Staying Hydrated in Winter

How to Hydrate without Water

Winter is associated with the water element, the most nourishing and essential element for sustaining life. In these long, cool months, there is a great focus on slowing down, resting, conserving, turning energy inward, and staying hydrated. In TCM, proper hydration is crucial for optimal health and balance in the body. Hydration is closely linked to keeping the body’s yin and yang balanced, regulating fluids, promoting Qi, and sustaining the kidneys. While increased water consumption is advisable in the hot summer months, moderate consumption of water in winter is important to not cause excessive cooling of the body.

Tea

In TCM, the kidneys store jing, our vital essence, and Qi, and since an imbalance in the kidneys is easy in winter, it is important to drink lots of fluids. While a hot cup of green tea is going to warm your body up initially, it actually has cooling effects on the body, making it a more suitable tea for summer. It is essential to avoid unnecessary cooling of the body in winter, so drinking the proper tea for the winter season can keep your body warm and hydrated. Teas that have warming effects on the body include rose tea, chai tea, ginger tea, and black tea.

Rose tea can be enjoyed by steeping organic rose hips or petals in hot water for about 20 minutes. This tea boosts Qi, enriches blood, enhances mood, and is related to yin, making it the perfect tea to enjoy through the winter blues.

Chai tea is full of warming ingredients like black tea, cardamom, ginger, cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, black peppercorn, and sometimes chillies. These spices are added to milk and sugar to create a spicy tea that will keep your body warm. Chai tea can also be enjoyed sugar and milk free.

Ginger tea is warming and is used to boost the immune system, aid digestion, and enhance the

abundance and circulation of yang energy. Even though yang essence retreats during winter, this season is all about conservation to better prepare for the expansiveness of spring and summer, so yang support is still important. Add ginger to hot water and honey to taste, and enjoy a cup to battle colds or the flu.

Black tea is also warming, and improves digestion and boosts metabolism. Steep loose leaf or tea bag in hot water, add your favorite milk and honey, or enjoy black. Teas that are best left for the other months include oolong, chrysanthemum, jasmine, and green tea.

Golden Turmeric Tea Recipe
Turmeric is a warming and anti-inflammatory root that can ease any aches from wintery chills. Each ingredient of this tea has healing properties; turmeric invigorates the blood, alleviates pain, and promotes Qi circulation, black pepper warms digestion, dispels internal cold, ginger is warming, honey nourishes yin, and cinnamon warms the kidneys.

Ingredients:

● 2 cups of milk, preferably dairy free.

● 1 tsp turmeric

● 1 teaspoon raw honey or more to taste

● Pinch of ground black pepper

● ¼ inch fresh ginger, peeled or grated on a zester

● 1 tsp cinnamon

Directions:

Pour all ingredients into a saucepan and heat for 3-5 minutes over medium heat until hot but not boiling. Whisk while heating to mix all ingredients. Drink immediately. Recipe serves two.

Food

Warming or cooling foods are not categorized by their temperature, but rather by the effect they have on the body after consumption. In winter, eating foods with a high water content like bone broth with sea or himalayan salt will provide the body with all necessary nutrients while helping the body retain water and warmth. Focus on foods that share qualities of the water element, like dark colors, salty taste, and high water content. These foods include walnuts, almonds, chestnuts, seeds, oats, legumes, lentils, brown rice, lamb, chicken, salmon, shellfish, salt water fish, seaweed, spirulina, dark colored berries, root vegetables, black beans, mushrooms, onions, leeks, scallions, chives, sweet potato, whole grains, stews, soups, ginger, garlic, cardamom, cinnamon bark, clove, turmeric, warm cooked foods, and limiting cold and raw foods. Avoid cooling foods like raw salads, sushi, iced drinks, and dairy, as they all require extra energy to metabolize.

Healing TCM Soup Recipe

Ingredients:

Broth

● 1 whole 4-5 lb chicken, quartered and skin removed OR 3 large portobello mushrooms

cut into 1 inch pieces

● 1 gallon filtered water

● 2 cloves chopped garlic

● 3 stalks celery chopped

● 2 carrots chopped

● 1 large cucumber diced

● 2-3 inches fresh ginger, cut in half

● 1-2 inches fresh galangal, cut in half

● 2 tbsp apple cider vinegar

Soup

● 4 celery stalks

● 4-5 shiitake mushrooms, chopped

● 3 carrots chopped

● 1 bunch scallions, chopped

● 1 bunch cilantro, chopped

● Salt and pepper

Directions
To make the broth, add all ingredients in a pot and bring to a boil. Lower heat, cover, and simmer for 1.5-2 hours on low heat. Once done, pour through a colander and separate veggies from the chicken. Discard veggies, and pour broth back into the pot, bringing it to a simmer. Add in all soup ingredients except for the green onion and cilantro. Cover and simmer for 30 minutes.

While the broth is simmering, remove all meat from chicken, cut into small pieces, and add to the soup. Add scallions for the last 5 minutes of cooking. Serve with chopped cilantro sprinkled on top, and add salt and pepper to taste.

This winter, take advantage of the longer nights to slow down, rest, turn inwards, enjoy warm cups of tea, and hearty bowls of soup. Conserving energy now is important for maintaining it through the expansive summer months where depletion is easy, so like water, flow with the season and stay warm and hydrated.

Resources

● The Water Element: A TCM Approach to Winter Wellness — Balance Acupuncture -

Charleston, SC

● Staying Hydrated from a TCM Perspective - Mend Acupuncture

● TCM Winter Health Tips to Reflect & Recharge.

● https://urbanremedy.com/healing-traditional-chinese-medicine-soup-recipe-for-winer/

● ​​A TEA FOR ALL SEASONS - Rebalance Traditional Chinese Medicine

● Discover 8 Warming Teas as Defined by Traditional Chinese Medicine

● Winter Nourishment | TCM NYC | The Yinova Center

● Golden Turmeric Tea – Watertown Acupuncture

5 Flavors to Harmonize Your Health

Spanning many traditional medicinal systems, the ancient concept of the 5 flavors and their effect on the body is all about maintaining harmony within the body. These flavors: sweet, sour, bitter, salty, and spicy, are considered for their therapeutic use in treating various organ systems, as well as treating their specific organs according to the Five Elements. It is believed that a craving for a particular flavor can indicate a deficiency in the corresponding organ. Eating foods in a particular flavor can help balance a deficient organ, and the craving for the associated flavor may dissipate once balance is restored. Though Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) also teaches the importance of eating seasonally, top priority is balancing the individual’s needs, which may include eating foods that are out of season.

Sweet: Earth, spleen, pancreas, stomach, yang, fire, warming.

The spleen is an important organ for digestion and absorption of nutrients from food. When the spleen is weak, deficient, or imbalanced, one may experience symptoms like low energy, stomach abdominal bloating after eating, irregular bowel movements, weight gain, heavy and puffy arms and legs, poor quality of sleep or insomnia, underactive thyroid, chronic fatigue syndrome, and oedema. Those with a spleen deficiency may crave sweets because sweet flavors tonify, harmonize, moisten, and contain fire, which warms the spleen and unblocks stagnant Qi. Children especially crave sweet flavors because their spleen is still developing, and sweet flavor foods protect them while they are strengthening their digestive system. To balance spleen Qi, eat whole, natural foods like whole grains, cabbage, fruits, carrots, parsnips, chestnuts, millet, rice, licorice, astragalus, dates, and sweet potatoes. Avoid processed, simple sweets, since sweet flavor foods should be gentle and nourishing.

Sour: Wood, liver, gallbladder, yin, cooling, moves energy up and out.

The liver dominates emotions, and is stagnant when one is easily angered, irritated, or emotional. Other symptoms, exacerbated by liver Qi causing blood to rise to the head, include headaches, dizziness, high blood pressure, or red eyes or face. The liver deficient body may also experience insomnia, bloating, constipation, depression, premenstrual tension, or hyperthyroidism. Sour foods like tomato, orange, kiwi fruit, vinegar, lemon, lime, pickles, sauerkraut, sour apple, sour plum, rose hip, and hawthorn berry counteract the effects of rich and greasy foods, breaking down fats and protein to facilitate efficient and proper digestion.

Bitter: Fire, heart, small intestine, yin, cooling, contraction, descending energy.

Bitter flavor in Chinese medicine is associated with fire and clearing heat from the body, especially the heart. Excessive heat shows itself through ulcers in the mouth, red face, heart palpitations, anxiety, insomnia, dark or yellow urine, red or burning tongue, or a bitter taste in the mouth. This flavor helps reduce inflammation, infections, constipation, and overly moist or damp individuals. Because excess heat is often caused by the gallbladder or liver, foods of this flavor clear stagnancy and cools liver heat. Eat foods like alfalfa, bitter melon, romaine lettuce, rye, bitter gourd, pomelo, mustard leaf, dandelion, parsley leaves, collard greens, arugula, kale, celery, corn, burdock root, or sesame seeds to stimulate the small intestine and heart, and dispel damp related conditions like candida, parasites, mucus, swelling, skin eruptions, abscesses, growths, cysts, and obesity. Obese and lethargic, as well as overheated and aggressive individuals benefit the most from the bitter flavor.

Salty: Water, kidneys, bladder, yin, cooling, moves energy downward and inward.

Kidneys store our body’s original essence, which is inherited by our parents and determines our innate strength or weakness. Salty flavor purges, softens lumps, lymph nodes, or stiffness, detoxes the body, improves digestion, and guides Qi to the kidneys. The salty flavor increases yang, balancing the yin nature of the water element. Symptoms of kidney deficiency or imbalance include low energy, lower back, knee, ankle, or heel pain, tired legs, poor memory, frequent urination (especially at night), early graying of hair, early menopause, impotence, developmental problems for children like delayed speech or walking, or the sensation of tasting salt. Salty foods include animal products, prawns, sea cucumber, lamb, pickles, soy sauce, miso, oyster, black beans, walnuts, chestnuts, and goji berries.

Pungent/Spicy/Acrid: Metal, lungs, large intestine, yang, warming.

Pungent flavors disperse and move blood around the body and guide Qi to the lungs. Because of the aromatic nature of spicy flavors, they are used to dispel nasal congestion, clearing mucus from the sinuses. Since the lungs are the body’s first defense against outside pathogens, the lungs can become impaired and cause symptoms like sneezing, runny or congested nose, coughing, headaches, body aches, fever, or sore throat. Those who benefit the most from the pungent flavor are those who are sluggish, dull, lethargic, or excessively heavy. Eat foods like onions, scallions, radishes, ginger, wasabi, dry mustard, garlic, horseradish, black pepper, mint, cayenne, elderflower, spearmint, rosemary, and chamomile. Incorporate with caution, as an excess of spicy foods can irritate the intestines.

Paying attention to what your body is telling you through symptoms and cravings can reveal ailments in the body, and suggest treatment through food. Using the five flavors, sweet, sour, bitter, salty, and pungent, help your body work efficiently, clear stagnation, guide Qi, and return to harmony.

References:

https://fiveflavorsherbs.com/blog/the-five-flavors-in-traditional-chinese-medicine/

https://renewacupunctureclinic.com.au/five-flavours-food-according-traditional-chinese-medicine/#:~:text=The%20Chinese%20categorise%20the%20taste,disease%20and%20recover%20from%20illness.

https://www.sitcm.edu.au/blog/how-the-5-flavours-of-tcm-whole-foods-influence-better-health/#:~:text=Natural%2C%20sweet%20foods%20nourish%20the,parsnips%2C%20chestnuts%20and%20sweet%20potatoes.

Healing with Whole Foods, Paul Pitchford