In summer, your body loses a lot of water, so you need to rehydrate. The following seven soups in summer cool down and detoxify the body, and help lower blood lipid levels (fat build-up in arteries), among many other benefits mentioned below.
7 soups in summer for your health
1. Mung bean soup
Drinking mung bean soup helps cool down the body and detoxify. It is great for quenching thirst. Mung bean soup is a traditional and popular drink in summer for the Chinese.
2. Winter melon soup
Winter melon, a.k.a. white gourd or winter gourd, is a cold-natured food. It helps clear the heat in the body, cooling you down. It quenches thirst and protects the stomach. It also helps metabolize sugar into energy and prevents fat formation. Winter melon is also anti-aging.
3. Silver ear and lily bulb soup
Silver ear is also known as snow ear, or white tree ear. It’s an edible fungus used widely in Chinese medicine and cooking.
The soup of silver ear and lily bulb prevents hot flashes and night sweats. It nourishes and protects the lungs and the stomach. It makes you glow with a rosy complexion. Drinking the soup over the long term can nurse the lungs, spleen, and kidneys back to health.
4. Winter melon seaweed soup
Eating seaweed increases calcium, lowers sodium levels in the body, and helps remove cholesterol. Soup made with winter melon and seaweed is low in fat, nutritional, reduces heat in the body, and helps in losing weight.
5. Fish head tofu soup
Tofu is rich in protein and calcium. It removes heat from the body and lowers blood lipids. The soup made of fish heads and tofu strengthens the body and brings energy. It nourishes and protects the spleen and the stomach, and very importantly — it tastes great.
6. Daikon soup
Daikon soup is not only the best healthy choice in winter, but it’s also a good drink in summer. Daikon, a type of root vegetable like a radish, is a powerful food that helps circulate the “qi” energy in the body. It also helps relieve coughing and clears phlegm. It also cools down the body and detoxifies.
7. Luffa soup
Luffa is a cold-natured food with a natural sweetness. Eating luffa relieves heat in the body and protects the intestines. It also prevents phlegm, detoxifies, and promotes energy flow (qi) in the body. It sometimes can cure bloody bowels.
Applying the liquid from luffa soup on the face removes freckles and wrinkles, and brightens the facial skin. Eating luffa or applying luffa liquid on the face over a long period gives you smooth and non-sensitive skin. It also prevents acne and skin pigmentation.
Interestingly, luffa is actually the plant that grows into the loofa sponge once the green seed pod is dried out and peeled.
With research from Monica and Hsin-Yi
