To keep healthy through balanced diet

Mo Yan, the Nobel Literate in 2012, joked about his first motive for writing–having three meals of dumplings everyday just as one of his villagers did. Today, many families are living the happy life Mo Yan once dreamed of. Having enough food is no longer a problem. What people concern about is having healthy meals, by which, it does not simply mean eating more meat. There is so much to learn about. As an old Chinese saying goes "to keep healthy through balanced diet", we need to avoid eating too much. Chinese people always believe that being 70% full is ideal. In addition, we need to have meals on time with a balanced diet. Five flavors of food also need to be balanced, because too much sour food would hurt the spleen, too much bitter food would hurt the kidney, too much pungent food the liver, too much salty food the heart and too much sweet flavor the stomach.

Chinese people pay attention to the harmonious coexistence between mankind and nature. We not only need to keep a healthy diet, but also select food in various seasons. For example, according to the TCM, if people eat too much salty food in winter, the burden on kidney will be increased. Since it's dry in northern China food which can nourish your lung, such as lotus root, lily bulb and tremella, are highly recommended. When winter comes, we see people start making paste in supermarkets in Beijing with donkeyhide gelatin, fried sesame and shelled walnut. This is a popular product for women in winter for its health preservation effects: improving sleep and eyesight, nourishing the liver and enrich the blood.

There are also various healthy soups for in various seasons, especially in southern China. The Cantonese would have a bowl of soup before meal. They make pork rib soup with bitter gourd in summer to relieve internal heat and they add astragalus propinquus root and ginseng root to chicken soup to dispel cold and replenish vital energy in winter. There are also various healthy soups for in various seasons, especially in southern China. The Cantonese would have a bowl of soup before meal. They make pork rib soup with bitter gourd in summer to relieve internal heat and they add astragalus propinquus root and ginseng root to chicken soup to dispel cold and replenish vital energy in winter.

A year of four seasons consists of 24 solar terms. In recent years, health preserving drinks made for different solar terms have been popular.

In a famous TCM clinic near the Fragrant Hill in the west of Beijing, every patient will be served with a cup of hot tea in accordiance with the right solar term. Some tea has the fragrance of rose while Chinese wolfberry tea tastes sweet and Schisandra chinensis tea a slight sour. When talking about his solar term health preserving teas, Dr. Niu Zhigang explained that 24 solar terms can not only guide agricultural production, but also help to cure diseases and preserve health. Being effective, the solar term herbal teas also taste good. For instance, at the Beginning of Spring, health preserving tea is made of cinnamon and semen cassia, because Spring is the time when all living creatures grow and Yang Qi (in Chinese philosophy and medicine Yang Qi means positive and vital energy) grows, which is not good for patients with hypertension and liver diseases. Semen cassia could remove heat from the liver and moisten the intestines, while cinnamon could nourish the blood and calm the nerves so as to protect the liver and kidney.