A Chinese proverb goes, “nourish the winter, and next year you can catch a tiger.” We can see that the idea of having tonic in winter is rooted in the mind of Chinese people, while they seldom know the right way to get nutrition.

The diet in winter follows the principles of “nourishing the yin in winter” and “filling the empty and warming the cold,” and changing with the change of climate. Even in winter, the Chinese have appropriately cold food. With the aim of nourishing the yin and suppressing a hyperactive yang, people will have some foods high in calories, such as lamb, beef, black-bone chicken, carp, soy milk and milk. At the same time, to avoid the terrible vitamin deficiency, some fresh vegetables will be eaten, such as carrots, green vegetables, tofu, and black fungus.

As we know, throughout the vast territory of china, people living in different areas have different lifestyles. Though both experience winter, the climate of the northwest and the southeast is not the same. It is bitterly cold in the northwest China, so people there use beef and mutton as a tonic, while in the southern areas of the Yangtze River, the weather is much warmer than that of the northwest. People there eat some gentle foods such as chicken, duck and fish. People living in the plateaus or mountain areas where rainfall is scarce and the air is dry eat more fresh vegetables, fruit and crystal sugar in winter. Moreover, people of different ages follow different principles to get nutrition.

Source: weather. com. cn

Translated by Zhang Min

Editor: Wen Yi