If you are living in Virginia, like me, summer is an intense time of year!  Not only is it hot, hot, hot, it's also wet, sticky, humid, and sometimes oppressive.  My hometown, Chicago, is also hot and humid, but at least there it cools down a bit in the evenings.  You can wake up early and take a jog in the relatively cool morning air.  Not so in Virginia!  I know I'm not the only one who refuses to hide in the AC all summer.  So, what is the trick to staying cool?  Drain summer-heat-damp, of course?

What's summer-heat-damp?  It's a disease catagory in Chinese medicine.  We must acknowledge that our environment plays a role in how we feel.  In the summer, when it is hot and damp, we too become hot and damp!  People who are naturally hotter or "damper" will be effected by this weather more than others, because the condition is already present in their bodies.  However, anyone who is in this hot wet environment will be effected.  First, let's look at the signs and symptoms of summer-heat-damp, and then I will tell you some things you can do to prevent it and treat it.

Heat: Irritability, thirst, red face, rapid pulse,

Dampness: Feeling of heaviness, lethargy, puffy tongue, puffy anything, thirst with no desire to drink

Control your internal environment with proper nutrition, as described below.  This is living in tune with the environment:

Foods that clear heat and drain damp: All fruits and vegetables that grow locally in your region (go to your farmer's market); Chinese barley (aka job's tears, hato mugi, or yi yi ren), celery, cucumber, lettuce, watermelon (eat the white part too), mung beans (must have mung beans!)

Limit: Very sweet fruits like banana and mango (excess sweet causes dampness), sugar, pastries, anything made with flour, greasy fried foods, cooked fats in general, meat, cheese, chocolate, coffee, spices, alcohol (atleast eat some cucumber and berries with it instead of hot dogs and nachos!)

Ideas:

Iced Tea with Ju Hua (Chrysanthemum Flower-found in Asian grocery stores) and honey

Iced mint tea (simmer fresh mint leaves, for >5 minutes, for great tea)

Mung beans cooked with cilantro, wrapped in lettuce.  Or make rice and beans using mung beans, season with fresh cilantro, serve with a salad.

Add boiling water to mung beans and drink as a tea.  Keep replacing the hot water throughout the day.  Eat the beans at the end of the day.

Keep cut up cucumber, celery, and watermelon in the fridge.  Bring with for snacks when you go outside.