Is Beef or Mutton Better for Boosting Yang in Winter? Plus Winter Diet Precautions

Is Beef or Mutton Better in Winter

There is not much point in declaring a winner; both beef and mutton are good in winter. Winter temperatures are low, and the body needs to take in high-protein foods to help resist the cold. Both mutton and beef are rich in protein, and eating these two meats in winter is quite good for the body. Moreover, their nutritional emphasis differs, so the direction of their benefits naturally differs.

Benefits of Eating Mutton in Winter

In winter, the body's yang qi is stored within, making it very easy to develop cold hands and feet and poor blood and qi circulation. Eating mutton in winter can increase the body's heat and resist the cold. Mutton tastes sweet without being greasy, and is warm in nature without being drying. It has the effects of warming the interior and dispelling cold, warming and tonifying blood and qi, tonifying the kidney and boosting yang, and stimulating the appetite and strengthening the spleen. So eating mutton in winter resists wind-cold while also nourishing the body, achieving two benefits at once.

Moreover, mutton can also increase digestive enzymes, protect the stomach wall, repair the gastric mucosa, help the spleen and stomach digest, and has an anti-aging effect. If mutton is combined with certain medicines to make medicinal dishes, its health-building and disease-treating effects are even higher.

Benefits of Eating Beef in Winter

Beef is rich in iron and B vitamins. Iron is a mineral essential for blood production, and iron deficiency can very likely lead to iron-deficiency anemia, bringing many sub-health symptoms such as fear of cold and cold intolerance, easy fatigue, poor complexion, and difficulty concentrating. Eating beef in winter can supplement iron and prevent iron-deficiency anemia. In addition, beef is rich in protein, and its amino acid composition is closer to what the human body needs than pork. Eating beef in winter can also warm the stomach. Beef's benefit to the body emphasizes strengthening tendons and bones, and eating beef in winter can help us boost immunity, making it an irreplaceable meat food for winter nourishment.

Does Beef or Mutton Boost Yang

Mutton has a stronger yang-boosting effect.

Compared with mutton, beef's yang-boosting effect is not as good; beef's benefit to the body emphasizes strengthening tendons and bones, while mutton's yang-boosting effect is better. Mutton contains trace amounts of sex hormones and has a yang-boosting effect. Men can eat more mutton in daily life; mutton is a meat with the effects of warming and strengthening the body and tonifying the kidney and boosting yang. Because mutton has the effect of tonifying the kidney and boosting yang, it has been regarded since ancient times as an excellent product for boosting yang. However, mutton should not be eaten together with vinegar or tea, otherwise it will reduce the yang-boosting effect and produce tannic acid protein, leading to constipation.

Precautions for the Winter Diet

1. Nourish the kidney first; cold qi corresponds internally to the kidney. The kidney is the primal driving force of human life and the “foundation of innate constitution” of the human body. In the diet, we should always pay attention to the regulation and nourishment of the kidney and to supplementing calories. We should eat more animal foods and beans to supplement vitamins and inorganic salts. Dog meat, mutton, goose meat, duck meat, soybeans, walnuts, chestnuts, wood ear fungus, sesame, sweet potato, radish and so on are all suitable foods for winter.

Is Beef or Mutton Better to Eat in Winter

2. Eat warm foods and avoid hard ones; sticky, hard, raw and cold foods mostly belong to yin, and eating such foods in winter easily damages the spleen and stomach. Food that is too hot easily damages the esophagus, and after entering the stomach and intestines, it easily causes accumulated heat in the body and leads to illness; food that is too cold easily stimulates the blood vessels of the spleen and stomach, making blood flow poor, and the reduced blood volume will seriously affect the blood circulation of other organs and harm human health. Therefore, the winter diet should be warm, hot, loose and soft.

3. Increase bitter foods and reduce salty ones; in winter the kidney's function is relatively strong, and if you eat more salty foods, kidney qi will become even stronger, thereby greatly harming the heart, weakening the heart's power and affecting human health. Therefore, in winter, eat less salty food to prevent kidney water from becoming too strong; eat more bitter foods to tonify the heart and strengthen kidney function. Commonly used foods include: areca nut, orange, pig liver, sheep liver, kohlrabi, lettuce, vinegar, tea and so on.