Why your Chinese medicine practitioner would say “Eating Ginger in summer and having Chinese Radish in winter”

In Chinese culture, people believed that “eat ginger in summer and eat Chinese radish in winter “will be benefit for the health. This sounds not that to understand, but actually linked with some principle with basic Chinese medicine theory and philosophy.

 Chinese medicine as one of the oldest natural health medical system, has existed for more than 3000 years and based on “Yin and Yang” theory, “Qi Blood Essence “theory , five elements system, specific Zang Xiang organ system, channel/meridian theory and applied all of these theories to the practice to assistance dealing with the clinical symptoms and health prevention.    

 The weather is hot in summer, and according the “Yin and Yang” theory in Chinese medicine, followed the natural weather changing, in our body, the Yang energy is spreading to the outer layer for the more activities, relatively the inner side of the body ”lack” of Yang, especially the inner side of the organ, for example, the gastrointestinal system. Plus, in the summer, people would like to eat the more cold food and drink, consequently the more “cold” stuff may hurt the gut, in Chinese medicine , we called as “ cold attacked the Spleen”; ginger has pungent taste and warm nature, can be used to disperse wind-cold, warm the middle energizer (including gastrointestinal system) to stop vomiting. Also, some research indicated ginger’s antimicrobial and antibacterial effect, so that having a bit more ginger in summer actually will be good to balance our body Yin and Yang, and prevent the gastrointestinal problems.

 There is another story in winter, the weather is cold, the leaves are withered in winter. Our body withdraw the Yang energy back to inner side for storage not going to surface. Actually, that’s why people may easy feel cold at extremities (food and hand) and easy to be attacked by external pathogens. Also, people more prefer to eat the warm and rich food in winter, caused the more chance to get “inner hot”, so that we can have the white radish (Daikon) to moisture the internal dryness and dissipate internal heat ; white radish also have effect to regulate Qi in the body, remove food retention, and improve the bowel movement. Some recent research also indicated the white radish may be benefit for respiratory and immune system, help with inflammation and help to regulate the blood pressure and good for weighting loss.