Damp Heat Foods
to avoid
PLUS some foods to help you
Here's a list of Damp Heat Foods! Meaning ... foods that can make Damp Heat worse or may, if you eat too many of them and are susceptible to it, increase your chances of getting Damp Heat.
I've also listed various foods that help your body cope with, and even expel, signs of Damp Heat.
Why is Damp Heat bad for you?
First read Damp-Heat. You'll read that Damp Heat leads to swelling and pain, pus, cough, painful joints, tiredness, even chronic fatigue, and various illnesses with those symptoms.
It's made up of two pathogens that can invade your body, or may be lying quietly within, awaiting their moment to manifest:
DAMP
Damp leads to stiffness, swelling and heaviness.
In cold and damp climates symptoms of Damp are common because people living in warm, central-heated houses don't take notice of the weather and the damage it can do to their health.
So they often don't wear enough nor take adequate precautions when outside, and easily get caught out by bad weather.
Then, because modern medicine is mighty, they take medications to quell the pain and discomfort and think, 'that's that'.
That's NEVER 'that' if you suppress symptoms.
What's more, every drug has a primary and secondary action. So, if you continue to take the medication, you'll end up with more than you started with - and it's not all good.
HEAT
Heat symptoms display
- heat and dryness
- inflammation
- irritability
- redness
- burning
- itching
- pain
- offensive odour
Modern medicine is even better at dealing with Heat than with Damp. But your body has been genetically programmed over hundreds of thousands of years to produce Heat symptoms in response to many challenges that nature throws at it.
Not always is this a good thing, but that's how it is. So if you suppress that Heat response, you tend to weaken your body's ability to fight diseases in the future.
In some cases, for instance when the Heat is produced to kill a bug, you may end up with something else, which is called in Chinese medicine a remaining pathogenic factor.
Trust me, you don't want that either.
So modern medicine sometimes works a treat, but can leave us with other problems which, in time, can become chronic. We often think these are normal, or caused by old age, but at least in theory, they shouldn't be.
Put together, you get Damp-Heat!
So, add heat to swelling, and you get sore, swollen, inflamed joints, or purulent sinusitis, a cough with thick probably yellow phlegm, (phlegm is another story!) or an inflamed liver. Not good and certainly not always easy to cure.
Also, typically, though you'll discover far more on my page on Damp Heat, your tongue will have a greasy, yellow coating, you'll often get a bitter taste in your mouth and your facial skin will be oily.
What can YOU do, or not do, about it?
From a Western medical perspective, you might say that your condition comes from accumulated toxins in your system. Your Liver and Gallbladder can't clear them out so they build up. Your metabolism is often fast but this build-up produces garbage which, like organic matter in a rubbish dump, produces heat.
In which case, you must stop stoking the bonfire! Don't add stuff that makes it worse and do start doing things that help clear the garbage.
As far as the Heat is concerned, Heat being in your case a sign of Yang excess (though Heat can be a sign of deficient Yin too), you must avoid foods and actions that are heating.
As far as the Damp is concerned, it's more tricky, because Damp is a Yin condition, and in your case it is a full or excess-yin situation. (Read about Fullness and Emptiness here.)
Here'e an analogy. If you live in a warm, damp, climate and your house gets flooded, what do you do? Once the water ebbs away, you're in danger of getting moulds and creepy-crawlies. You have to clear out the sodden furniture and dry it, but warm-damp-air makes this difficult. Washing with cold water helps to clean it but, because of the damp air, the water doesn't dry easily so the moulds quickly return.
In the same way, there are some foods, 'damp heat foods', that make it worse.
If taken too often, these damp-heat foods may even produce Damp-Heat in susceptible people.
Unfortunately, by ceasing to eat them you don't immediately get better, in the same way that if a bonfire is burning nicely because you poured petrol over it and set it alight, stopping the petrol won't stop the blaze. Whereas more petrol might make it worse.
There are also foods that can nudge your body towards dealing with the symptoms better. Again, starting to eat them won't cure the problem straight away, but they will have a gradual influence, especially if you stop the damp heat foods that make it worse. (Otherwise it would be like pouring water onto a fire when you are also pouring petrol onto it - you'd get a lot of steam, another form of damp heat!)
So, if you're receiving professional help, such as good acupuncture or herbs, not eating the right foods and, especially, continuing to eat the wrong ie damp heat foods, will definitely hinder progress.
Damp Heat foods to AVOID
Small note! No food is all bad or all good. Even the following damp heat foods may have their place in some people's diet from time to time. Damp-forming foods, for instance, are moistening, so if you had Dryness as a symptom, Damp-forming foods may help it for a while. But it's easy to get it wrong.
- Alcohol. Why is alcohol in this list of damp heat foods? After all, a good many people seem to benefit from it in small quantities, though, like tobacco, it probably wouldn't be permitted if it were a new drug.
- Well, here's the answer! Alcohol is basically sugar, but to break the alcohol down takes work by your body, creating heat.
- This sugar is a real challenge to your Spleen energy and the Heat is hard to get rid of unless you take a lot of exercise. So you end up with more Heat and then, unless you can burn it off, the sugar gets turned into fat. That keeps you even warmer, but unfortunately it doesn't look too good and it's hard to shift. What is worse, with all that energy trapped inside, it makes your body a breeding ground for symptoms of Damp-Heat!
- Just to avoid doubt, alcohol includes spirits and wine, beer and gin, sherry, port, advocaat, cocktails, liqueurs, vodka, whisky, rice wine, lemoncello, brandy, armagnac, champagne, sake ... The more concentrated they are, the more likely damp heat foods will worsen symptoms of Damp-Heat.
- Fatty, fried, deep-fried, roasted and greasy foods. To create these kinds of damp heat foods, a lot of heat energy goes into them. A famous Scottish delicacy is the deep-fried (in batter) Mars Bar, made from self-raising flour which itself tends to be heating: it must be cooked in very hot fat or it goes soggy. The flour absorbs the fat, and so do you. Inside it is the Mars Bar. (If you don't think the Mars bar has fat in it then you obviously haven't tried one recently.)
- Note - we all need fat for health, but it must be the right kind of fat and although saturated fat is heating you still need it - but not much when you have Damp-Heat. (NB Don't ever eat hydrogenated fats, still very common in many foods. And oils that are frequently heated - such as used to deep-fry food - quickly lose any attractive qualities they had.) I recommend this book if you want to know more. This category includes any food that is cooked in fat. That includes bacon and black pudding if you're still thinking of Scottish food.
- It also includes butter and similar fats, see below.
- And ice cream. Sorry.
- Sweets and candies.These are in this list of damp heat foods mainly because of the sugar, (but many cakes, for example, are very rich, making them heating as well). This weakens your Spleen energy and tends to make you put on fat. Eating sugar also warms you up, temporarily. Sugar is such a concentrated food that it should really be a medicine, useful only in particular situations. As a medicine it has primary and secondary actions, but as far as being in this category is concerned, your body produces heat as it burns the sugar, and your Spleen is weakened by it and becomes less able to combat Damp. So you get more Damp-Heat.
- Biscuits, puddings, sugars, refined flour foods and cakes. This category of damp heat foods includes puddings, ice-cream, sugar in coffee and cakes, biscuits, and foods that rapidly turn to sugar during digestion, including foods made with refined flour, such as white bread, bread rolls and crackers. (That's a picture on the right of the remains of our Christmas pudding last year. I don't think we ever finished it! A little goes a long way.)
- NB Sweet foods have their place in nutrition but it's a small place! For example, on a hot day, a drink such as lemonade with melon is wonderfully refreshing, unless you suffer from yang deficiency, or have Damp-Heat when the sweetness might make it worse. However, try it and see!
- Dairy food, made from cow's milk, including cream, butter, cheese, mild shakes, and including all highly sweetened yoghurts. Sorry! These are also in our list of damp heat foods to avoid!
- Dairy foods are damp in nature because they tend to produce phlegm. So if you are suffering from a very sore, dry, burning throat, cold ice-cream might be the perfect food: too much of it, however, will give you phlegm, which might become infected by passing bacteria giving you even more symptoms of Damp-Heat!
- More on Yoghurt. Unsweetened yoghurt is thought to be less heating and indeed, in Indian meals is often added in the form of 'raita' to compensate for the hot spices. The Indian drink known as 'lassi' is also made from yoghurt and has similar qualities, unless taken sweet, eg with mango. If you eat the salty type of lassi it is less heating.
- Highly-spiced food, including curries. These usually are too hot, increasing the Heat bit of your Damp-Heat. If, as is common, they are part of a rich, fatty meal, all the worse because the fats compound the problem. However, for a while when and immediately after eating spicy food you may think that any phlegm you have is better, because the spices encourage your Lung energy to disperse blockages like phlegm. Later, however, you'll probably feel worse.
- Ginger, however, although a spice, is usually helpful as it encourages your Spleen energy to work better. But don't use dried ginger, which is too heating: use slices of fresh ginger root. See good foods, below.
- Other Heating foods: for a fuller list, click here. Some foods known to be heating and therefore in our list of damp heat foods include:
- bamboo shoot
- black sesame
- carrot
- chestnut
- chocolate (contains fats and milk, already on this list, above)
- coconut milk
- coffee (though being such a concentrated 'food', its primary effect is often to make you feel a little better, but the secondary action is to drain your energy)
- eels
- eggs
- garlic
- ginger (dried, powdered)
- goose
- leek
- kidney
- lamb and mutton in particular but
- other red meats are also heating or are considered too sweet (eg beef) if you have Damp-Heat
- mustard - the hotter it is, the more heating
- octopus
- onion
- oranges are considered heating for some people
- peanuts are fairly heating, including peanut butter!
- pepper, hot peppers, chili pepper
- pig's liver and pork
- seafoods like lobster, crabs, clam, mussels and prawns
- shark meat
- squash
What foods help your body clear Damp-Heat?
More important than the following is avoiding damp heat foods ie those that produce Damp-Heat, see above.
Over time, the Chinese worked out that quite a few foods can help to clear Damp-Heat. Unfortunately, many of them are not used much in European or American kitchens, so you may not be familiar with them or know how to prepare them.
NB individuals react to foods differently. You might find that your body accepts one of these but someone else's body doesn't.
Here are some of them:
- amaranth
- banana, (though I don't agree with this as it's too sweet, so easily inclines to produce Damp)
- bean sprouts
- bok choy
- cabbage
- carp
- celery
- citrus fruits except oranges
- coix seed
- cucumber
- duck meat, (this is a rich sweet meat, so can be too heating)
- bitter gourd
- fungi and mushrooms, many kinds
- hyacinth bean
- kelp
- loofah
- loquat fruit
- lotus root
- lotus seed
- melon, unless very sweet or taken with a lot of sugar
- millet
- mung bean
- poria
- purslane
- red rice bean
- seaweed
- spinach
- tofu
- tomato (though for some this is heating)
- water chestnut
- water melon
- wax gourd
- wild rice stem
Other pages you could read
Although this page is about damp heat foods, you'll get a broader understanding of damp-heat if you read the following pages.
Are you, dear reader, a practitioner?
If so, you'll realise that a few of the above damp heat foods also exacerbate phlegm-damp and phlegm-heat syndromes: some of them are actually worse for those conditions than for damp heat.
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