What is the "Litter hit" in China’s 24 Solar Terms?
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[File photo: IC]

[File photo: IC]

"Little heat" begins on July 7th this year according to the Chinese calendar. What is it? It is the 11th solar term of all 24 East Asian solar terms, called Xiaoshu in Chinese, as “Xiao” means “little”, and “Shu” means “heat”, as a result, this Chinese term represents the beginning of the hottest summer days of a year.

The average temperature will rise up to 91 degrees, and marks the beginning of the rainy season in the south part of China. It is said that this period of time is the most essential and precious for crops to grow.

[File photo: IC]

[File photo: IC]

Chinese people preserve their health by eating appropriate foods in different seasons. On Xiaoshu, they tend to eat more lotus root, bean sprout, ginger, Asian swamp eel, clam, green beans etc. Let’s look into these specific foods and see what’s magical about them.

Chinese people like to eat Lotus root when the air hot and dry because it effectively help moistening the lung and alleviating inner heat. Eating cooked lotus root in hot summer days benefit stomach by assisting digestion.

[File photo: IC]

[File photo: IC]

Bean sprout may seem rare in the states and other countries, but it is rather popular in Chinese food culture. Bean sprout has always been one of the major ingredients in the summer recipes because of its amazing effects on gut purging. The riboflavin in bean sprout can be used to fight inner humidity and cure mouth ulcers, which is a type of small wound inside the mouth that happen to a lot of people in summer days because of the high temperature.

When the weather’s hot and humid, people tend to have bad appetite. It is hard for them to eat regular amount of food they need for the day. This is when Chinese people like to add ginger to their food to help increase the appetite and assist the digestion. In addition to this, they like to put ginger and sugar into hot water and drink it, because it helps to expel the humidity in the body when people catch a cold in hot summer days.

[File photo: IC]

[File photo: IC]

People tend to sweat a lot and lose massive amount of body fluid due to hot temperature and increasing outdoor activities. Green bean is perfect for supplementing water and mineral salt and maintaining liquid electrolyte balance for human body. Besides, green bean water is easy to make. Simply boil the green beans in the water and drink it when the water temperature cools down. This is why green bean has become one of the most popular drinks for Chinese people.

[File photo: IC]

[File photo: IC]

Clam is another favorite sea food for Chinese people when it is summer, because the massive amount of vitamin A, vitamin B1 and B2 calms contain advance people’s vision ability, and help people remove the inner humidity. What makes the fact that calms are good for people’s eyes is that people’s eyes tend to get dry when they stay in rooms with air-conditioner on for a long time, and clam is the perfect cure. Chinese ways of clam cooking is rather different from how western people cook clams, we tend to put the fresh clams into the autoclave for around 10 minutes and stir fry the clam meat with ginger and chili.

[File photo: IC]

[File photo: IC]

Asian swamp eel, AKA white ricefield eel, may look scary but definitely is one of most specifically appropriate things to eat in summer for Chinese people. This kind of fish tastes fresh and tender, and it helps eliminate inner dampness and it helps to protect the heart muscle. However, it is important to note that, Asian swamp eels need to be fully cooked, or the parasites inside the eel may enter the human body and cause derma diseases and infections.