People today are increasingly focusing on health preservation and health care, and the best way to do so is through diet. Today, I recommend nine types of congee, each with excellent nourishing effects. For example, the seven-color congee made from black beans, mung beans, and purple rice has excellent skin care functions, while the congee made from red beans and jujube has the effects of protecting the liver and invigorating the spleen.

Main Ingredients: 100 grams of yam, 50 grams of adzuki bean, 5 dates, a dozen lotus seeds with the core removed, 20 grams of hawthorn strips, 20 grams of raisins.

9 Types of Health-Preserving Porridge Preparation and Effects

Preparation: Soak adzuki bean and jujube in water, then peel the skin of adzuki bean, remove the seeds from the jujube, and cut yam into pieces. Then cook adzuki bean, yam, and lotus seeds together in the pot until they are soft. Finally, add hawthorn strips and raisins and boil for 3 minutes. (For those who do not like sweet and sour flavors, hawthorn strips and raisins can also be omitted. Adzuki bean is available in pharmacies, which is the seed of the adzuki bean).

Main Ingredients: 100 grams of rice, 50 grams of red bean, 5 dates, one bloomed silver ear, a little lily.

Preparation: Remove the seeds from the jujube, remove the yellow root material from the silver ear, soak dried lily, and peel the fresh lily. Place them in the pot together, cook the rice until soft, and add fresh lily when the porridge is almost done, boil for 2 minutes.

Main Ingredients: 100 grams of purple potato, 20 grams of brown rice, purple rice, coix seed, several dates, a little sugar osmanthus.

Preparation: Rinse and soak purple rice and coix seed in cold water for 2 hours, remove the seeds from the jujube, peel the purple potato and cut into small pieces. Then pour purple rice and coix seed into the pot, add water, and bring to a boil. Turn off the heat and simmer until soft and烂, add sugar osmanthus and jujube, and boil for 2 minutes.

Ingredients: Red bean, black bean, purple rice, soybean, mung bean, jujube, longan. (The amount of food added is based on the order, with the first one being the most, about 150 grams in total).

Preparation: Soak various beans for about 8 hours to make them fully absorb water and become soft. Remove the seeds from the jujube, peel and remove the core from the longan (or choose dried longan meat), then add the washed purple rice together and cook until the beans are very soft.

Ingredients: 100 grams of corn grits, 25 grams of goji berries, 15 grams of lily (30 grams of fresh lily).

Preparation: Rinse the corn grits and pour them directly into the pot, boil for 3 minutes, add goji berries, and boil dried lily (fresh lily is better, then turn the heat down and boil for 5 minutes).

Ingredients: 100 grams of coix seed, 50 grams of red bean.

Preparation: Soak red beans and coix seed for about 8 hours in advance, then cook with water until done.

Nutritionist explanation:

It has good weight loss effects, which can not only help lose weight but also not harm the body, with very good results. Coix seed, known as ‘Yiyiren’ in traditional Chinese medicine, is listed as a superior grade in the ‘Shennong’s Materia Medica’. It can treat dampness and arthritis, benefit the intestines and stomach, reduce edema, strengthen the spleen and stomach, and achieve a light and healthy body with long-term use, making it the most suitable for consumption in spring. Red bean, known as ‘Chixiaodou’ in traditional Chinese medicine, also has obvious diuretic, anti-edema, and stomach and spleen-strengthening effects. Because it is red, red enters the heart, so it can also nourish the heart. Modern people are under great mental stress, with deficiency of heart Qi, irregular diet, and insufficient physical activity, leading to spleen deficiency and dampness. To remove dampness, nourish the heart, and strengthen the spleen and stomach, coix seed and red bean are indispensable. Boiling them into porridge is to ensure that the active ingredients are fully absorbed by the human body, while not imposing any burden on the spleen and stomach.

Ingredients: 100 grams of rice, 50 grams of black rice.

Method: Soak black rice for 3 hours first, then cook it with rice into porridge, or you can also add a small amount of Job’s tears.

Nutritionist explanation:

For a while, people advocated drinking black rice porridge for weight loss, because black rice is a brown rice, which is not only nutritious but also contains more dietary fiber. The content of B vitamins is about 4 times that of rice, and the trace elements such as potassium, magnesium, iron, zinc, manganese are also much higher than those of rice. Its black color comes from the famous anthocyanin pigment, which has a strong anti-aging effect. The darker the color of the rice, the stronger the anti-aging effect of the skin pigment on the surface, and this pigment is also rich in flavonoids and active substances, which is 5 times more than that of white rice, and has a significant effect on preventing arteriosclerosis. Adding black rice to rice can increase satiety and is not easy to feel hungry.

Ingredients: 250 milliliters of milk or 300 milliliters of water, 50 grams of oats (instant oats) (the amount of a bowl)

Method: Pour milk into the pot and add instant oatmeal at the same time, and simmer for about 5 minutes over low heat. If it is unprocessed oats, you need to add more water and cook for a longer time like white porridge.

Nutritionist explanation:

Oats can be said to be the best complete nutrition food among grains, with protein content exceeding that of other grains and very reasonable amino acid composition, which is easy to absorb. It is rich in vitamins, calcium, phosphorus, iron, and other nutrients, all of which are higher than those of similar crops. Increasing the intake of oats every day not only can avoid malnutrition caused by weight loss, but also rich in vitamin E and vitamin B, which can make women’s skin healthier and more radiant. Vitamin B helps to increase metabolism, relieve work stress, and promote blood circulation. What’s more important is that oats contain a rich amount of soluble fiber beta-glucan, which is the most effective lipid-lowering component, and has a strong sense of satiety, which is not easy to cause hunger. It can truly inhibit and remove oil and fat waste from the inside out, achieve the effects of defecation, exclude oil and fat toxins, and maintain beauty.

Ingredients: Two portions of millet (60 grams), one portion of glutinous yellow millet, one portion of oat flakes, one portion of Job’s tears, accessories: a small amount of lotus seeds, yam beans, peanuts, adzuki beans, a few lychees, a few dried dates (sliced), and goji berries.

Method: Soak adzuki beans (red beans) for 8 hours in advance (or 1 hour if using an electric pressure cooker), then cook the other ingredients together into porridge. You can add a few pieces of rock sugar if you like sweet taste.