A focus on wet-cooked foods

Chinese medicine dietary therapy shows us the importance of wet-cooked foods.

Wet-cooked foods are what they sound like they’d be: foods prepared with water.

Think soups, stews, watery oats, and congees (porridge).

We put so much empasis on wet-cooked foods in our dietary practice because they continue to release hydration throughout digestion, which enables us to become truly, deeply hydrated.

As you have heard, hydration is essential to our baseline health. Systemic hydration in our bodies helps us fend off illness. It supports so many of our body systems.

In Chinese medicine, fluids originate in the stomach. We need to take in fluids (or foods that in part contain some fluid) so that we can engender more fluids, mount an immune defense, and keep our digestion moving properly. In particular, when we eat wet-cooked foods for breakfast, we set the stomach up for better digestion all day by introducing substantial hydration early on.

We have all learned somewhere that drinking lots of water throughout the day will keep us hydrated, but Chinese medicine shows us a different understanding. The primary function of drinking water is to flush out toxins and excess. Water comes into the digestive tract and leaves rather quickly. It is important to drink water for this reason, but we also need to cultivate a density of fluids from our foods and the digestive process.

Think about it. How many of you drink water throughout the day, which in turn leads you to use the restroom many times per day or night, but you still feel thirsty or dry?

Our food choices affect our levels of hydration immensely. The daily diets of many people contain dehydrating foods in large amounts. Some of the primary dehydrators include caffeine (especially coffee), chocolate, garlic, onion, hot peppers, and fried foods. These foods dry us out, burn up fluids, and introduce heat, especially if we eat them each day or even multiple times per day.

One of the key ways that this dehydration can show itself is in our digestive process. Slow digestion (constipation) often indicates that there is a lack of systemic hydration and also perhaps an accumulation of heat in the digestive tract.

You can also look at your tongue. If you see many small crack branching off from the middle, this may indicate that you are deficient in fluids and the stomach is “looking” for more fluids.

The practice of including wet-cooked foods can be an enjoyable way to support your health, especially in this fall season, when soups and stews are so comforting. There are many ways to customize these foods, which allows them to be fitting for many family dynamics (where tastes may vary 🙂).

Here are a few ideas to get stated:

• Congee | Andrew Sterman has a great article on this classic Chinese preparation of rice porridge. We eat congee every morning in our house (and we mostly prepare it in our instant pot to save time when we’re in more of a hurry). We like to eat congee with boiled eggs, a bit of cinnamon, a splash of tamari, scallions, and fresh ginger.

• Oatmeal, but more watery | Prepare your oats as you normally would, but consider adding 2x as much water. Stir in gently warming spices like cinnamon, cardamom, and nutmeg. You can also make savory oatmeal with some of the add-ins from the congee recipe above.

• Noodle Soup | Try making a soup base without garlic and onion - swap in leeks, fresh ginger, and scallion instead. This soup combo is far less heating, and instead, is gently warming. These vegetables do not burn up fluids in the same way. Add bok choy, daikon reddish, rice noodles, and a protein of your choice.

Do you already eat wet-cooked foods? Are you looking for more ideas? Send me a short reply here if you’re looking for more information or if you still feel unsure of how to get started. As always, you can schedule a session if you’re ready to start creating an individualized food practice of your own.

PS: If you live in the Albuquerque area, you might be curious to check out the pulse & tongue readings I am offering at Lost Cultures on Thursday evenings from 5-6pm. These 15-minute readings are kind of like a “mini session” where you can come out, meet me, and learn a bit about what the pulse and tongue reveal about your health in Chinese medicine. The sign-up link is below.

Warmly,

Artemisia

Clinical Herbalist | Chinese Medicine

innervillagehealth.com

@innervillagehealth