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Some of the following anti-dampness foods are in the list of foods that cause Damp!
It’s a matter of degree and digestibility. Barley, for example, often helps your digestion work better, even though it contains some gluten. (Glutinous foods increase Damp in some people!)
Also, your body doesn’t easily ‘dry’ dampness. Drying implies Heat (or sometimes movement as the wind – moving air – dries wet garments you put on your washing line.) Heat implies that your body can produce Heat to do this, but as many damp sufferors know, their bodies aren’t usually naturally hot: they are chilly people!
More easy is to transform it into urine and pee it out. So suggesting that the following foods dry dampness is not quite correct!
Anti-dampness foods include herbs and spices:
Other anti-dampness foods:
To clear Damp, you need a healthy Spleen energy. You get that partly from having a healthy Kidney function, especially Kidney Yang energy. Foods that benefit Kidney Yang are mostly anti-dampness foods.
Click to see which foods help Kidney Yang!
For some people, ‘food combining‘ is important, so that foods of different kinds work together.
The theory is that meat/protein dishes don’t mix well with fruit (there are important exceptions, of course) or grains, but they do mix with vegetables.
Vegetables mix with almost everything, but fruit and grain mix together less readily. So some of the anti-damp foods listed on this page may work better if you combine them correctly.
This ‘food combining’ diet, also known as the ‘Hay’ or ‘Kensington’ diet suits many people and if you suffer from Dampness, you may wish to try it for a while, whatever the science may say to the contrary at https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/food-combining!
By the way … To clear Damp, your body mostly urinates it out but it’s important not to lose too much fluid at a time. Consequently many of the above foods are used in soups and stew which replace the moisture. The classic dish, a very frequent part of food in Chinese and SE Asia, is made from rice: try our recipe Clogstoun Congee. Though moisturising, it is one of many anti-dampness foods.
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Subscribe to the Newsletter
If you are interested in understanding how Traditional Chinese Medicine can improve your life sign up to my newsletter for the latest updates.
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If you are interested in understanding how Traditional Chinese Medicine can improve your life sign up to my newsletter for the latest updates.