Although there are still some days to go before the Dragon Boat Festival, people's enthusiasm for dragon boat racing and eating zongzi has already started to rise. However, around the time of the Dragon Boat Festival, the weather is both damp and hot. As glutinous rice is sticky and harder to digest, is everyone suitable to eat zongzi? We have invited Deputy Chief Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) Physician Gao Sande from the Department of Preventive TCM at the Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University to teach us how to prepare zongzi that suits our constitution.
People with weaker spleen and stomach should not overeat zongzi.
Gao Sande explains that the term “Dragon Boat” was first seen in the “Customs and Traditions” by Zhou Chu of the Western Jin Dynasty, which records: “On the midsummer Dragon Boat Festival, ducks are cooked and triangular zongzi made.” Here, “duck's horn millet” refers to zongzi, indicating that the custom of eating zongzi during the Dragon Boat Festival has a long history.
Over 1,700 years later, as material life has become increasingly abundant, zongzi fillings have become more diverse and innovative. Glutinous rice is the main ingredient of zongzi, and in the “Compendium of Materia Medica,” it is recorded about glutinous rice: “If one usually has phlegm, heat, wind disease, or spleen disease and cannot effectively transport and transform food, eating it can most easily cause disease or accumulation.” That is to say, glutinous rice is sticky and harder to digest, and it can exacerbate internal dampness and heat. Additionally, some zongzi contain fatty meat, which can easily cause phlegm. Therefore, groups of people with relatively weaker spleen and stomach functions, such as the elderly, children, and patients with gastrointestinal diseases, should not eat too much zongzi.
However, without zongzi to celebrate the Dragon Boat Festival, it seems to lack some festive atmosphere. Gao Sande suggests that if you really want to savor the delicious taste of zongzi during this holiday, you might consider preparing some “healthy zongzi” based on your symptoms. It is essential to note that the dosage of therapeutic zongzi should be determined according to individual symptoms and constitution; specific disease populations are advised to choose and use them appropriately under the guidance of a physician.
1. Heat-Clearing and Dampness-Removing Zongzi
Ingredients: Appropriate amounts of mung bean, red adzuki bean, lotus seed, and coix seed.
Mung bean and lotus seeds are well-known “heat-clearing” ingredients. According to TCM, mung bean has the effect of “tonifying qi, removing heat and toxic wind, thickening the intestines and stomach,” while lotus seeds have a “sweet, bitter, cold taste.” Sun Simiao believes they can “quench thirst and remove heat, tonify the middle energizer and nourish the spirit, benefit strength.” These two ingredients paired with water-reducing and dampness-penetrating red adzuki beans and coix seed can alleviate the increase of dampness and heat caused by glutinous rice within the body.
In addition, you can also consume “gardenia zongzi” soaked in gardenia water. Gardenia is a fruit that can be used both as food and medicine and has the effects of purging fire and relieving annoyance, clearing heat, and promoting urination. Alternatively, using easier-to-digest yellow rice to wrap zongzi is also an option.
2. Qi-Tonifying and Blood-Nourishing Zongzi
Ingredients: 1-2 honey dates, 30 grams of black rice, 10 grams of glutinous rice, 10-15 grams of adzuki bean, 5-8 grams of raisins, 15-20 grams of purple sweet potato, and 10-15 grams of peanuts.
The human body's qi and blood are closely related to the spleen and stomach. To replenish qi and nourish blood, it is important to strengthen the spleen and stomach. Honey dates and black rice both have the effects of tonifying the spleen and harmonizing the stomach, benefiting qi and generating fluids and nourishing blood. Adzuki beans, raisins, purple sweet potatoes, and peanuts all can tonify the spleen and stomach. People with qi and blood deficiency can try zongzi made with these ingredients to strengthen the spleen, fortify the stomach, and regulate qi and blood.
3. Nourishing and Body-Beneficial Zongzi
Ingredients: 1 small abalone, 15 grams of scallops, 2-3 grams of shrimp, half a sea cucumber, 1 mushroom, 2 chestnuts, and half to one sausage.
Seafood often has the effect of tonifying the kidneys, such as abalone which tonifies the liver and kidney, benefits the body, and improves vision; scallops tonify the kidney; sea cucumbers nourish the kidneys, replenish blood, strengthen yang, and moisturize dryness; mushrooms stimulate appetite. People with deficiency of kidney qi can consume this type of zongzi.
4. Anti-Infectious Health-Promoting Zongzi
Ingredients: 30 grams of astragalus, 20 grams of dangshen, 15 grams of wolfberry berries, 2 jujubes, 10 grams of loquat leaves, 200 grams of adzuki beans, and 150 grams of black glutinous rice. You may optionally add jujube paste, osmanthus cake, red bean paste, sugar, etc., according to personal taste.
Preparation method:
1. Grind astragalus, dangshen, and loquat leaves into a fine powder. Slice the wolfberries and jujubes.
2. Rinse the adzuki beans and black glutinous rice, and soak them together with the medicinal powders, wolfberries, and jujube slices for 3-4 hours.
3. Remove the above materials and drain off the water. Optionally add jujube paste, osmanthus cake, red bean paste, sugar, etc., according to personal taste, and mix them evenly into the filling.
4. Take the zongzi leaves, fill them with the filling, seal them into the shape of zongzi, and steam cook them for approximately 150 minutes until cooked through.
Astragalus and dangshen have qi and yang tonifying effects; wolfberries, jujubes, and loquat leaves have the effects of replenishing blood and qi, moistening the lungs, and stopping coughs; adzuki beans, black rice, and glutinous rice are rich in nutrition, replenish blood, and strengthen the spleen. They are rich in vitamin C, D, zinc, etc., which help enhance immunity and facilitate recovery of physical strength.
5. Spleen-Strengthening and Spirit-Calming Zongzi
Ingredients: 30 grams of white atractylodes, 20 grams of poria, 2 jujubes, 10 grams of pine nuts, 15 grams of wolfberry berries, 150 grams of black rice, and 100 grams of glutinous rice. Optionally add jujube paste, osmanthus cake, red bean paste, sugar, etc., according to personal taste.
Preparation method:
1. Grind poria, white atractylodes, pine nuts, and wolfberry berries into a fine powder. Slice the jujubes.
2. Rinse the black rice and glutinous rice and soak them together with the powders and jujube slices for 3-4 hours.
3. Remove the above materials and drain off the water. Optionally add jujube paste, osmanthus cake, red bean paste, sugar, etc., according to personal taste, and mix them evenly into the filling.
4. Take the zongzi leaves, fill them with the filling, seal them into the shape of zongzi, and steam cook them for approximately 150 minutes until cooked through.
Suitable for general population consumption, dosage should be determined according to individual constitution; pregnant women, nursing mothers, children, etc., are advised to choose under the guidance of a physician; children under three years old should avoid consumption or adjust the formula under the guidance of a physician. Specific disease populations need to follow medical advice when choosing formulas. Diabetic patients should not consume these zongzi.
Journalist: Wu Wanhong