Warming up with food

In traditional Chinese Medicine, there is a practice to eat and drink with the season.  This usually follows the nature of our bodies, how we use or conserve our energy and how we interact with our environment.   Fever, cold, headaches, body pains and joint (arthritic) pains are usually worse during this time due to the contracting nature of cold within our bodies.

For the cold winter days therefore we should include warming foods, herbs and spices in our diet.  This is a way to make sure that our bodies stay well.  We move away therefore from cold or raw foods and move towards warming soups, stews and teas.

One of the best teas I recommend to patients is Lemon-Ginger tea.  This tea has the benefit of warming the lungs and the digestive system.  To make: use 1 tsp of roughly chopped ginger and the juice of ¼ of a lemon in ½ litre of water.  Let it boil for about 10 minutes.  Then pour and drink – often I add honey to this, especially if there is a cough or sore throat.

Other warming spices to think of during this time are: cinnamon and anise.  Warming foods include: oats, parsnip, butter, anchovies walnuts.  There is an old recipe for menstrual cramping that is just cinnamon sticks (2-3 sticks approximately 4” long each) in water.  This tea helps to soothe the intensity of the pain and often has a relaxing effect as well.

If you have a slow cooker this is the time to use it.  When you heat food at a lower temperature but for a longer period of time rather than heating at high temperature for a short period of time then you are also increasing the warming nature of what you have prepared.

So enjoy your teas, stews and soups – now is the time.