Hot and Cold Foods

Pease porridge hot, pease porridge cold;
Pease porridge in the pot, nine days old.

Split pea soup is a delight on a cold winter evening with celery, carrots, onion and garlic. And I like lemonade in the summer with just a little honey. Watermelon on a hot day and cinnamon rolls on a frosty morning are just the right things at the right time of year. Some foods make us hot and some foods make us cold and that's what this story is about: heating and cooling.

Not so long ago, before the trucking industry brought oranges up north in December, we ate in the winter what grew in our own neighborhood. Squashes and potatoes and onions were winter fare and watermelons were for hot August afternoons. Then, no one ate winter squash in the summer, it just didn't taste right. And watermelons and oranges were not available in December. Now, with supermarkets and fleets of trucks, we can have these anytime we want, straight from Mexico or Australia. We can have oranges in December, but if you will notice carefully, along with the taste of oranges, comes a chill. That's because oranges make our bodies cold. It's wonderful in July on hot days, but bad in winter.

Long ago, the Chinese physicians discovered that some foods make us hot and some foods make us cold. They also learned to use hot and cold foods medicinally. If a patient has a fever, give him/her something to cool the body. If chills are a problem, give him/her something to warm him/her up. For the chilled feeling, put a pinch of ginger in a cup of hot water and drink it. Ginger is recognized as hot. However, if a person with a 'cold sore' or herpes of the mouth drinks ginger tea, she/he will have two herpes in the morning. Herpes in the mouth is a disease caused by too much heat in the body and ginger aggravates it.

Here are some "hot' foods to warm up with: cinnamon, ginger, cardamom ginseng, mustard, papaya, winter squash, cabbages, broccoli, cauliflower, and pumpkin. Foods with cold effects are oranges, turmeric, tomatoes, pineapples, cucumbers, eggplant, vanilla, carob, chocolate, and most mints. (Turmeric is a spice.} These are the foods the Chinese use for medicinal effects in sick persons. There also numerous herbs with similar effects.

In general, foods that ripen during hot weather are 'cold' and those which ripen in the fall and are stored for winter use are 'warm' or 'hot'. Foods trucked into supermarkets from Florida or Mexico in the winter are tropical and almost always cold producing. The popular use of orange juice in the winter undoubtedly produced more colds, flus and runny noses than it is supposed to cure. {If it is vitamin C you lack, eat cabbage, brocccoli, white potatoes, hot peppers and rose hip tea. Wild elderberries and black currants are very old European and American sources of vitamin C. and old herbal treatments for colds. However, NEVER boil these foods: boiling destroys vitamin C. Always steam them to preserve the vitamin C. The way Americans boil food makes vitamin C pills necessary.}

Some diseases are 'hot' and some are 'cold'. Fevers are hot and chills are cold. With mild diseases which have mild effects, eat cold foods and spices to cool the body and hot foods to warm the body.

Here are some 'hot' diseases: Herpes of the mouth and tongue and any feverish disease whatever. Eczema and dry skin rashes. Jock itch. Any person who has had a very high fever, above 104 degrees Farrenheit, at any time during their life is likely to have fevers frequently and would find cold foods helpful when they feel a fever coming on. Often, these folks run around on a snowy day with only a light sweater on. These folks could eat oranges in January just so they can feel cold like ordinary folks. Eating oranges in January seems unusual but it is very effective in in getting the body back to normality. Hot body conditions are usually the aftereffects of acute sunburn, massive scalds or fire burns, spinal meningitis, rheumatic heart disease and scarlet fever.

Some cold diseases are the common cold (without fever), constantly cold feet, the watery forms of overweight (edema). These diseases are usually the aftereffects of getting "chilled to the bone" so much that it takes a couple of hours to get warm again. These people can stand to eat a lot of hot foods whenever they feel chilled. They also seldom ever get herpes of the mouth. My body is often cold and to normalize it I eat hot foods quite often, especially in winter.

I might also say that I am seldom hot in the summer because I eat a lot of cold foods then.

Using these foods in everyday cooking is a good way of controlling many chronic ailments which are accompanied by constantly feeling hot or cold. The Chinese discovered this long time ago and I have found their discoveries very useful. You can too.

For lovers and households, these spices and flavorings can be problematic. One person feels feels cold constantly and another feels warm. It is more than open windows, it is a problem with the way different bodies work. Where there is more than one person eating, a good solution is to put the hot and cold spices on a tray on the table for individual choice and use. Then everyone can eat what is best for him/her and no one needs be miserable.

We are all different in many, many ways. The foods and spices which are good for one may be poisonous or nearly so for another. Celebrate our differences and feed them well.

Pea soup can be made hot or cold depending on how you like it. Though I've never made it with orange juice and coconut, it might be good that way on a hot day in August; With carrots and onions it is an appropriate winter food to get warm by.