Add nuts and beans to porridge, people who drink porridge will live longer!

Editor's note: Associate Professor Chang Hui of the Nutrition and Food Research Center of the Third Military Medical University said that the history of Chinese people drinking porridge is at least 2,000 years old, and there are many examples in history of drinking porridge helping people live longer. Lu You of the Southern Song Dynasty not only had strong teeth and sharp eyes and ears at the age of 70, but also lived to the age of 85, which was related to his love of drinking porridge. However, there are many types of porridge, and people of different ages and professions should drink porridge differently.

Children and the elderly: Cook until soft

For the elderly and children whose digestive systems are not yet fully developed, eating too much coarse grains will increase the gastrointestinal burden due to their weak digestion and absorption functions. You can choose easily digestible coarse grains such as millet, rhubarb rice, and brown rice. When cooking, cook the porridge until it is soft and sticky to facilitate digestion and absorption.

Manual laborers: add nuts

People who do a lot of physical labor and teenagers who are growing have a greater demand for nutrients such as protein.

In addition to choosing grains with high protein such as oats to make porridge, you can also add some peanuts, walnuts, melon seeds and other nuts, which can not only supplement nutrition but also make the porridge more fragrant.

Adults with many social activities: Add miscellaneous beans

Sitting in the office for a long time and having little activity can easily lead to fat accumulation. In addition, drinking alcohol and socializing are unavoidable, which is not good for the liver and gastrointestinal function. You can add beans (such as red beans and mung beans) and vegetables to the porridge to increase the intake of dietary fiber, which is beneficial to the metabolism of fat and cholesterol, and can also keep blood sugar stable.

Computer people: more dark materials

Office workers who often face computers can add some eye-protecting foods to their porridge, such as dark-colored rhubarb rice, millet, black rice, purple rice, wolfberry, carrots, etc. The carotenoids contained in dark-colored ingredients such as rhubarb rice and millet can be converted into vitamin A in the human body, which is beneficial to eye health; while black rice and purple rice contain a large amount of anthocyanins, which can resist eye aging.

Drink watermelon rind and mung bean porridge to clear away heat and relieve summer heat

Watermelon peel has a diuretic function and can also clear away heat and relieve summer heat. Mung beans can also clear away heat and reduce fire, prevent heatstroke and detoxify, and are also a good product for nourishing the spleen and stomach, with the effects of clearing away heat and relieving summer heat, diuresis and swelling.

Method: First, put the rice and mung beans into the pot and cook for 10 minutes. Peel off the hard outer skin of the watermelon, cut it into cubes and add it into the pot. Boil it over high heat, then turn to low heat and cook it into porridge. You can add some white sugar or shredded tangerine peel when eating.

Drink lotus seed and lily porridge to nourish the heart and calm the mind

Lily has the effects of moistening the lungs and relieving coughs, clearing the heart and calming the nerves. Lotus seeds are neutral in nature and can nourish the heart and calm the nerves, strengthen the spleen and nourish the kidneys. This porridge is fragrant and sweet. Regular consumption can strengthen the stomach and spleen, has a good effect on indigestion and loss of appetite, and also has the effect of beautifying and maintaining beauty.

Method: Cut the lily into small pieces, soak the lotus seeds in hot water until soft, then add rice and lily and cook together. After the water boils, add the lotus seeds and jujube, and continue to simmer over medium heat until cooked.

Drink winter melon and lean meat porridge to clear away heat and relieve summer heat

Winter melon has the effect of promoting body fluid and quenching thirst, clearing away heat and removing summer heat. Cooking it with rice and lean meat can clear away heat and detoxify, strengthen the spleen and promote urination, and also has the effect of losing weight. It is suitable for eating during the hot and stuffy summer.

Method: Boil the rice for 25 minutes, cut the winter melon into small cubes, add salt and wet starch to the pork filling, mix well and add to the pot, continue cooking for 10 minutes.

Drink loofah porridge to relieve summer heat and relieve restlessness

Sponge gourd tastes sweet and cool in nature, and can relieve heat and relieve restlessness. Eating sponge gourd porridge can prevent summer heat, clear away heat and resolve phlegm, and remove dampness and detoxify. People with fever, thirst, phlegm, asthma and cough can eat more.

Method: First, put the rice into the pot and boil it over high heat, then simmer it over low heat until it is half cooked. Then, wash and peel the loofah, cut it into bean-sized pieces, add it to the porridge, and cook until the loofah is rotten and the porridge is cooked.

Drink bitter melon and chrysanthemum porridge to clear your mind and improve your eyesight

Bitter melon has a unique bitter taste, which can suppress the overexcited body temperature center, clear away heat and detoxify, and clear the heart and improve eyesight. Chrysanthemum is cool in nature and sweet and bitter in taste, and has the effect of clearing heat and dispersing wind. This porridge can clear away summer heat, and people with symptoms of heatstroke and thirst may wish to eat more.

Method: Wash the rice and chrysanthemum, put them into the pot and boil until the water boils. Remove the pulp of the bitter gourd and cut it into pieces. Add them into the pot together with rock sugar. Cook over low heat until the rice is soft and the porridge is thick.

Drink lotus leaf and lotus root porridge to lower blood pressure and blood lipids

Lotus root tastes sweet and has a lot of juice, while lotus leaf is cool in nature. Its unique fragrance can dispel heat and dampness, disperse blood stasis and stop bleeding. Lotus leaf and lotus root porridge has the effects of clearing away heat and relieving summer heat, lowering blood pressure and lipids, and can relieve symptoms such as dizziness, nausea, loss of appetite and abdominal distension caused by summer heat.

Preparation method: First wash and chop the lotus leaves, then put them into the pot. After the water boils, take out the lotus leaves and keep the juice. Then cut the lotus root into small pieces, add it to the juice together with rice and cook it into porridge. Add sugar to taste and it is ready to eat.

Lotus seed and yam porridge nourishes spleen and stomach qi deficiency

Children with spleen and stomach qi deficiency often have symptoms such as sallow complexion, fatigue, loss of appetite, bloating after eating, and loose stools. When necessary, you can use Chinese patent medicines such as Shenling Baizhu San, Qiwei Baizhu San, etc. for treatment under the guidance of a doctor. Lotus seed and yam porridge can be used for usual diet therapy.

Preparation: 30g lotus seeds, 80g yam, 50g polished rice. Peel and core the lotus seeds, add yam, polished rice and water, cook into porridge, suitable for children with weak spleen and stomach, which leads to loss of appetite and weight loss.

Gorgon Fruit and Poria Cocos Congee Strengthens the Spleen Yang

People with spleen yang deficiency often have cold limbs and cold pain in the abdomen. Eating raw or cold food will easily cause abdominal pain and diarrhea. Typical spleen yang deficiency can be treated with Lizhong Pills, and daily diet therapy can be used with Gorgon Fruit and Poria Congee.

Preparation: 15g Gorgon Fruit, 15g Poria, and appropriate amount of rice. Put the first two ingredients into the pot and cook until soft, then add appropriate amount of rice and continue to cook until soft into porridge, and take it in meals. It has the effect of strengthening the spleen and removing dampness, astringing the intestines and stopping diarrhea.

Adenophora, Radix Ophiopogonis, Lentil Porridge Nourishes Stomach Yin

Children with insufficient stomach yin usually have sores in their mouths and tongues, accompanied by dry mouth and red lips, hot hands and feet, loss of appetite, constipation and other symptoms. Chinese patent medicine can be used to treat it with Yangwei Zengye Decoction, and diet therapy can be used with Adenophora Root, Ophiopogon Japonicus and Lentil Porridge.

Preparation: 10g each of Adenophora Root and Radix Ophiopogonis, 15g of Lentils, and 50g of Polished Rice. First, boil Adenophora Root and Radix Ophiopogonis in water for about 20 minutes, filter the soup, add Polished Rice and Lentils and cook into porridge.

Pine nut and rice porridge strengthens the spleen and stomach and replenishes lung qi

Pine nuts and japonica rice cooked together into porridge have the effects of replenishing deficiency, nourishing fluids, moistening the lungs and lubricating the intestines. It is especially suitable for middle-aged and elderly people, the weak and premature aging, postpartum physical weakness, dizziness, dry cough and blood, chronic constipation and other symptoms.

Specific method: Select 50 grams of pine nuts, 50 grams of polished rice, and an appropriate amount of honey for later use. First, grind the pine nuts, and then cook them with polished rice into porridge. When the porridge is cooked, add an appropriate amount of honey to season it and it is ready to eat.

This porridge can be taken as breakfast, on an empty stomach after getting up, or before going to bed at night.

Pine nuts are mild in nature, sweet in taste, and rich in linoleic acid, linolenic acid, vitamin E, calcium, iron, phosphorus, potassium, etc. Modern research shows that pine nuts can soften blood vessels, regulate blood lipids, and prevent cardiovascular diseases. In addition, pine nuts can also beautify, relieve constipation, and resist aging. Traditional Chinese medicine believes that pine nuts can strengthen yang and bones, moisten the lungs and relieve coughs, replenish qi and blood, and moisturize the intestines.

Japonica rice is rich in various nutrients such as protein, fat, calcium, phosphorus, iron and B vitamins. It has the effects of nourishing yin and promoting body fluid, relieving restlessness and thirst, strengthening the spleen and stomach, and replenishing lung qi.

Although drinking porridge is good, there are several misunderstandings that you should pay attention to.

1. Don’t always drink porridge for three meals

Drinking porridge properly is good for health, but you should not drink it every meal. Porridge is a liquid food, and its nutrition is inferior to the same volume of rice. And porridge is not full. You feel full when you eat it, but you will be hungry again soon. In the long run, the elderly will suffer from malnutrition due to insufficient energy and nutrition intake. So when drinking porridge, you should also pay attention to balanced nutrition. Cook the porridge thicker, add some meat dishes, or eat some snacks between meals, etc., to replenish energy.

2. Ice porridge is not advisable

Ice porridge is a hot-selling food in summer, but it is not suitable for the elderly and children with cold and weak constitutions. Drinking too much ice porridge will not only block the sweat pores of the human body, making it difficult to excrete metabolic waste, but also may affect gastrointestinal function.

3. Diabetics should drink porridge in moderation

Diabetic patients are usually hungry easily, and porridge is easy to digest, which makes people want to eat again soon after eating; porridge itself is also easy to be absorbed by the body in a short period of time, causing blood sugar to rise rapidly or fluctuate too much. Therefore, diabetic patients should drink porridge in moderation, a small bowl each time is enough.

4. People with bad stomach should drink less

Many people believe that porridge nourishes the stomach. But in fact, this view is not comprehensive. Because drinking porridge does not require slow chewing, it cannot promote the secretion of oral salivary glands that can help digestion; and porridge with a high water content will dilute gastric acid after entering the stomach, accelerate the expansion of the stomach, and slow down the movement of the stomach, which is also not conducive to digestion. Therefore, patients with stomach problems should not drink porridge all the time, but should choose other foods that are easy to digest and absorb, chew slowly, and promote digestion. (People's Health Network compiled from Farmers' Daily, Life Times, and Health Times)