Breakfast is the best new-old trick in the book
October 30, 2014Recovering from exercise and injuries
November 5, 2014I’m not a huge fan of smoothies because they’re cold. Chinese medicine is firmly opposed to eating anything cold. Even when we treat injuries with acupuncture, we don’t also use ice. Chinese medicine says “ice is for dead people.” Instead we use herbs to reduce inflammation, stimulate blood flow, and stop pain. That’s why we prefer MEAT to RICE for injury management.
Sorry… back to the topic at hand… smoothies are cold, often made with ice cubes, but suddenly in Autumn we have a work-around! It’s time to capitalize on the pumpkin spice trend!
Pumpkin is warm and nourishing to digestion. It’s also rich in fiber and carotenes, to protect our eyes.
Autumn is a great time to substitute almond milk for other nut and dairy milks. Autumn is the season of the Lungs, which means this is the time to take care of the whole respiratory system. Almonds nourish the Lungs specifically and moisten dryness, which can prevail in this season, affecting both our skin and also the throat.
The common spices of the season… cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, all spice, cloves… all warm the digestion and counteract the cold nature of a smooth. They move the Qi and prevent accumulation of fluids, which means you might be less likely to develop mucus in your throat and nose from drinking a cold smoothie.
Regardless of all this, I’m still going to get down on my electronic, internet-based hands and knees to beg you to leave the ice out of the smoothie. In our book, the only time that might make it slightly permissible to include ice is in summer. But I’d just as soon leave it out all year round. Your milk base straight from the fridge is plenty cold.
