Yam (Chinese Yam): The Season to Eat It for Nourishing the Spleen, Lungs, and Kidneys, Its Benefits, and How to Stop the Itching
Yam, also known as shuyu, tushu, shanshuyu, huai yam, Chinese yam, and white yam, is believed in traditional Chinese medicine to have the benefits of nourishing the spleen, lungs, and kidneys and boosting qi and nourishing yin. So what season is best for eating yam? What are its benefits and effects? What should you do if it makes your skin itch?
For men and women, young and old alike, yam is the best tonic food for autumn.
1. Women: boosts qi and nourishes blood to warm the hands and feet.
Cold hands and feet often seem to single out women. Traditional Chinese medicine holds that cold hands and feet are closely related to a weak constitution, and both yam and black chicken soup and longan yam soup have excellent effects in tonifying the middle, boosting qi, and nourishing blood, making them especially suitable for people with cold hands and feet.
2. Men: prevents the recurrence of “chronic stomach problems.”
Among patients with “chronic stomach problems,” quite a few have ulcer disease, and autumn is the season when ulcers are prone to occur or recur. Modern pharmacological research has confirmed that the allantoin contained in yam helps repair the gastric mucosa. Fresh yam can be made into yam and hyacinth bean cake, or millet and yam cake, and eaten after steaming.
3. The elderly: tonifies the middle qi and prevents colds.
Yam has the effect of strengthening the spleen and boosting qi, so in autumn, patients with qi deficiency who sweat a lot and catch colds repeatedly should moderately increase their intake of yam. The yam can be stir-fried, steamed, or candied, and it can also be cooked into porridge with rice, millet, and jujubes.
4. Children: a good helper for preventing and treating diarrhea.
Every year from August to December is a season with a high incidence of diarrhea in children, and using yam powder to treat diarrhea is relatively easy to accept. The specific method is: grind yam into fine powder and mix it with rice flour at a ratio of 1:2 for the sick child to take, feeding 2 to 3 times a day.
5. The whole family: lays the foundation for autumn and winter tonics.
Eating some yam before autumn and winter tonics is more conducive to the absorption of tonic products. Yam is a medicine for tonifying the middle and boosting qi, and it has the effect of tonifying the spleen and stomach, making it especially suitable for people with weak spleen and stomach to eat before taking tonics. Cooking yam, 20 grams of jujubes, and rice (half japonica rice and half glutinous rice) into porridge is a very good choice.
The benefits and effects of yam
The benefits of yam
Tonifies the spleen and nourishes the stomach, promotes body fluid production and benefits the lungs, secures essence and stops vaginal discharge, and tonifies the kidneys and secures essence. It mainly treats diarrhea due to spleen deficiency; poor appetite and edema; cough and asthma due to lung deficiency; wasting and thirsting; spermatorrhea; vaginal discharge; frequent urination due to kidney deficiency; and when used externally, treats carbuncles and scrofula.
The effects of yam
1. Blood pressure-lowering effect
Famous formulas made with yam, such as Liuwei Dihuang Wan, Bawei Dihuang Wan, and Guishao Dihuang Wan, are not only used to treat kidney deficiency disorders, but also to treat high blood pressure, diabetes, asthma, neurasthenia, and low back pain.
2. Anti-aging effect
Modern science has proven that yam can significantly reduce the activity of enzymes that accelerate the aging of the organism. Bawei Dihuang Wan, which contains yam, is mainly used to treat continuous postpartum sweating. Baoyuan Qingjiang Tang and Baoyuan Hanjiang Tang can treat vomiting blood and nosebleeds; Hanlin Tang and Gaolin Tang can treat strangury. Yam can also treat pulmonary tuberculosis, typhoid, and women's diseases, all of which help promote longevity.
3. Anti-tumor effect
Yam tubers are rich in polysaccharides, which can stimulate and regulate the human immune system. Therefore, they are often used as health products to enhance immunity. Yam polysaccharides counteract the cellular immune suppression caused by cyclophosphamide and can partially or completely restore suppressed cellular immune function to normal. Yam can also strengthen the phagocytic action of white blood cells.
4. Can treat skin diseases
The allantoin contained in yam has an anesthetic and analgesic effect, can promote epithelial growth, reduce inflammation, and inhibit bacteria, and is often used to treat chapped hands and feet, ichthyosis, and various keratinizing skin diseases.
5. Other effects
The nutrients it contains are related to its mucilage and amylase; it has a nourishing effect and can aid digestion. Stops diarrhea. Removes phlegm.
Many people suddenly feel their hands itch badly when cleaning and handling yam. What is going on?
1. Causes of skin itching after contact with yam
This is a kind of contact dermatitis. Not everyone who touches yam will itch; this is an allergic reaction. The mucilage of yam contains plant alkaloids, which sting and itch when they contact the skin. The saponin in yam skin causes severe itching of the hands.
2. Solutions for skin itching after contact with yam
Method 1, vinegar wash: If your hands itch badly, you can wash them carefully and clean, then cover your hands with vinegar, even the gaps between the nails. After a while, the itching will gradually disappear! (Reason: acid-base neutralization)
Method 2, roasting over fire: You can also roast them over a fire, turning your palms repeatedly to let your hands heat up. This can break down the saponin that has penetrated into the hands.
Method 3, diluting floral water or essential balm in water and then washing repeatedly can also relieve it.
Method 4, rubbing rice: Wash and dry your hands, then prepare a large bowl of rice and rub it repeatedly with both hands. After rubbing the rice, the stinging and itching of both hands will be noticeably reduced;
Method 5, soaking in water: Prepare a basin of hot water at about 40 degrees, wash your hands clean, then soak both hands in the hot water for 5-8 minutes, which can also relieve the degree of stinging and itching;
3. Tips for avoiding allergies from contact with yam
Method 1: When scraping and peeling yam skin, the sticky residue easily sticks to your hands and makes you feel itchy and uncomfortable. If you first boil or steam the washed yam for 4-5 minutes, then peel it after it cools, it will not be so sticky, but be careful not to overcook it, lest the yam become mushy.
Method 2: After washing the yam clean, it is recommended to wear gloves when peeling off the outer skin.
Method 3: Prepare a pot of boiling water, wash the outer skin, remove the soil and impurities, then directly throw it into the boiling water and blanch it briefly. After taking it out, simply score a light cut from top to bottom with a kitchen knife, and you can remove the outer skin effortlessly!
The contraindications for eating yam must be kept in mind
1. Groups who should avoid yam. Special reminder: It is worth noting that yam has a relatively high starch content, so people with chest and abdominal fullness, dry stool, or constipation should eat as little as possible.
2. Yam is a tonic medicine, sweet and neutral and tending toward warm, so people with a hot constitution who are prone to internal heat should also eat it cautiously. Some people like to use yam in hot pot; if it is paired with spicy dipping sauce, that is even more heat on top of heat, so it is best to eat less of it.
3. People with diabetes should not eat excessive amounts of yam at one time, and when the amount eaten is relatively large, the amount of staple food should be appropriately reduced. If diabetic patients eat yam as a food, it will have a certain effect on blood sugar.
4. Yam is a root and tuber food with a relatively high starch content, and overeating it can raise blood sugar. In addition, patients with peptic ulcers and liver cirrhosis should choose cooking methods such as steaming and stewing, and avoid quick stir-frying and sweet-and-sour cooking.
5. When people with poor gastrointestinal tracts eat yam, they should not take alkaline drugs such as baking soda tablets at the same time, so that baking soda does not render the amylase in yam ineffective.
6. The diosgenin in yam can synthesize hormones such as testosterone and estrogen, so men with prostate cancer and women with breast cancer should not eat it.