Beat the Heat with these Cooling Snacks

As we are in the middle of summer and the weather gets even hotter, I wanted to share foods that cool you down from a Chinese medicine perspective.

Cooling Down with Chinese Medicine

Unlike Western understandings of food, Chinese medicine considers the energetic properties of food and how they affect the body. Each food has varying properties—heating, cooling, drying, and dampness— and each of these properties has different effects on your body.

I’m going to focus on how cooling foods affect the body and how they can help you with overheating.

With summer coming, temperatures are rising, and so is the heat in your body. This excess heat can cause an imbalance between Yin (cooling) and Yang (warming) energy system. As a result, you may experience physical symptoms like skin breakouts, acid reflux, dry mouth, inflammation, heat rash, and even migraine or headaches. Moreover, the heat can cause a disturbance in your spirit and emotional wellbeing, which leads to irritability, anxiety, restlessness, and even insomnia.

To balance the excess heat in your system and prevent these symptoms, you can try eating some foods with cooling properties. I’ve come up with a list of recommendations for cooling foods below.

My Cooling Food Recommendations:

Preparation matters

While it is important to consider what you’re eating, you should also think about how you cook your food. Depending on how you prepare your food, you may be adding more heat and reducing its cooling effectiveness. Preparation methods like grilling, frying, and baking can add more heat to the food, meaning you won’t be able to feel the full benefits of your food that would have been “cool” otherwise.

Instead, you can try steaming, simmering, lightly sautéing, or even eating raw fruits and vegetables. This way, you introduce minimal heat to your food while still cooking it to your liking. However, to ensure you’re getting the full cooling benefits from your food, I suggest eating your fruits and vegetables raw as a small snack or as a salad if possible mainly in the warmer seasons.

🍉 Watermelon in Chinese Medicine: Summer's Best Cooling Food

Nature: Cold | Flavor: Sweet

Enters: Heart, Stomach & Bladder meridians

Every summer, Traditional Chinese Medicine has one go-to food — watermelon. Not because it tastes good in the heat, but because it actually lowers heat in the body. It soothes irritability, replenishes fluids, and even supports your bladder and kidneys. The rind is the most powerful part, so don't waste it as it has even more cooling effect.

In Traditional Chinese Medicine, watermelon (西瓜 xī guā) clears heat from the body, nourishes yin, quenches thirst, and supports the Heart, Stomach & Bladder meridians.

Don't throw away the rind! The white rind (西瓜皮 xī guā pí) is even more powerful than the flesh. Here's how to use it:

• Simmer as a tea to reduce swelling and clear summer heat

• Stir-fry with garlic like zucchini

• Pickle with salt for a cooling side dish

• Blend into juice or smoothies

• Apply cooled rind directly to sunburned skin

Cool your body from the inside out this summer the way people have for thousands of years.

Watch how watermelon cools your body down!

Hope this blog post helps you stay cool this summer!

HAPPY HEALING!