Detoxifying & Balancing 6 Vegetable Stir-Fry
By Vicky Chan of NourishU
Detoxifying and Balancing
Toxins are a fact of life, but taking proactive actions to expel them and not allowing them to accumulate in our body can make a big difference. The best approach to detoxify is to eat fresh clean food with high fiber and antioxidant content, drinking plenty of good clean water to flush the system and passing bowel at least once or twice daily. Exercising and taking sauna bath occasionally are all effective in helping the body to expel toxins through sweating.
Eating foods such as carrot, pumpkin, garlic, seaweed, green tea and foods with high vitamin C content such as oranges, lemon, leafy green vegetables, water chestnuts, etc. are excellent in cleaning out heavy metals from our body such as lead. Blueberry is high in anti-oxidant but purple or black glutinous rice is even higher in vitamin E and anti-oxidants.
To get the most disease-fighting antioxidants from fruits and vegetables, choose those with color; usually the deeper the color, the more antioxidants. Also fresh and frozen fruits and vegetables have more antioxidants than those that are canned, processed or heated.
Therapeutic Effects
Benefits all five organs, balancing yin and yang.
Ingredients
- Chinese broccoli 芥蘭 – 3 to 4 stems
- Bitter melon 涼瓜 - half
- Lotus root 蓮藕 – a small section
- Carrot 甘筍 – one
- Fresh mushrooms 鮮磨菇 - 6
- Fresh lily buds 鮮百合 - 2
Directions
1. Wash all ingredients. Cut broccoli stems, bitter melon, lotus root, carrot and mushrooms into thin slices.
2. Remove stems of lily bulb to separate petals and cut out any blackened edges.
3. Heat a spoonful of oil in a wok to stir-fry carrot, broccoli, lotus root and bitter melon together. Sprinkle in a spoonful of cooking wine and a spoonful of water and cook for a few minutes or to desire softness.
4. Add mushroom to cook for a few more minutes. Add seasoning (salt, sugar, pepper, sesame oil and a little oyster sauce) and mix well.
5. Mix in lily and add a little corn starch water to finish.
Usage
No restrictions.
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Featured imagePhoto by Markus Spiske on Unsplash
Are You Yin or Yang?
By Emma Suttie, D.Ac, AP
The forces of yin and yang describe everything in the universe. Everything has its opposite, and yet, each is an intrinsic part of the other. Everything that exists has a yin as well as a yang aspect and health and the human being are no exception. In Chinese medicine, a person is seen to be made up of yin and yang forces. Each of the organ systems have yin and yang energies, and although this is a dynamic relationship and constantly changing, when these forces become unbalanced, illness can result. Below is a list of some of the basic things that are considered yin and yang, but remember, each of these individually also has a yin and yang aspect.
Yin
- Darkness
- Moon
- Female
- Night
- Inwards
- Contractive
- Passive
- Rest
- Earth
- Flat
- Space
- West
- North
- Right
- Back
- Below
- Slow
- Damp
- Cold
- Inside
Yang
- Light
- Sun
- Male
- Day
- Outwards
- Expansive
- Active
- Brightness
- Activity
- Heaven
- Round
- Time
- East
- South
- Left
- Front
- Above
- Fast
- Dry
- Hot
- Outside
A human being also exhibits yin and yang energies. Each organ system is striving for a relative balance of its yin and yang forces, but the body as a whole often has a tendency to be more yin or yang. Are you the kind of person who can go out in the winter without a coat? Or do you need to wear socks and jammies to bed even on a hot sumer night? Are you drawn to frozen foods like ice cream, or do you crave hot drinks like tea and hot chocolate no matter what the season? Knowing the tendency of your body to be more yin or yang can help you determine how to bring it back into balance by using all the tools that Chinese medicine has in its impressive tool box.
The Yin and Yang of Foods
Food therapy has been an integral part of Chinese medicine for thousands of years. The Chinese understood not only the medicinal properties of foods, but ascribed to each a thermal nature, contributing either a yang, or heating quality, a neutral energy or a yin or cooling energy to the body. This understanding, that all foods are either heating, cooling or neutral in nature helps to rebalance the body when the internal yin or yang energies are out of balance.
As part of my initial patient intake, I ask "are you a hot or cold person?" Most people know right away what the answer is. "Oh, I am always cold!" Or, "I am like a furnace running day and night." This is a clue to someone's relative level of yin or yang. Once you can determine if a person has an overabundance of yin or yang (cold or hot), I usually introduce a list of foods and their heating (yang), cooling (yin) or neutral nature. It is interesting how often a person with an overabundance of yang is actually eating mostly yang or heating foods, and a person with a constitution that is more yin may tend to eat more cooling foods. But this is the wonderful thing about Chinese medicine. Part of the job of the practitioner is to educate the patient and to empower them to participate in their healing. Once they become aware that they have a predominance of yin or yang, they can then take a list of foods and their yin or yang qualities and remove certain foods (that may be exacerbating the condition) and add in others to help the body to rebalance.
Here is a handy chart that lists some yin (cooling) and yang (warming) foods in Chinese medicine - but remember, there are neutral ones too.
This lovely image thanks to rawayurveda.com
Yin & Yang Constitution
There are many clues that you can use to determine if you are constitutionally more yin or more yang. These are generalizations of course, an all of us have both yin as well as yang aspects, but below are some guidelines to help you recognize yin and yang traits in yourself and others.
Yang people tend to speak loudly, be excitable and move quickly (like fire). They tend to be robust, have thinner, stronger bodies, and can be red faced and passionate. Yang personalities are active, expansive and always on the move. They flare up and are changeable, like fire. They can also tend to frustration and anger.
Yin people tend to be quiet, move more slowly and are more grounded. They tend towards weight gain, or in Chinese medicine what is called dampness. They are generally soft spoken and introverted, enjoying to spend time by themselves. Yin personalities often have a rich inner life and live in their fertile imaginations. Yin people may also tend towards sadness and melancholy.
Yin & Yang Conditions
Diagnosis also depends on a deep understanding of yin and yang, and while there are many theories that are used in Chinese medicine to formulate a diagnosis, yin and yang are always a consideration. While each condition has a yin and a yang nature, there are some characteristics that point to weather a condition is more yin or yang.
Yang conditions tend to excess, exhibit heat and symptoms tend to change quickly. They are characterized by redness, swelling, red eyes, bitter taste, fevers, excess type headaches and pain with a sharp or intense nature.
Yin conditions tend to be deficient, exhibit cold or dampness and change slowly. They are characterized by discharges, lumps and bumps (dampness), a feeling of heaviness, slow movements and thinking, and a dull, achey type of pain.
The good news is, that once there has been a proper diagnosis, there are many ways to restore the relative balance of yin and yang in the body, from the foods you eat every day to acupuncture to Chinese herbs. Meditation and martial arts like Tai Chi and Qi Gong are also excellent to restoring health. Once you have an idea of your constitution, you can be aware of when you are swinging out of balance and will be armed with the tools to help yourself restore balance once again. Because the interplay between yin and yang is dynamic and constantly changing, it is helpful to be able to make small adjustments - which is why Chinese medicine works best as a medicine of prevention - rather than waiting until disease develops as the changes needed then are more drastic and generally things take longer to correct.
So... are you more yin, or more yang?? Once you begin to observe your behaviour and the ailments you tend towards, it might become obvious which you are predisposed to. But, hopefully, with the knowledge that there are foods, as well as other simple things that you can do to regain balance, it will help to keep you healthy in the present and long into the future. Yay Chinese medicine!!
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Chinese ‘A’ Lettuce – Packs a Punch of Nutrients
By Vicky Chan of NourishU
Lettuce is one of the most common leaf vegetables for salads. There are many different types of lettuce and they are characterized by large, tender leaves, and are usually light green in color.
Lettuce is low in calories and is approximately 90% water. It has little fiber but has some minerals including potassium, calcium, phosphorous, iron and magnesium; anti-oxidants such as beta-carotene and vitamins A, C and E, vitamin K, folate as well as many vitamins of the B complex. The milky latex, found mainly in the stems contains a mixture of active principles which have been used for centuries for its medicinal virtues. It has extraordinary “sedative” and “painkilling” properties. Unfortunately lettuce stems are usually unused in western cuisine.
Therefore the healthy properties of lettuce are: anti-anemic with high amounts of chlorophyll and iron for the synthesis of hemoglobin in red blood cells; anti-oxidant and prevents premature aging with beta-carotene, vitamin C and vitamin E; promotes bone health with vitamin K and calcium; relieves constipation by stimulating the function and motility of the intestinal tract; relieves cough and asthma with anti-cough agents; hydration with high water content; sedation and treats sleep disorder with high B vitamins content.
Taiwan has been exporting a special kind of lettuce known as ‘A’ lettuce for years and it has been very popular among Asian cuisines. The ‘A’ is in short form for asparagus. The plant is much taller than other types of lettuce. It has very a long stem and long sword like leaves that are light green in color. The leaves grow on top of the stem and are cut off at the base and sold separately from the stem. They can be easily found in most Chinese grocery stores now. The leaves and the stems are used lightly cooked but the stems can also be eaten raw with salads. The stems are known to offer a lot more nutrients than the leaves.
The following is a recipe to inspire you to eat more of the ‘A’ lettuce stems. You can add more ingredients to the stir-fry such as meat or seafood to make the dish more interesting. The stems are very crispy even after cooked and are mild in taste and very refreshing for summer dishes.
Stir-fried Chinese Asparagus Lettuce Stems with King Mushrooms
INGREDIENTS
(2 to 3 servings)
- ‘A’ lettuce stems – one or two
- King mushrooms – a few
- Carrot - half (optional for color and additional health benefits)
- Minced ginger – one spoonful
- Minced garlic – one spoonful
- Oyster sauce – one spoonful (optional)
- Potato starch – one tea spoonful (optional)
- Sesame oil – one spoonful (optional)
DIRECTIONS
- Cut out skin of stems lengthwise, rinse and slice into thin slices.
- Rinse mushrooms and cut into slices.
- Cut carrot into thin slices.
- Put carrot in a stir-fry pan with a little water to pre-cook for about 4 minutes or to desire softness, remove and keep aside.
- Heat pan with a little oil and add half of the minced ginger and garlic. Stir and add the mushroom slices to cook for a few minutes on both sides. Sprinkle in a little salt and black pepper to taste and put aside.
- Heat pan again with a little oil and put in the remaining ginger and garlic. Add stem slices and carrot and stir for a couple of minutes. Add a few spoonful of water to cook stem slightly to water is mostly evaporated. Add salt and pepper to taste. Mix in mushroom and oyster sauce. Mix starch with two spoonful of water and sesame oil and stir-in for a minute to combine the flavors and then put everything to plate.
USAGE
No restrictions
**MORE INFO
Check out this article about the amazing health benefits of asparagus from well-being secrets! - 31 Science-Backed Health Benefits of Asparagus