Tuesday, 22 June 2010
-
Lychee Season is "HOT"!
Happy Summer Solstice everyone! (One day late.) I love summer because it is a season full of antioxidant-rich fruits and vegetables. The one fruit that is particularly in season right now is lychees. It's pretty much only the month of June. Lychees are a unique fruit that require a specific climate to grow. One of the best places to grow lychees is Guangzhou. This is the China province located above Hong Kong. When I lived in Hong Kong, I used to see people on the train coming from Guangzhou with baskets and baskets full of lychees!Lychees are very sweet. They contain a lot of sugar in them, but they are also full of vitamin C. Even more than oranges! But you know what's strange about them? Traditional Chinese medicine believes in a holistic method of health. They believe there needs to be a balance for good health like a "ying" and "yang". Foods are assigned to a "hot" category or "cold" category. And this doesn't mean temperature! It has to do with the foods' energetic properties (i.e. Is it cooked/raw? What colour is it? Is it spicy/bland?).
Lychees are considered a "hot" food. When I was in Hong Kong, my teacher warned me not to eat too many lychees or else I'll get a sore throat. She believes that eating too many "hot" property foods will cause an imbalance in the body. Dietitians and nutritionists will always recommend to eat as many fruits and vegetables as possible though! You know what's weird? I did eat a lot of lychees in Hong Kong. And I got the WORST sore throat of my life!
We need a "balance" between the "yin" and the "yang" in our bodies.I never learned about hot and cold properties of food in school. Was my sore throat from eating too many lychees? How could a fruit ever make me sick? A western dietitian would probably tell you to eat "everything in moderation", but even the healthy stuff? Yes, my sore throat could have been because of other things. I did get sick a number of times in Hong Kong and it could be because of the pollution. This is kind of gross, but I remember the air was so polluted that even the snot in my nose turned black color! (No, don't worry, I'm not a dirty nose picker like some of the people that I see on the bus!)
I don't know much about traditional Chinese medicine, but here are two interesting facts that I picked up:
- Eating too many lychees can give you a killer sore throat.
- Beer is considered a "cold" property food. Got a sore throat? Drink up.
Follow me on Twitter: twitter.com/Elizabbit
-
recommend
- recs 1
-
email
- sent 3
- like
Related Posts
Post a Comment
- Back to theHealthRabbit's Xanga Site!
- Note: your comment will appear in theHealthRabbit's local time zone: GMT -05:00 (Eastern Standard - US, Canada)
Comments (32)
I like lychee, but just don't like have to use my hand to open it.. haha..
@SuperRat - I always use my teeth to open up the skin. Ah, i'm so lame.
I love lychee! And yes, Hong Kong has the best lychees. :)
@miss_prettyinpink - I think Toronto has the best... HK one not too juicy..
@i_Nutrition - Why you say that... That is normal to use your teeth, if me. Do the same too..
Why, it's quicker that way.. right?
I love Lychee! :) Too bad I have to go up to Vancouver to get good lychee.
@i_Nutrition - haha I use my teeth, too.. it's normal! :P
OMG!!! I can never think of Lychee without telling this story!
I was at my friends house & her mom is from the Philippines so he accent is thick. And I was eating with them & she takes a bowl out of the fridge & says "Mina, do you want some leeches?". I nearly choked on my food because leeches are bugs but I didnt want to be rude because if that was a food in their culture, I would be offending them. So Steph (my friend) was like "MOM IT'S LYCHEE NOT LEECES!!!". I think she was embarrasses. But after I tried it, I liked it! XD!!!
They are good but I dont think they're all that sweet. Lychees are very juicy & kinda slimy to me but I plucked mine out of the juice in the bowl so maybe they're served differently sometimes? I'd love to try it again but I dont see them sold here. It's bad enough I have to wait until fall to buy Pomegranates because they arent in season on our side of the world until then. I usually buy 8 at a time & since they can be up to $2 each, it's not cheap!
i'll keep more beer in the fridge in that case
I don't like Lychees at all. Yeah HK is a very polluted place.
Lychee green tea are my favorite boba tea drinks!
i've seen lychees here and i think i'd like to try them - i've never had them before. they LOOK so interesting
also whoah dude that is some major mf'ing pollution. my asthma would kill me over there - i'll stick to my big open b.c. mountains.
Yum,lychees.
My mom (also Chinese, as am I) also says that lychee and longan are "hot." She doesn't warn of sore throats, but of bloody noses.
Going outdoors for a day in Beijing (in the winter of 2007, I think it was) also filled my nostrils with soot.
I thought lychee come from Dongguan, a suburb of Guangzhou, no? My friend used to lived there and he mentioned there are lychee trees EVERYWHERE. He got so sicked (literally) of eating lychees after one summer. It's so inexpensive to eat there. I love those law-mi-chi... tiny seeds and huge.
@sf2slc - I'm not sure where exactly in the province of Guangzhou that lychees are grown. I just know that it's very close to Hong Kong in the southern part of China! Lychee trees everywhere? Sounds like heaven to me :P
@Roadlesstaken - There's lychee jelly too! I haven't had bubble tea in so long. I've become really westernized in the last couple of years!
@Shinbi_Belldandy - If you find lychees to be too slimey in texture, try rambutans. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rambutan) They are similar to lychees, but I find they have less juice. You might like them! They have the funniest outside appearance though! haha red skin with hairs coming out
I love lychee!!! But I always have a hard time peeling off the skin.
@meme_cutesykiss - teeeth!!!! ;)
@i_Nutrition - I'll try to look them up. This is why I hate FL. There's nothing good here & they charge too damn much to import things. That's why Pomegranates are so high. When I lived back home, All I needed to do was go to Chinatown to find damn near everything! lol
I'm forever reminded of the hot and cold foods by my mom. haha
yeah, I'm vietnamese, but I learned the same thing about hot foods too. I grew up learning that lychee, longan, durian, jack fruit were all "hot" food... and that if I ate a lot, I'd get pimples. lol
@i_Nutrition - lol. I never thought of that.
@i_Nutrition - After a while, you will get tired of it. Many people in GZ are already tired of them, that's the reason for the low cost. Plus, some Taiwanese business found a way to grow lychee yearround in his orchard in China.