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Spring is the season when Yang energy rises. It is beneficial for children to have a moderate dispersion of Yang energy within their bodies. However, many parents overlook dietary details in daily life, allowing their children to consume excessive “scattering” Yang foods, leading to a depletion of Yang energy, weakened constitution, and impaired growth and development.
Today, I will discuss which types of foods should be avoided and provide dietary suggestions for warming and assisting Yang energy.
Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) believes that Yang energy is fundamental to life. If a child lacks Yang energy, it can easily lead to issues such as frequent illness and stunted growth. Children naturally possess a delicate balance of Yin and Yang, and their Yang energy is inherently insufficient, making them vulnerable to the depletion of Yang energy due to incorrect lifestyle habits and feeding practices.
Particularly, parents should be cautious about the following common foods, as excessive consumption can quietly deplete Yang energy, resulting in a significant decline in constitution.
Raw and Cold Foods
As stated in the “Treatise on Pediatric Pathogenic Factors”: “The spleen is the source of nourishment… warmth consolidates and nourishes the original Yang, while cold damages the true Qi.”
Moreover, children are inherently Yang in nature. Consuming too many raw and cold foods is akin to pouring ice water on a small stove, leading to damage to the spleen and stomach, and depletion of Yang energy, which can easily trigger symptoms such as abdominal pain, diarrhea, and cold stomach.
Cold and Heat-Clearing Foods
In previous springs, the weather was hot and humid, allowing for the consumption of heat-clearing and damp-dispelling ingredients. However, this year’s climate is different.
Therefore, if parents only consider the season without paying attention to the current weather and their child’s constitution, giving them too many cold and heat-clearing foods can exacerbate their naturally weak and cold constitution, damaging the original righteous Qi and leading to further weakness.
Difficult-to-Digest Foods
With improved living conditions, parents often indulge their children with rich foods like abalone, sea cucumber, and various snacks such as cakes, fried foods, and chocolates.
However, these foods are rich and heavy, making them difficult to digest. While some may have high nutritional value, they increase the burden on the spleen and stomach, leading to food stagnation and damage to the spleen and stomach.
Children with a weak and cold constitution are prone to symptoms such as cold hands and feet, thick white tongue coating with teeth marks, excessive salivation, cough with phlegm, food stagnation, constipation, or diarrhea. These are all results of damaged lung and spleen Yang energy, so it is crucial to protect the Yang energy within children.
To align with the rising Yang energy of spring, I recommend incorporating some warming foods that help to promote Yang energy. Consuming a little each day can gradually warm and nourish the Yang energy within children. The most suitable and convenient options are three common condiments—scallions, ginger, and garlic.
Scallions, Ginger, and Garlic: Nourishing the Liver and Warming Yang
In spring, the liver Yang is responsible for growth and development. Liver Qi promotes the circulation of Qi and blood to warm the entire body. Foods like scallions, ginger, and garlic can help nourish liver Qi and, due to their pungent and warming properties, play an important role in dietary therapy, especially in the windy, cold, and damp climate of spring.
Scallions
Scallions can promote Yang energy and dispel cold. They contain allicin, which has strong antibacterial properties and can inhibit bacteria and viruses.
During outbreaks of respiratory infections, consuming raw scallions can have a preventive effect. For example, the scallion and brown sugar water I often recommend can help disperse wind and cold, treating colds and flu.
Ginger
Ginger has the effects of warming the middle, stopping vomiting, and dispersing cold. Consuming a small amount can help disperse internal wind and cold invasions. If a child has a cold stomach or experiences vomiting due to external wind-cold, consuming raw ginger can provide significant relief.
Additionally, in response to the recent frequent cold air and dropping temperatures, ginger can be used to make foot baths, which can disperse cold and eliminate dampness, alleviating symptoms of cold hands and feet in children. For more information on the uses and benefits of ginger, please refer to my previous articles.
Every household has ginger, which not only disperses cold and resolves exterior symptoms but also alleviates cold symptoms!
Garlic
Garlic is known as a “natural antibiotic” and has the effects of promoting Qi, relieving stagnation, and detoxifying. It can enhance metabolism and appetite, and the allicin it contains can resist bacterial infections, achieving anti-inflammatory and antibacterial effects.
Adding minced garlic to dishes can neutralize some of the cold properties of ingredients, making it more suitable for children with a weak and cold spleen and stomach, thereby enhancing the efficacy of dietary therapy.
Scallions, ginger, and garlic are relatively warming. Using them well in daily cooking can enhance their Yang-promoting and growth-supporting effects, while also stimulating appetite and preventing excessive heat.
I suggest that in spring, you can use scallions, ginger, and garlic to prepare a dish of Claypot Baked Pig Liver (the recipe can be found at the end of the article).Since spring is suitable for nourishing the liver, consuming pig liver can nourish the liver by form, and the aroma of scallions, ginger, and garlic can mask the fishy smell of pig liver, making it more acceptable for most children, achieving multiple benefits.
Pig liver is warming in nature, nourishing the liver and brightening the eyes, tonifying Qi, and strengthening the spleen. Enoki mushrooms, known as intelligence mushrooms, are cooling in nature and can balance the warming properties of pig liver and scallions, making the combination suitable for regulating liver Qi, nourishing the liver, and replenishing blood and nutrition.
If children do not like pig liver or have poor digestion, you can use shiitake mushrooms with scallions and garlic to make a bowl of Scallion and Garlic Shiitake Mushroom Porridge, which is nutritious and easy to digest.
Shiitake mushrooms are cooling in nature, helping to strengthen the body and improve appetite, and they are rich in calcium, making them a high-calcium food beneficial for children’s growth and development. Paired with warming scallions, ginger, and garlic, this combination is well-balanced and easy to prepare, helping to strengthen the spleen and warm the body.
In addition to emphasizing the use of these three condiments in daily cooking, parents should also be cautious of “diseases entering through the mouth” and minimize the consumption of foods that deplete Yang energy. Regularly nourishing Yang energy in children can also refer to my “Complete Guide to Pediatric Dietary Therapy” and “Professor Xu Youjia’s Classic Pediatric Dietary Therapy”, which contain many dietary therapy suggestions suitable for children’s constitution, helping parents better protect their children’s Yang energy.
Xu Youjia’s Parenting Hall · Dietary Therapy Recipe
Claypot Baked Pig Liver
Ingredients: 30g pig liver, 15g enoki mushrooms, appropriate amount of scallions, ginger, and garlic, seasoning to taste.
Method: Prepare a piece of fresh pig liver, soak for 30 minutes, slice and set aside; wash and chop the enoki mushrooms; in a clay pot, heat some oil and sauté scallions, ginger, and garlic until fragrant, then add pig liver and enoki mushrooms, pour in an appropriate amount of water, and simmer for 15 minutes, seasoning to taste.
Effects: Nourishes liver Qi and replenishes liver blood.
Indications: Suitable for children over 3 years old with good digestion and no illness. Can be used for those with favism.
Xu Youjia’s Parenting Hall · Dietary Therapy Recipe
Scallion and Garlic Shiitake Mushroom Porridge
Ingredients: 2 fresh shiitake mushrooms, 30g of japonica rice or long-grain rice, appropriate amount of scallions and garlic, seasoning to taste.
Method: Slice the shiitake mushrooms, sauté scallions and garlic in oil until fragrant, add all ingredients to the pot, and cook with an appropriate amount of water until soft, seasoning to taste.
Effects: Strengthens the spleen and warms Yang.
Indications: Suitable for children over 2 years old with good digestion and no illness. Can be used for those with favism.
Not sure what nutritious meal to pair?
Check out this book for quicker and better assistance!
Besides internal nourishment, don’t forget external care!
Use Gan Li Tong for foot baths to drive away cold and warm Yang for your child!
Warm Reminder
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