During the scorching summer days, “Sanfu Plasters” have become a sought-after health regimen for the people of Guangdong. Aside from moxibustion therapy, eating more ginger in the summer can also have a warming and dispelling cold effect. Professor Huang Suiping, a renowned traditional Chinese medicine expert in Guangdong Province and the academic leader of the Gastroenterology Department at Guangdong Provincial Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, explains the significance behind the saying “Eat radishes in winter and ginger in summer, no need for prescriptions.”
Why should you eat ginger in the summer?
In the “Treatise on Cold Damage,” it is recorded that “in the month of May, when the yang energy is on the surface and the stomach is frail and cold, as the yang energy is weak inside and unable to withstand the cold, one wishes to put on more clothes; in the month of November, when the yang energy is inside and the stomach is irritated and hot, as the yin energy is weak inside and unable to withstand the heat, one wishes to expose their body.”
The above passage explains that in the summer season represented by May, the yang energy in nature steam up above the ground, dispersing and radiating upwards and outwards, leading to hot weather. However, it’s different below the ground; while the yang energy disperses and rises to the surface, the underground yang heat is relatively deficient, making it prone to generating cold, dampness, and other yin evils. The water in deep wells is often icy cold.
Similarly, the human body behaves the same way. In the summer, the body’s yang energy tends to move towards the surface, making the body relatively frail and cold inside. This is why during the summer, although people are prone to irritability and thirst due to the heat, they are also susceptible to diarrhea. Furthermore, because the summer weather is often unbearable, people tend to consume cold and frozen foods, and with improved living conditions, air-conditioned rooms have become a summer escape for many. Such common summer behaviors can easily damage the spleen and stomach yang energy, making them vulnerable to invasion by wind and cold, often resulting in symptoms like aversion to cold, fatigue, weakness, loss of appetite, sticky mouth, abdominal pain, and diarrhea. In such situations, drinking a bowl of ginger soup or a cup of ginger tea can help dispel cold, eliminate dampness, stimulate appetite, and stop diarrhea.
Conversely, in winter, both in nature and in the human body, the yang energy moves inward and is in a storage state, with less external yang energy and more yang energy concentrated inside, leading to natural phenomena like cold weather with warm water in deep wells. Similarly, despite the cold weather, individuals can easily experience symptoms of internal heat such as redness, swelling, heat, and pain. Additionally, during the winter, people tend to focus on supplementing their diet while engaging in less physical activity, which is a contributing factor to the generation of internal heat. Eating radishes in winter can help clear and resolve such conditions.
Hence, the saying goes, “Eat radishes in winter and ginger in summer,” is a regimen for maintaining health.
Treating winter diseases in summer leads to double the effectiveness
Summer, especially the three hottest periods, is the best time for “treating winter diseases in summer,” primarily targeting conditions of yang deficiency and cold dampness, such as chronic rhinitis, chronic bronchitis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, chronic gastrointestinal diseases, rheumatic pain, and menstrual irregularities in the recovery phase, most of which belong to the category of deficiency-cold constitution.
Why should winter diseases be treated in summer? Traditional Chinese medicine suggests that if the yang energy is impaired by severe cold in winter, it can lead to many illnesses. However, during summer when there is ample sunshine and external yang energy, conducting warming and tonifying therapies in harmony with the natural order can yield better results. This approach helps rapidly expel cold, dampness, and yin evils from the body. By nourishing yang in summer, individuals can build resistance against severe cold in winter. Therefore, every year, major traditional Chinese medicine hospitals conduct treatments known as “Sanfu Plasters,” a method of treating winter diseases in summer.
The benefits of ginger are plentiful
Ginger is a commonly used food ingredient in our daily lives. It can remove fishy odors and enhance flavors. Due to its warming and dispersing effects, ginger can balance the cooling nature of certain ingredients. In the culinary culture of China spanning thousands of years, ginger holds an irreplaceable position. There are different varieties of ginger available, each with similar yet distinct medicinal properties.
Fresh ginger
Fresh ginger is the fresh rhizome of the ginger plant, a perennial herb of the Zingiberaceae family, available in various varieties such as small ginger, large ginger, and mountain ginger. The common large fleshy ginger found in the market belongs to the large ginger category, while the small yellow ginger is superior in medicinal value. Small yellow ginger is pure yellow in color, with a strong and spicy flavor and finer meat fibers. Fresh ginger, commonly found in kitchen preparations, is used to prepare ginger slices, ginger shreds, ginger paste, ginger juice, among others. Classified as a surface-relieving herb in traditional Chinese medicine, fresh ginger has a slightly warm nature and a pungent taste, with effects that include inducing sweating to relieve surface conditions, warming the middle to stop vomiting, warming the lungs to stop coughing, detoxifying seafood toxins, and countering the toxicity of Pinellia ternata and Arisaema erubescens. When experiencing symptoms like nasal congestion, runny nose, and body aches due to wind-cold, a cup of brown sugar ginger water can help dispel wind and cold.
Sand ginger
Sand ginger, also known as Shan’ai, is the dried rhizome of the ginger plant, predominantly produced in Guangxi, Guangdong, Yunnan, and Taiwan. Extracted essential oil from sand ginger rhizomes serves as a fragrance ingredient, characterized by potent aromatic properties, making sand ginger a versatile spice and seasoning. In Guangdong, numerous meat dishes incorporate sand ginger as a seasoning, such as baked fish head with sand ginger, iron plate assorted pork, stir-fried octopus with sand ginger, braised pig’s trotters with sand ginger, roasted duck with sand ginger, etc. The distinctive aroma of sand ginger often enhances the flavors of these dishes. Sand ginger shares similar properties with fresh ginger, being warm in nature and pungent in taste, entering the stomach meridian, with functions including promoting qi circulation, warming the middle energ, aiding digestion, and relieving pain. It is commonly used for conditions like bloating of the chest and abdomen and indigestion.
Galangal
Galangal of superior quality is produced in Guangdong. Galangal is hot in nature, pungent in taste, enters the spleen and stomach meridians, and has the functions of warming the stomach to stop vomiting and dispelling cold to alleviate pain. It is often used for conditions such as cold pain in the abdomen, cold vomiting, and belching with acid regurgitation. For example, the classic formula Liangfu Wan consists primarily of galangal and Cyperus rotundus and is used to treat cold stagnation type abdominal pain. Galangal is spicier and hotter than fresh ginger, primarily used medicinally, although it also has a notable presence in spices, such as in Thai cuisine’s Tom Yum soup.
In terms of medicinal properties, the warmth of fresh ginger, sand ginger, and galangal increases progressively. Therefore, when consuming different types of “ginger,” considerations should be made based on different illnesses, individual constitutions, etc., and should not be generalized.
Culinary recommendation: Sand ginger chicken
Ingredients: 1 whole chicken, 20g of sand ginger, a small bundle of coriander, and some light soy sauce. (Serves 4)
Directions: Clean the whole chicken, leaving the internal organs if desired; remove the chicken and pat it dry. Put the whole chicken in a pot, bring to a boil over high heat, and boil for twenty minutes before chopping the chicken into pieces. Wash the coriander and cut it into small sections, pound the sand ginger into small pieces, place the coriander and sand ginger in a small bowl, pour in light soy sauce and cooking oil, then dip the coriander and sand ginger sauce to eat.
Benefits: Warming and dispersing
Sand ginger chicken is a traditional dish that combines the warming and circulating properties of sand ginger with the nourishing warmth of chicken, making it suitable for individuals in the summer who consume more raw and cold foods, leading to spleen and stomach deficiencies.
Maintain gastric health | Suffering from heatstroke? Consider drinking Patchouli Qi-Regulating Water according to traditional Chinese medicine experts.
Maintain gastric health | During the hottest periods of summer, avoid these 4 dietary taboos! Try this spleen-strengthening and dampness-dispelling soup.
Maintain gastric health | Three types of soups to regulate stomach and spleen during summer, the season most prone to spleen and stomach ailments.
Maintain gastric health | Suffering from heatstroke? Consider drinking Patchouli Qi-Regulating Water according to traditional Chinese medicine experts.
Maintain gastric health | During the hottest periods of summer, avoid these 4 dietary taboos! Try this spleen-strengthening and dampness-dispelling soup.
Maintain gastric health | Three types of soups to regulate stomach and spleen during summer, the season most prone to spleen and stomach ailments.
Medical guidance from Professor Huang Suiping, a renowned traditional Chinese medicine expert and the academic leader of the Gastroenterology Department at Guangdong Provincial Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine.
Professor Huang Suiping
Medical Doctor, Chief Traditional Chinese Medicine Physician, Professor, Doctoral Supervisor, Renowned Traditional Chinese Medicine Practitioner in Guangdong Province. Currently serving as the academic leader of the Gastroenterology Department at Guangdong Provincial Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, concurrently holding the position of the academic leader of the Integrative Chinese-Western Medicine discipline (digestive system diseases direction) at Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, Vice President of the World Federation of Chinese Medicine Societies’ Gastrointestinal Disease Professional Committee, Deputy Director of the Gastroenterology Branch of the Chinese Association of Chinese Medicine, Vice Chairman of the Gastroenterology Branch of the Chinese Ethnic Medicine Association, Deputy Director of the Chinese Research Hospital Association’s Chinese-Western Integrated Medicine Gastrointestinal Digestive Diseases Professional Committee, Deputy Director of the Expert Committee of the Chinese Society of Chinese Medicine’s Specialized Disease Cooperation and Development Platform, Chairman of the Lingnan (South China) Integrated Chinese-Western Medicine Diagnosis and Treatment Academic Alliance for Helicobacter pylori-related gastric diseases, Deputy Director of the Popular Science Committee of the Chinese Association of Ethnic Medicine, Executive Director of the New Media Professional Committee of the World Federation of Chinese Medicine Societies, Head of the Liang School Experience Inheritance Studio in Lingnan, Head of the Academic Experience Inheritance Studio of the National Famous TCM Practitioner Yu Shaoyuan, Head of the Research Team on the Diagnosis and Treatment of Chronic Gastric Diseases at Guangdong Provincial Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, specializing in traditional Chinese medicine treatment of dominant diseases such as chronic gastritis, precancerous lesions of gastric cancer, and early gastric cancer. Proficient in traditional Chinese medicine and integrative diagnosis and treatment techniques for digestive system diseases as well as digestive endoscopy technologies, having mentored over 80 master’s and doctoral students. He has led more than 20 research projects at the national, provincial, and departmental levels, including the National Natural Science Foundation, the National Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine under the Ministry of Health, and the Guangdong Provincial Department of Science and Technology. Recipient of awards such as the Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine Science and Technology Progress Award, the Guangdong Provincial Traditional Chinese Medicine Science and Technology Progress Award, and the Chinese Society of Chinese Medicine Science and Technology Progress Award and book award. He has authored 7 main editorials and co-edited 8 works, published over 180 medical papers. Honored with the titles of “First Lingnan Famous Physician,” “First Good Physician of Guangzhou,” and “2017 Hurun – Ping An Good Physician of China.”
Guangdong Provincial Hospital Consultation Schedule:
Tuesday mornings (Special Consultation Clinic at Sansha Island Hospital of Guangdong Provincial Hospital)
Friday mornings (Special Consultation Clinic at Great De Road General Hospital of Guangdong Provincial Hospital)
Contributed by Huang Suiping’s Guangdong Famous TCM Inheritance Studio
Lingnan Liang’s Gastroenterology Academic School Inheritance Studio of Guangdong Provincial Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine
Executive Editor: Lu Yueming
Reviewer: Wang Junfei
Managing Editor: Chen Jiajia
