a great gift from nature. It contains various nutritional components such as glucose and fructose, which constitute almost 70 percent of honey. Adding some honey to water is not only a good method of rehydrating but it is also reputed to delay aging and prevent constipation.