Eating to Beat the Summer Heat. ~Dr Stephanie Lipnicki, DACM, LAc
When the summer heat has us wishing for cooler weather - there are steps we can take to cool off by eating foods meant for the season. One of the first introductions I had to Asian Medicine, back in 1990 in Massage School, was the book Staying Healthy with the Seasons By Elson M Haas. The book explains how certain foods, due to their nature, are healthier to eat at specific times of the year. Our access to greater varieties of foods due to commerce across vast regions can have us eating foods that might not be ideal for certain times of the year. For instance, if you are sweating and uncomfortable due to the hottest days of summer and global warming frying your buttocks, maybe eating hot peppers that exhaust your body's fluid might not be the best choice. You also don't want to perpetually drink icy, freezing drinks to combat the heat either as that is not ideal for digestion and can squelch the normal digestive fire needed for optimal digestion! How do we strike a balance? E