Summer is a season for enduring hardship. The humid weather and increased metabolism lead to greater energy expenditure. Under these conditions, the body's resistance is easily lowered, making it a good time to "endure hardship." Let's take a look at what foods are good for health during the hot summer months!

　　Steamed lotus root with mung beans

　　Ingredients: 1 lotus root, 100g mung beans, a pinch of rock sugar

　　practice:

　　1. Wash the mung beans and soak them in cold water for 3 hours; wash the lotus root and cut it into sections (about 3 cm thick).

　　2. Fill the holes of the lotus root with the soaked mung beans, and sprinkle a few rock sugar pieces and cold boiled water on top;

　　3. Place in a steamer and steam over high heat until boiling, then reduce to low heat and steam for about an hour, or until the mung beans and lotus root are cooked.

　　Editor's Note:

　　First, instead of suffering in the sweltering summer, it's better to nourish your heart.

　　In summer, due to the hot and humid weather, the human body's metabolism is vigorous, and physical exertion is much greater than in other seasons. In addition, due to the long days and short nights and insufficient sleep, most people's resistance will decrease at this time. Those with weaker constitutions are more likely to experience symptoms such as general weakness, loss of appetite, bland taste in the mouth, lethargy, and gradual weight loss. In severe cases, they may even experience low-grade fever, dizziness, chest tightness, nausea, and poor sweating. This is what traditional Chinese medicine calls "summer heat syndrome" or "summer fatigue."

　　There is a saying among the people that one should eat bitter foods during the hot summer, but eating too much bitter food may damage the spleen and stomach. Therefore, it is more appropriate to eat some heart-nourishing foods.

　　II. Cooked lotus root is more nourishing for the spleen and stomach.

　　Raw lotus root has various medicinal properties, including clearing heat and relieving irritability, quenching thirst, stopping bleeding (nosebleeds, hematuria, hematochezia, uterine bleeding, etc.), and resolving phlegm. After being cooked, lotus root changes from cooling to warming in nature, losing its heat-clearing and stasis-removing properties; instead, it gains the effects of strengthening the spleen and stomach, nourishing blood and replenishing deficiencies, and tonifying the five internal organs. Mung beans, on the other hand, are cooling in nature and sweet in taste, with the effects of clearing heat and detoxifying, relieving summer heat and irritability, quenching thirst, and strengthening the stomach. Eating these two together is an excellent way to combat the summer heat.