1, Sesame. Sweet and neutral in nature, it nourishes the liver and kidneys, and moistens the five internal organs. As recorded in the ‘Compendium of Materia Medica’: ‘Sesame, with a mild flavor and neither cold nor hot, is an excellent grain for nourishing the liver and kidneys.’ Especially for those with kidney deficiency, who suffer from lumbago, weak legs, dizziness, tinnitus, dry and falling hair, and premature white hair, as well as constipation, it is most suitable to eat sesame.

2, Sumi. It tonifies kidney Qi. ‘Mingyi Bie Lu’ and ‘Yunnan Bencao’ both said that ‘Sumi nourishes kidney Qi.’ Li Shizhen also said, ‘Sui is the grain of the kidney, and it is suitable for those with kidney disease. Eating porridge with it benefits the丹田 and tonifies deficiency and damage.’

3, Jiangdou. It has a neutral nature and sweet taste, and can tonify the kidney and strengthen the spleen. In addition to those with spleen deficiency being suitable for eating it, those with kidney deficiency should also eat it. It is most suitable for those with kidney deficiency diabetes, spermatorrhea, whitish discharge, or frequent urination, and leukorrhea in women. ‘Bencao Gangmu’ once recorded: ‘Jiangdou regulates the middle Qi, benefits the kidney and strengthens the stomach, generates essence and marrow.’ ‘Sichuan Zhongyao Zhi’ also says that it can ‘nourish Yin and tonify the kidney, strengthen the spleen and stomach, and treat leukorrhea, whitish discharge, and kidney deficiency spermatorrhea.’

4, Niugui. It moistens the lungs, tonifies the kidney, and benefits the marrow. ‘Bencao Gangmu’ says that it can ‘moisten the lungs and tonify the kidney, nourish the skin, and delight the face.’ It is particularly suitable for those with kidney deficiency and emaciation, and depletion of essence and blood.

5, Gourou. It has a warm nature and a salty taste, and in addition to its action of tonifying the middle and benefiting Qi, it can also warm the kidney and assist Yang. Therefore, it is most suitable for those with insufficient kidney Yang, weak and sore knees or cold pain, and it is most suitable to eat it. ‘Ri Huazi Bencao’ believes that Gourou ‘tonifies the stomach Qi, strengthens Yang, warms the waist and knees, tonifies deficiency and fatigue, and benefits Qi.’ ‘Yilin Zhaoyao’ also says that ‘Gourou tonifies the lung Qi, consolidates the kidney Qi.’ Zhang Lu, a medical doctor in the Qing Dynasty, also said that ‘dog meat is most suitable for those with deficiency in the lower part of the body, such as kidney Yang deficiency and fire depletion.’ Those with lower Yang deficiency refer to kidney Yang weakness and gate of life fire depletion.

6, Yanggu. It has a warm nature and sweet taste, and can tonify the kidney and strengthen the tendons and bones. ‘Yinshan Zhengyao’ believes that ‘Yangwei gu benefits the kidney, improves eyesight, and tonifies the deficiency of the lower jiao.’ ‘Bencao Gangmu’ records that ‘Yangji gu补s the deficiency of the bones, opens the Du Meridian, treats lumbago and dysentery; Yangjing gu mainly benefits those with weak spleen and kidney deficiency, unable to retain essence, and whitish discharge.’ The ‘Shiyi Xinjing’ from the Tang Dynasty also introduces: ‘To treat kidney deficiency and coldness, inability to move the waist and back: one set of Yangji gu, pounded and boiled until soft, eaten on an empty stomach.’ For those with kidney deficiency and damage, weakness of the waist and knees, aversion to cold, and contractive pain in the tendons and bones, it is most suitable to eat it. If it is combined with traditional Chinese medicine Xini ting, the effect is even better.

7, Zhugan. It has a neutral nature and a salty taste. Meng Xun believed that Zhugan ‘is beneficial for kidney deficiency.’ ‘Ri Huazi Bencao’ said it ‘nourishes the kidney, treats deafness.’ The ‘water organ’ actually refers to the kidney. Therefore, it is suitable for those with lumbago and back pain, spermatorrhea, night sweats, and kidney deficiency in the elderly leading to deafness and tinnitus, and it should be eaten regularly.

8, Ganbei. It has a neutral nature and a sweet and salty taste, and can tonify the kidney and nourish Yin. Therefore, those with kidney Yin deficiency should eat it regularly. Wang Mengying, a food doctor in the Qing Dynasty, believed that ‘Ganbei tonifies the kidney, similar to Danhai.’ ‘Bencao Gaojin’ also said that it could ‘nourish the true Yin,’ which actually refers to nourishing the kidney Yin.

9, Lüyu. It has a neutral nature and sweet taste, and can both tonify the spleen and stomach, and nourish the liver and kidney. ‘Shen Nong’s Materia Medica’ once recorded: ‘Lüyu, with a sweet and bland taste and a mild nature, is compatible with the spleen and stomach. The kidney governs the bones, the liver governs the tendons, and the taste belongs to Yin, which ultimately returns to the organs, benefiting the Yin of the two organs, hence it can nourish the tendons and bones.’ ‘Jiaqu Bencao’ believes that ‘Lüyu is beneficial when eaten in moderation, and it is even better when made into Zhua.’ Those with Yin deficiency in the liver and kidney or weakness of the spleen and stomach should eat it.

10, Haima. It has a warm nature and sweet taste, and can tonify the kidney and strengthen Yang. Therefore, it is suitable for those with insufficient kidney Yang, including impotence, infertility, polyuria, nocturnal emission, and emaciated asthma caused by kidney Yang deficiency, and it is very beneficial to eat it.

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.

The main ingredients of scallion and egg pancake are eggs, flour, and scallions. Many people in life love it very much, and it is usually eaten for breakfast. It tastes crispy and delicious. In fact, its method is also very simple.

Step 1: Beat the eggs, mince the carrots and scallions separately.

Step 2: Mix flour with water to form a flowing batter.

Step 3: Add the seasoning and put in the eggs.

Step 4: Add the minced carrots and scallions, and mix well.

Step 5: Heat a little oil in a flat-bottomed pan, turn to medium-low heat, pour the batter in, and mix evenly.

Step 6: Fry both sides of the egg pancake to a golden yellow.

Step 7: After slightly cooling, move the fried egg pancake to the cutting board and cut into small pieces according to personal preference for eating.

Garlic indeed has certain weight loss effects, and has been confirmed by scientists before that garlic is a positive food that can accelerate the body’s metabolism and help reduce fat. So, can eating garlic at night help with weight loss? How should it be eaten?

Garlic is a positive food that can effectively improve the body’s metabolism and reduce body fat. It can affect the secretion of certain weight loss components in the body, and has a very good effect on preventing weight gain.

Overseas weight loss reports also indicate that allicin has the effects of weight loss and blood pressure reduction. When allicin is consumed with a high-fructose food, it can prevent weight gain. Many people take garlic with juice or yogurt for weight loss, achieving the desired results.

Eating garlic raw has the best weight loss effect.

Garlic should be eaten raw as the alliin in garlic is consumed when heated, leading to the loss of its weight loss effectiveness. Although the pungency decreases significantly after it ripens, it offers a very pleasant taste in the mouth, but it reduces the weight loss benefits of garlic.

Shrimp meat is very delicious and rich in nutrition, one of the most popular seafood delicacies, but there are some excrement in the shrimp’s rectum, which can have some effects on the body when eaten, so some methods must be paid attention to when washing.

Method one involves cutting off the shrimp’s head, cutting down from the brain of the shrimp. But be careful not to cut too much and wash off the yolk in the head. Then use scissors to pick out the shrimp’s brain, gently pull out the brain, and some shrimp intestines will come out. Cut the shrimp’s tail again, if you don’t want to keep it looking good, cut off the tail, cutting a little bit of the tail meat, and finally squeeze out the shrimp intestines, using the index finger and thumb to pinch the shrimp’s back, pulling towards the tail, the intestines will come out. Wash it clean and it’s ready.

Method two uses a toothpick or a large needle to pick out the rectum between the segments on the shrimp’s back; you can also cut the shrimp’s back completely with scissors, take out the impurities, which is both easy to do and flavorful.

Method three involves cooking the shrimp to half-cooked, peeling off the shell, at this time the shrimp’s back muscle is easy to flip up, and the rectum can be removed, then processed into various dishes.

In traditional Chinese medicine, eels are believed to have certain medicinal properties and are very nutritious. Drinking eel soup can nourish yin and kidney, and smooth the flow of Qi. Below, I will introduce the method of making eel soup.

Ingredients include: eel, tofu, beef, scallions, mung bean sprouts, kuzu, cabbage stems, sesame leaves, chili sauce, doenjang, light soy sauce, and ground pepper.

(1) Boil the meat sauce soup, season with chili sauce, and add a whole piece of tofu. When adding the eel, since the soup is hot, it will immediately swim into the tofu.

(2) Boil for a while, then add ginger, green peppers, and flour.

Method of filtering after boiling:

(1) Boil beef in water to make a broth, then remove the meat and add seasonings.

(2) Place the live eels in a bowl and cover them with salt and pumpkin leaves. After 3 minutes, rinse the eels with the salted pumpkin leaves.

(3) Heat sesame oil in the pot, then pour in meat broth and boil. Pour it onto a sieve and use a wooden spoon to rub and remove the meat, which will fall below, while the bones and skin will remain above.

(4) Season the soup with light soy sauce, chili sauce, or doenjang, and add ground pepper and ginger.

(5) Add mung bean sprouts, kuzu, and scallions, then reboil the beef with seasonings.

(6) Add whole chili peppers, ground red chili peppers, and ground Sichuan pepper.

Stewed shrimp congee is a relatively traditional dish in China, and it is quite famous in Fujian. Its taste is relatively light, but the flavor is particularly delicious. The nutritional value of stewed shrimp congee is very rich. The following is an introduction to its method of preparation.

Method

First make the ingredients, then cook a pot of white congee with an earthenware pot over a bright flame, and when the congee has a jelly-like consistency, which is when it is about seven-thirds cooked, add the sea shrimp and unique ingredients, and then cook for another 5-6 minutes.

(1) Rinse and cook rice: After the rice is rinsed, drain the water, add two spoonfuls of peanut oil, and mix it with the rice (it is easier to cook rice mixed with oil and it is not easy to stick to the pot). At the same time as the rice is added to the pot, add a little ginger slices, garlic cloves, and winter vegetables.

(2) Wash shrimp: If the shrimp is too large, it is not easy to flavor, so cut it open from the back, and remove the shrimp’s whiskers, but do not remove the shrimp’s head. The whole shrimp can be used (you can add a small amount of salt when washing the shrimp).

(3) Add shrimp: Once the rice is almost cooked and starting to flower, you can add the shrimp to cook together. (Note the fire control, it is best to use a gentle slow simmer. It is cooked in a high-quality earthenware pot.)

(4) Remove from heat: The shrimp can be removed from the heat after about 20 minutes. Before removing from heat, add a small amount of coriander and scallions. The entire process takes about 50 minutes.

(5) Summary: The preparation of congee generally involves two methods: boiling and steaming. Boiling refers to first using a strong flame to bring the water to a boil, then reducing the flame to a low heat to cook the congee until the soup becomes thick and dense. Steaming involves heating the water to a boil with a strong flame and then transferring it to a covered wooden bucket, which has the characteristic of a strong aroma. Most of us in our daily lives prefer the boiling method.