Cold Fruit & Hot Vegetables • 冷的水果和熱的蔬菜

Hello, my name is Halden Levin, and you are listening to Little Dragon’s Journey. 你好！我叫李靜辰，你正在聽小龍的旅程。

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I find Eastern medicine very fascinating, since Eastern medicine is seemingly foundationally different from Western medicine. Different foundations, different ideologies, and as far as I can tell, one is not necessarily the end all be all for medicine, the only answer to our physical and psychological quandaries. Here in Taiwan I’ve found it so interesting learning little bits about Eastern medicine and how people’s habits and ways of addressing the body are different from most Westerners, or at least most Americans in some respects.

For one, this is pretty well known, most people in Taiwan and China and many other Asian countries prefer to drink lukewarm to hot water over cold water because, based on Eastern medicine, drinking lukewarm to hot water is considered healthier than drinking cold water. Why is lukewarm to hot water considered healthier? Well, I asked Spring, our lovely local coordinator, and she said it’s because the body’s temperature is naturally quite hot [For adults, it’s about 97°F (36.1°C) to 99°F (37.2°C)], so drinking cold water will affect your internal body systems and require your body to work harder to maintain its natural temperature.

My opinion on this is first and foremost drinking water is important, whether said water is hot or cold. Stay hydrated! When I exercise and after I exercise, I usually always drink cold water because it feels refreshing and rewarding and helps prevent you from getting too hot. After I eat a meal, I’ve found that drinking tea or just plain hot water helps with digestion and gives me a sense of finality. Since, I get cool very easily, if it’s not a really hot day, or I’m not really hot, I generally drink hot water or tea. So, to be frank, drinking water is important, and the temperature of water consumed does have slightly different impacts on your body. However, drinking cold water is very unlikely to significantly impact your physical health in a negative way.

Another interesting custom that has its roots in Eastern medicine is 坐月子 or sitting a month; it’s honestly a little difficult to translate. Basically, after a mother gives birth to a child, it is custom in Taiwan and China and other Asian countries for the mother to spend a month resting and recuperating, which of course makes sense, since after giving birth to a child, the mother’s body is in a bit of a weaker state. However, 坐月子 has some interesting components, such as not drinking any cold beverages, not going out, not cuddling your baby, not even showering. The goal of this, the purpose of this, is to allow the mother’s body to restore balance. There are specific places that mothers can go to recuperate called 月子中心, or confinement centers; once again, hard to translate. These facilities provide a place for mothers to stay, nurses, meals, and many other services, so they are far from cheap.

Some mothers will 坐月子 at home. I believe my host mom told me that she stayed at home to recuperate, and didn’t necessarily follow the 坐月子 guidelines, specifically the don’t-shower rule. I month without showering is definitely not something I could do. The act of resting after childbirth is incredibly important, and part of that is eating nutritious, healthy food, exercising lightly, and focusing on your health, but I don’t think minimizing interaction with your child, not showering, not using an air conditioner, not consuming cold beverages or foods is really necessary.

The last encounter with Eastern medicine I had in Taiwan that I wanted to mention is the idea of cold and hot foods, and this doesn’t have anything to do with the actual temperature of the food. In Eastern medicine, there is a focus on maintaining balance of the body, balance the yin and yang of the body. Cooling foods, such as apples, bananas, green tea, millet, tofu, and pork, raise the yin, while warming foods, garlic, pumpkin, mangoes, wine, and beef, raise the yang. Some foods, such as figs, olives, milk, peanuts, and carrots, are considered neutral.

Personally, I still don’t really understand the concept of cold and hot foods. Eating nutritious balanced meals is important. I encountered a number of Taiwanese people who believed in the idea of cold and warm food and yet couldn’t really explain why foods were considered warm or cool and sometimes didn’t even know what foods were considered warm or cool. This one I’m still a bit on the fence.

One thing I realized growing up is that medicine has limitations, whether we’re referring to Western medicine or Eastern medicine. For example, when I was in high school, I experienced a pretty bad muscle tear during my junior year. I went to my school’s trainer, and they of course tried to help me, but they honestly didn’t really know exactly what was wrong. It was a little frustrating; I wasn’t frustrated at them I was just frustrated at not knowing. Sometimes I wondered if I was just making it up or if it was solely psychological. As a person who loves running, if I could’ve run at that time I definitely would have. But sometimes I just I wondered, and it didn’t feel right.

Anyway, all this is to say is that medicine has limitations, and there are also different approaches to solving physical and psychological conditions. When I was in Taiwan, I thought it was so interesting listening to people’s thoughts and different perspectives on medicine and taking care of their bodies. Sometimes I would ask them why they believe what they believe and sometimes they asked me why I do what I do or why I believe what I believe, and sometimes they wouldn’t have an answer, sometimes I wouldn’t have an answer. So, I think it’s important to acknowledge the limitations of medicine and to be open to other people’s perspectives. Try to get to know the “why” about what you do because I feel like sometimes we just do things because we have always done it that way. Just a thought, just a little soapbox moment.

Sources:

1. https://www.npr.org/2011/07/20/138536998/for-chinese-moms-birth-means-30-days-in-pajamas

2. https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/i-tried-the-chinese-practice-of-sitting-the-month-after-childbirth/2017/01/06/54517ee0-ad0b-11e6-a31b-4b6397e625d0_story.html

3. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1238216/?page=3

4. https://www.latimes.com/world/la-fg-china-hot-water-20160313-story.html

5. https://www.pingminghealth.com/article/581/warming-and-cooling-characteristics-of-common-foods/

6. https://www.healthline.com/health/is-drinking-cold-water-bad-for-you

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Please visit haldenlevin.wixsite.com/littledragonjourney to access the transcript of this episode, and know you are always welcome to contact me through my website, email, or social media. Thank you for joining Little Dragon’s Journey. 謝謝你們參加小龍的旅程。拜拜！