With durian season starting off, and Singapore’s heat and humidity rising, the two factors on top of the existing stress of Covid-19 have somehow formed a winning combination that makes it a little too easy for our immune system to slip below average. There are, of course, easy ways to cool down, with fans, air conditioners, or even snacking on chilled foods. But another way to go about it is to practice the traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) belief of avoid eating too much heaty foods.
If you’re unfamiliar with the TCM categorisation of foods, the practice is that everything we consume can be classified under heaty, cooling, or neutral. For the former, heaty food usually warms the body (as the name suggests), and vice versa with cooling foods. It’s not that all heaty foods are bad or all cooling foods are good, in the TCM belief, we need both to balance our body’s systems. Just consider everything in the right portions.
Here are six heaty foods you should try to eat in moderation.