Warming black foods
Women who are generally slim, with a constitution prone to coldness due to weak peripheral circulation and poor body temperature regulation, are most likely to experience cold hands and feet. Additionally, food is an important source of heat for the body. If you diet excessively or let your blood sugar drop too low by starving yourself, it can also cause cold hands and feet.
Therefore, during winter, women should not only do some warming small exercises like jogging or hula hooping but also focus on nourishing their bodies through food. Black foods are the best choice because they contain a large amount of trace elements and vitamins. The pigment in black foods, scientifically named "anthocyanin," has strong antioxidant effects, clearing active oxygen from the body, which helps to tonify the kidneys, warm the body, and prevent aging.
Recommended foods: Black rice, black buckwheat, black dates, black beans, black sesame seeds, and black fungus.
Water Chestnut and Mung Bean Delight
Preparation: Peel and finely chop the water chestnuts, add rock sugar and lemon, and cook into soup. Steam the mung beans until cooked, then add water to make mung bean paste. Combine the mung bean paste with the water chestnut soup. The fine water chestnut particles add a crisp texture, making the taste sweet but not greasy.
Effects: Mung beans have a cool nature and can clear heat, detoxify, relieve summer heat, reduce swelling, improve eyesight, lower blood pressure, soothe the throat, moisturize the skin, remove fat, and protect the liver. Water chestnuts (Bulbous) are rich in dietary fiber. The sugar, protein, iron, calcium, phosphorus, and vitamins A, B, B2, C found in water chestnuts also have the effect of lowering blood pressure and preventing cancer. Mixing 100g of mung beans with an appropriate amount of glycerin and applying it can moisturize the skin, treat acne and cracked skin, and has beautifying effects.
Mung Bean and Coix Porridge
Preparation: Wash 20g of coix seeds and 20g of mung beans, then soak them in water overnight. Discard the soaking water, place the mung beans and coix seeds in a pot, add fresh water, and bring to a boil over high heat. Then simmer until fully cooked and ready to eat.
Effects: In traditional Chinese medicine, mung beans and coix seeds have diuretic effects and can improve edema. Coix seeds themselves have whitening effects, reducing the formation of spots on the face; mung beans have detoxifying effects, helping to quickly expel toxins from the body, making them excellent items for weight loss.