Summer can be a time when the hot humid weather can cause some health issues such as heat rashes, dehydration, fluid retention, digestive issues and sinus congestion. The simplest way to beat this extreme heat we are currently experiencing in Brisbane is to change our internal environment to reduce heat. We do this by looking at the foods that we are eating and eating seasonally.

Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) looks at the body as a whole. Practitioners seek to find the root cause of health issues so they can work out how to best bring the person back into balance. TCM considers everything in nature to be influenced by five elemental energies: Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water.

Each element has its own specific characteristics and is associated not only with a season, but also a colour, taste, organ and emotion. Consequently your diet should be modified to suit the time of year by eating seasonally.

KEEP COOL AND HYDRATED

Becoming dehydrated can affect digestion, particularly in late summer when we move into earth energy, which governs the Spleen, Pancreas and Stomach. Now is the time to eat foods that have a ‘cooling’ effect which calm the blood and reduce toxins and heat. Foods in TCM are categorised as cold, cool, neutral, warming or heating. Cooling foods are not literally cold in terms of temperature, but eating them produces a cooling effect in the body, reducing energetic ‘fire’.

With the sweating that goes along with summer heat, be sure that you are replenishing your fluids and electrolytes. My personal favourite is coconut water.

COOLING FOODS

• Apples

• Grapefruit

• Cucumber

• Celery

• Leafy Greens

• Bamboo Shoots

• Banana

• Asparagus

• Watermelon

• Mint

• Green Tea

Internal heat also has a drying effect, so focus on juicy, watery foods to nourish the fluids in your body. The taste associated with Summer and the Fire element is bitter. It helps to clear heat from your body. Green vegetables such as asparagus, chicory, watercress, bitter endive, rocket, artichoke and dandelion as particularly cleansing, while watery vegetables like zucchini and cucumber are cooling and moistening.

NO RAW FOOD

In TCM we don’t favour eating raw foods as these slow down digestion. You can still make plenty of salads over the summer, simply use a mixture of lightly cooked or steamed vegetables and whole grains with other salad ingredients.

HOW TO HANDLE THIS EXTREME HUMIDITY

Generally February and March are considered to be ‘late summer’ in TCM. This is the earth element. The weather becomes balmier and more humid, and humidity has a damp quality to it so it’s good to focus on foods that help to reduce dampness during this time, such as aromatic herbs (coriander, cardamon) brown rice, oatmeal, beans, and lentils. The taste associated with the earth element is sweet. Introduce more sweet vegetables into your diet (carrots, squash, sweet potatoes). Add whole grains and complex carbohydrates as these contain natural sugars to fortify, strengthen and nourish the body. Reduce or avoid dairy foods and sip herbal teas such as fennel and cardamon to aid digestion.