Tons of ice cream and countless watermelon slices: have you thrown in the (sweaty) towel in the search for a cooling menu?
According to Sybille Binder, nutritionist FH and therapist for Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), these cold foods could be involved in the internal heat. So if the dripping doesn’t end, it might be worth applying a few tricks from TCM, which is more than 2000 years old.
SRF: Ms. Binder, I’m sitting at my desk with an iced coffee. What does TCM say about this refreshment?
Sybille Binder: That there is still room for improvement (laughs). Of course you can still drink a cup of coffee at these temperatures. However, too much of it can overheat our body and make it jittery. And: We have to talk about the ice cubes in a moment…
Why?
It may sound paradoxical, but with coffee you bring even more heat into your body. In order to understand this, however, we have to talk about the thermal effect of food.
I am excited.
In TCM, foods have the ability to influence their ambient temperature. Broken down, this means: The more watery a food is, the more likely it is to have a cooling effect on our body. The more nutrient-dense a food is, the more likely it is to warm us from the inside.
I recommend light fish or light meat or tofu and grilled or steamed vegetables.
Seasonal vegetables such as tomatoes, cucumbers or strawberries are watery and contain vitamin C, potassium and magnesium and – if prepared correctly – are a great way to cool down.
Properly prepared?
Yes, the preparation also has an influence on how warming or cooling a food affects us. Something muted has a balancing, warming effect, while raw has a cooling effect. Red meat, on the other hand, is one of the warming foods. It also heats up when grilled.
That means people aren’t doing themselves any favors at the grills right now.
At least not when they do that with red meat, ketchup, and red wine. These things produce a lot of internal heat. Our body should now cool down in order to be able to regulate its temperature. According to TCM, this means: add reasonable heat.
What does that mean in concrete terms for the next barbecue party?
Light fish or light meat or tofu and grilled or steamed vegetables. Add a light yoghurt sauce with herbs like lemon balm and dill and you have a summer dish that I would recommend.
How about a cool summer salad?
That depends on your personal constitution. According to TCM, many people have too much cold inside, which is shown by the fact that they often feel exhausted, freeze easily and actually always need socks to sleep, even in summer.
Of course you can eat an ice cream. But you shouldn’t do this every day.
If you then eat foods with cold properties, such as raw foods, internal heat is reduced, which can manifest itself as indigestion.
Are there foods that are good for all of us right now?
Water with peppermint leaves and a salad of steamed vegetables. Basically steaming is good for everyone. We should leave everything extreme, i.e. deep-frozen or fried.
So no more ice cream?
Of course you can eat an ice cream. But you shouldn’t do this every day. Everything from the freezer – including the ice for your iced coffee – is zero degrees. Her body temperature is 37.
So your digestive tract and the surrounding organs need a lot of energy to get your body back up to operating temperature. Classic nutritional science would see things differently with the ice cubes.
Which cooling tips do TCM and western nutritional medicine agree on?
For example peppermint oil. Conventional medicine explains its cooling effect with secondary plant substances in the essential oils. And that alcoholic drinks and too much sugar make the metabolism sluggish and have a very counterproductive effect in this heat, too.
Gina Buhl conducted the interview.