How pleasant it is to drink a bowl of herbal tea on a scorching summer day. Herbal tea is highly favored in summer not only for its taste but also for its effects in reducing internal heat and relieving summer heat. Many citizens enjoy making herbal tea at home during summer. A quick online search reveals dozens of herbal tea recipes, each with different ingredients and functions. For example, tangerine peel tea can relieve summer heat and cough, while dark plum tea can moisten the lungs. However, although herbal tea is an excellent beverage for clearing heat and dispelling dampness, it is also a Chinese medicinal decoction. Is it suitable for everyone?
Experts state that herbal tea should not be consumed daily as a regular beverage. Drinking herbal tea should also be based on understanding one's own constitution, varying from person to person, according to the time and place. Taking Prunella vulgaris as an example, it is widely used in herbal tea primarily to clear liver fire and dissipate stagnation. It helps clear heat and reduce fire for those with excess heat, but it is not suitable for frequent consumption by those with weak constitutions, the elderly, and children.
How exactly can one make healthy, wellness-promoting herbal tea? And how should herbal tea be consumed? Times has specially invited Wang Bin, Director of the Chinese Pharmacy at Hangzhou Red Cross Hospital, to provide detailed explanations for readers and recommend several herbal teas suitable for summer consumption.
Check Your Constitution Before Drinking Herbal Tea
Wang Bin said that every summer, many people come for consultations, complaining of poor spleen and stomach function due to drinking herbal tea. What is the reason for this? In fact, the consumption of herbal tea should align with Chinese medicine principles, and it is best to prepare herbal tea under the guidance of Chinese medicine.
From the perspective of Chinese medicine, the human body has nine major constitutional types, such as qi deficiency and yang deficiency. Most people have a relatively balanced constitution, but clinically, individuals with spleen-stomach deficiency-cold or internal heat constitutions should make different dietary choices in summer.
People with spleen-stomach deficiency-cold tend to sleep curled up, feel cold all over, are prone to diarrhea, have loose stools, and have a pale tongue. They should eat less cold-natured foods and more warm-natured foods, such as ginger, scallions, garlic, beef, chicken, shrimp, and crucian carp. Duck meat, which is cold-natured, is best avoided.
People with internal heat constitutions sweat easily with movement, are more heat-sensitive, have a dry mouth preferring warm drinks, experience warmth in palms and soles, have a red tongue, and dry stools. They can appropriately consume cool-natured foods and even some slightly chilled items.
Wang Bin said that many people think they have excessive heat when they have a sore throat or mouth ulcers, so they frequently visit herbal tea shops. Regarding sore throat, the symptoms may be the same, but the nature differs. A sore throat after eating fried or grilled foods is often related to excessive heat, a case of "excess fire," and drinking some herbal tea to purge the fire may be appropriate. However, a dry, sore throat in the elderly due to fluid deficiency or in young people after prolonged late nights is often a manifestation of yin deficiency and internal heat. In such cases, drinking herbal tea would be counterproductive.
Don't Treat Herbal Tea as a Daily Beverage
So-called herbal tea is actually a "decoction of Chinese medicinal herbs" made by boiling herbs with cold or heat-clearing properties in water. Its functions generally include clearing heat and detoxifying, dispelling dampness and promoting fluid production, clearing fire and improving eyesight, etc. Many people have misconceptions about herbal tea: during hot summer days, many families like to buy herbal tea ingredients to brew at home, with all family members, young and old, drinking it together. Some even treat herbal tea as a beverage and drink it daily.
"All medicine has some toxicity." Wang Bin advises that Chinese medicinal herbal tea, being a medicine, is not suitable for daily consumption. It should not be taken continuously for more than three days, and the amount consumed each time should not be too large. Drinking it 2-3 times a day is sufficient, and the frequency should not exceed three times a week. Prolonged consumption can easily harm the stomach, leading to adverse reactions like stomach pain, poor appetite, and diarrhea.
It is also important to note that when brewing herbal tea at home, it is best to use a clay pot. If a clay pot is not available, enamelware can be used, but iron pots must be avoided. This is because iron readily undergoes chemical reactions with Chinese medicinal herbs, which can severely alter the herb's properties and produce side effects.