Foods for Eliminating Damp Heat
Excess diseases associated with both dampness and heat are treated with these regulating foods.
Alfalfa Roots
Reduce internal heat, remove dampness, promote urination; good for jaundice, urinary stones, and night blindness.
Brake Roots
Reduce dampness and heat in the internal region, good for jaundice, vaginal discharge, diarrhea, abdominal pain, and eczema.
Buckwheat
Moves energy downwards, enlarges the intestines, checks sluggishness, eliminates internal heat, relieves swelling and pain, heals vaginal discharge, stops diarrhea.
Preparation
To remedy pain in the intestines with diarrhea: Fry 6g (0.21 oz) of wheat without oil, add one teaspoon of brown sugar, and one cup of water. Drink it warm.
To remedy abdominal pain with diarrhea: Eat buckwheat or buckwheat noodles for three to four days.
To remedy skin erysipelas and furuncle in children, mix buckwheat powder with vinegar for external application to the affected region. Change the dressing twice a day. Buckwheat stems and leaves contain large amounts of rutin, which can prevent cerebral hemorrhage caused by hypertension. Externally, buckwheat stems and leaves can be crushed for application to wounds to stop bleeding.
Purpura and bleeding from the eyes can be treated with a simple recipe: Boil 60g (2.1 oz) of buckwheat stems and leaves and drink like tea.
Cantaloupe Calyx-Receptacle
Induces vomiting, reduces jaundice, treats acute jaundice-type hepatitis.
Preparation
Since cantaloupe calyx receptacle can induce vomiting, it is used for food poisoning. To treat food poisoning, grind one gram of cantaloupe calyx receptacle and 3g (0.11 oz) of adzuki beans into powder. Take the powder with water all at once. To treat jaundice-type hepatitis, bake and grind it into powder. Take 0.1g (0.003 oz) of powder with water once every 7 to 10 days. At the same time, inhale the same amount of powder into the nose after breakfast once every 40 minutes for a few times. This may cause a discharge of yellowish water from the nose, which should go away.
Celery Roots
To relieve vomiting, boil 10g (0.35 oz) of fresh celery roots with 15g (0.53 oz) of licorice. Crack a chicken egg into the soup when boiling and drink like soup.
Chinese Cabbage
Good for constipation; thirst due to intoxication; ulcers.
Description
Neutral; sweet; glossy; promotes urination; beneficial to the kidneys and brain after prolonged consumption; affects the stomach and large intestine.
Preparation
Squeeze 1 to 2 fresh Chinese cabbages to obtain the juice; warm it. Drink the juice twice a day for 10 days to treat gastric and duodenal ulcers.
Notes
It is reported that Chinese cabbage contains vitamin U, which is effective for the treatment of ulcers, reportedly better than artificial vitamin U.
Although Chinese cabbage is listed among foods with neutral energy, it is commonly regarded as a cold food, useful for hot symptoms, such as inflammation or ailments of various kinds. These include eye infections, sore throat, chest pain, cough with yellowish mucus discharge, difficult urination, abdominal swelling, and constipation. The symptoms must be hot symptoms if they are to be treated by Chinese cabbage.
It is reported that fresh Chinese cabbage juice can also relieve gas poisoning.
Citron Leaves
Good for jaundice.
Coconut Shells
Good for pain in the bones.
Common Carp
Promotes urination, reduces swelling, secures the fetus, promotes milk secretion in breastfeeding mothers, removes internal heat and detoxicates, suppresses coughs, relieves hiccups.
Preparation
To treat edema, cook a large common carp with vinegar or with adzuki beans and eat at meals.
To promote milk secretion in breastfeeding mothers, bake a common carp and grind it into powder. Take 4g (0.14 oz) of powder with a half glass of wine once a day.
To promote urination and reduce swelling, prepare 450g (15.9 oz) of common carp. Wash it clean and place it in a pan with an equal amount of adzuki beans. Add water to boil until the carp becomes very soft. Cut off the head; remove scales, bones, and internal organs. Eat the fish and beans and drink the soup without salt. This recipe is equally good for portal cirrhosis ascites.
Corn Silk
Promotes urination, reduces internal heat, calms the liver, benefits the gallbladder; good for nephritis, edema, beriberi, jaundice-type hepatitis, hypertension, gallstones, diabetes, vomiting of blood, and nosebleeds.
Cucumber Vine (Stem)
Good for epilepsy and hypertension.
Day Lilies
Reduce internal heat, promote urination, nourish the blood, regulate the liver, promote milk secretion in breastfeeding mothers.
In Fukien province in China, fresh roots of day lily are used to treat arthritis with good results; In Jiangsu and Anwei provinces, the same roots are used to prevent schistosomiasis also with good results.
Preparation
To stop bleeding hemorrhoids, boil 30g (1.1 oz) of fresh day lilies in water. Strain them, add a teaspoon of brown sugar, and drink one hour before breakfast for 5 days.
To treat mumps with the roots of day lilies, boil 60g (2.1 oz) of roots with 10g (0.35 oz) of rock sugar. Strain it and drink soup at meals daily for one week.
Dried Black Soybean Sprouts
Good for edema, diminished urination, and pain in the bones.
Eggplant Calyx
Good for the discharge of blood from the anus, mouth cankers, and toothaches.
Fig Leaves
Good for hemorrhoids, heart pain, painful swelling.
Glutinous Rice Stalks
Good for hepatitis.
Hawthorn Fruit
Good for meat indigestion, abdominal swelling, mucous discharge, discharge of blood from anus, lumbago, hemia, neck pain after childbirth.
Description
Slightly warm; sweet and sour; promotes digestion; corrects blood coagulations; expels tapeworm; affects the spleen, stomach, and liver.
Preparation
- Soak hawthorn fruit in boiling water for less than 1 minute; slice the fruits and lay them in the sun to dry. (Hawthorn fruit slices are available in most Chinese herb shops.)
- Fry hawthorn slices until they look like charcoal to make hawthorn fruit charcoal.
- Mix together the following ingredients and marinate for 10 days to prepare hawthorn fruit wine: 250g (8.8 oz) hawthorn slices, 250g (8.8 oz) fresh longans, 30g (1.06 oz) red dates, 30g (1.06 oz) brown sugar, and 4.5 cups (36 fl oz) rice wine.
- Drink 30 to 60g (1.1-2.1 oz) hawthorn fruit wine at every bedtime to relieve pain caused by excessive fatigue, muscular pain and arthritis pain, flying spots in front of the eyes, lumbago, and pain in the thigh in the elderly.
- Boil in water 60g (2.1 oz) hawthorn fruit slices with an equal amount of fresh or dried chestnuts until very soft; add 30g (1.06 oz) sugar and stir thoroughly.
- Drink the juice once a day; first thing in the morning on an empty stomach, to remedy scurvy.
- Boil 31g (1.1 oz) hawthorn slices with water; stir in 1.5g (0.05 oz) fennel powder. Drink the juice in the morning and evening to relieve hernia of the small intestine.
- Boil 15g (0.53 oz) hawthorn fruit slices in water and drink as tea on a long-term basis to relieve hypertension, high levels of blood fat, and coronary heart disease.
- Grind 6 to 9g (0.21-0.32 oz) hawthorn fruit charcoal into powder. Take the powder with warm water, once a day to relieve abdominal pain caused by acute and chronic gastritis, enteritis, and dysentery.
- Boil 3g (0.11 oz) hawthorn charcoal with 6g (0.21 oz) hawthorn fruit slices, drink the juice to relieve diarrhea in children; or crush 5 hawthorn fruits and squeeze out the juice to mix with a pinch of hawthorn fruit charcoal for oral administration to stop diarrhea in children.
- Crush 2 to 3 fresh hawthorn fruits and squeeze out the juice to drink; or boil 2 to 3 hawthorn fruits with 6g (0.21 oz) dry orange peels; drink the juice to correct indigestion, abdominal swelling, and abdominal pain.
Experiment
- An experiment on rabbits shows the effects of hawthorn fruit in lowering blood pressure.
- An experiment on toads shows the effects of hawthorn fruit in expanding blood vessels.
- Hawthorn fruits are reported to have the effects of contracting the uterus and reducing antibiosis.
Notes
Hawthorn fruits are not recommended for people suffering from constipation due to internal heat or those who have excessive gastric acid.
Hawthorn fruits can effectively digest fat and prevent it from entering into the blood vessels by removing it through the bowel movements. Indeed, the fruits are so effective in softening hard substances, the Chinese people use them to cook stubborn and tough old chickens! When hawthorn fruits are used in the cooking water, the tough chickens become soft and tender- an indication of the tenderizing power of this fruit. Another example, when hawthorn fruits are used to cook fish, even the fish bones will become tender.
Olives
Good for sore throats, coughing up blood, alcoholism, diarrhea.
Description
• Neutral; sweet and sour; obstructive; affects the lungs and stomach.
Preparation
- Dry fresh olives in the shade for 1 to 2 days. Put olives in a large earthenware container, add salt and store for 2 weeks to make preserved olives.
- Remove the seed from a fresh or preserved olive and keep the olive in your mouth to relieve sore throat. Repeat with 1 olive each time, a few times a day.
- Boil 5 fresh pitted olives and a piece of crystallized ginger in water. Drink the juice 3 times a day, to remedy dysentery and enteritis.
- Boil fresh pitted olives in water, add 100g (3.5 oz) fresh gas root and lean pork and a little salt. Drink the juice only, once a day, to stop bleeding from hemorrhoids and bleeding from the stomach.
- Mix 5 fresh pitted olives and some rock sugar, steam them for half an hour. Eat the olives to relieve chronic cough.
- Crush 5 to 10 fresh pitted olives; add 35g (1.2 oz) sugar and 4 cups (32 fl oz) water, boil for 10 minutes. Drink the juice, once a day, to relieve alcoholism.
Clinical report
For treatment of acute bacillary dysentery:
Use 100g (3.5 oz) fresh olives with seeds and boil in a cup of water over very low heat for 2 to 3 hours until reduced to a half cup; strain.
Adults drink a half to 1 tablespoonful each time. Repeat 3 to 4 times until bowel movements return to normal. Treatment stops as soon as the patients have 1 to 2 bowel movements daily. In general, each treatment program continues for 5 days.
Plantains
Promote water flow, reduce internal heat, sharpen vision, remove phlegm; good for urination difficulty, blood in urine, edema, jaundice, diarrhea, nosebleeds, pink eye, sore throats, and coughs.
Pumpkin Roots
Reduce dampness and heat; good for jaundice.
Pumpkin Roots
Reduce dampness and heat; good for jaundice.
River Snails
Reduce internal heat, promote urination, counteract alcoholism, relieve pain in the eyes.
Notes
Cooked river snails can promote bowel movements, remove accumulated heat in the abdomen, treat yellowish eyes, relieve beriberi, and reduce edema in the hands and feet. Juice squeezed from a fresh river snail can relieve diabetes; its meat can be crushed for external applications to heal carbuncles.
Shells
Reduce internal heat, promote urination; good for edema, pain on urination, blood in urine, urination difficulty, and film in the eyes.
Soybean Oil
Good for gastric ulcers, duodenal ulcers, intestinal obstruction.
Description
Hot; pungent and sweet; lubricates the intestines.
Preparation
Prepare 1 teaspoonful of soybean oil and add a few drops of lemon juice. Drink it on an empty stomach first thing in the morning; gradually increase the dosage to 5 or 6 teaspoonfuls each time to remedy gastric ulcers, duodenal ulcers, and intestinal obstruction.
Notes
Soy sauce (a product of soybeans) can promote digestion, and it can also be used as an external remedy to heal burns. But excessive consumption of soy sauce will cause a cough and thirst and is not recommended for people with jaundice.
Squash Flowers
Reduce heat and dampness, heal swelling; good for jaundice, dysentery, coughs, carbuncles, and swelling.
Squash Roots
Reduce heat and dampness, promote milk secretion in breastfeeding mothers; good for urination difficulty, swelling, jaundice, and dysentery.
Star Fruit (Carambola)
Good for coughs and fevers from a common cold, toothache, kidney and bladder stones, hemorrhoids, mouth canker, indigestion, hangover.
Description
Cold; sweet and sour; reduces fever; produces fluids; promotes urination; detoxicates.
Preparation
- Eat a fresh star fruit each time, twice a day, to relieve fever and cough in a common cold.
- Boil 3 fresh star fruits with 2 teaspoonfuls of honey. Eat the fruits and drink the juice once a day to relieve kidney and bladder stones and difficult urination.
- Crush 3 fresh star fruits to make juice. Drink it twice a day to relieve pharyngolaryngitis, mouth canker, and toothache.
- Crush 3 fresh star fruits and mix the juice with cold water. Drink it 3 times a day to relieve painful urination and discharge of red urine.
- Eat 2 fresh star fruits each time, twice a day, first thing in the morning on an empty stomach and in the evening, to relieve hemorrhoids.
Sunflower Disc or Receptacle
Good for hypertension, headaches, arthritis, blurred vision, and toothaches.
Wheat Seedling
Good for jaundice and alcoholism.
Yellow Soybean
Good for malnutrition in children, diarrhea, abdominal swelling, underweight, gestosis.
Description
Neutral, sweet; used as a spleen tonic; lubricates dryness; eliminates tissue fluids; affects the spleen and large intestine.
Preparation
- Fry yellow soybeans until aromatic to eat at meals to promote milk secretion after childbirth.
- Fry yellow soybeans and then boil them in water to eat at meals to correct underweight.
Clinical report
A treatment of acute gestosis: 92 cases of potential eclampsia and eclampsia are treated by soybean juice (soybean and water ratio 1 to 8) cooked with 120g (4.2 oz) sugar, divided into 6 dosages. Eat while drinking additional water.
In general, treatment lasts 2 to 4 days and then changes to a salt-free diet. On the second day of treatment, fruits or lotus root powder may be administered to relieve hunger. In the control group, 41 cases are given only a salt-free diet with other factors identical in both groups, including avoidance of sound and light stimuli and administration of sedatives and antispasmodic drugs. The results indicate that the experimental group shows a faster disappearance of edema and faster normalization of the blood pressure than the control group; the death rate in the experimental group is zero while in the control group it is more than 2 percent. The result is attributed to the fact that yellow soybean juice is low in calcium and sodium, higher in vitamin B-1 and niacin with more water intake, which contributes to the lowering of blood pressure and increased urination.
Notes
Yellow soybean sprouts are cool and sweet.
They are used to relieve a cough with a discharge of yellow mucus and to promote urination.