Clipping Board » Eat Healthily ─ Introduction to healthy eating, medicinal cuisine, and health supplements
2006-6-2
Family soups are often prepared for their nourishing and therapeutic benefits, but many home cooks focus on using herbs, vegetables, and meat while overlooking legumes. In fact, legumes offer excellent health benefits, with most varieties known for their ability to tonify the kidneys, detoxify, and promote diuresis (reduce edema). Adding legumes to soups not only enhances the flavor but also provides a rich and savory taste. Legumes are inexpensive and highly beneficial, so why not use them more often?
In my family, we prefer using black beans for soups. This preference stems from my elder brother's childhood experience with acute kidney disease. After being hospitalized, his body was left weak, and my father, deeply concerned, sought various therapeutic recipes to strengthen his health and prevent a recurrence of the illness. By chance, we met a traditional Chinese medicine practitioner from mainland China who recommended stewing black beans with old coconut. The method involved stuffing about thirty pre-soaked black beans into a small hole at the top of an old coconut (with its shell) and stewing it for four hours, consuming only the liquid. My brother drank this daily for over two years, prepared tirelessly by my mother, rain or shine, reflecting the meticulous care of parental love.
**Kidney Disease Remedy: Black Bean and Coconut Water Stew**
Strangely enough, my brother's weak constitution gradually improved, and he has remained free of kidney issues for decades. Today, my mother and sister-in-law often prepare black bean soups for the entire family to enjoy their nourishing benefits.
Black beans, also known as black soybeans, are a type of soybean with similar nutritional value. They are highly nourishing, capable of dispelling wind-dampness and detoxifying. The *Newly Revised Materia Medica* from the Tang Dynasty states, "Black beans can treat edema." The *Supplement to Materia Medica* notes, "They treat wind-bi syndrome, warm and tonify, and improve complexion with long-term consumption." The *Compendium of Materia Medica* recommends, "Black bean juice can detoxify medicinal poisons and treat kidney diseases." Modern medical research has found that black beans are rich in plant-based proteins, vitamins A, B, and C, making them highly nutritious.
For everyday soups, black beans can be paired with foxnut seeds and pork ribs. This soup is suitable for the whole family, offering benefits for dispelling dampness and tonifying the kidneys. It is particularly beneficial for elderly family members suffering from rheumatic pain, as it promotes diuresis, dispels dampness, and strengthens the kidneys and spleen.
When preparing this soup, the black beans and foxnut seeds should be soaked in water for two to three hours beforehand. The quantity can vary, but around six taels (approximately 225 grams) per person is a good guideline. After blanching the pork ribs, simmer them with the beans for about an hour and a half.
A folk remedy involves stewing black beans with pig heart (adding a small amount of longan meat). This is said to help with beriberi (vitamin B deficiency) in the elderly, which can cause foot swelling, nausea, headaches, and even respiratory discomfort (known as "beriberi attacking the heart" in traditional Chinese medicine). Consuming this soup can provide auxiliary therapeutic benefits. Another variation includes pig heart, black beans, longan meat, and light wheat, which can calm the heart, nourish the blood, and promote fluid production, benefiting those with night sweats, restlessness, and insomnia.
For lotus root soup, adding a handful of black beans along with red dates, dried tangerine peel, and pork ribs creates a nourishing soup for women, offering blood-nourishing and kidney-tonifying effects.
Some traditional Chinese medicine practitioners recommend stewing black beans with eggs and red dates for a nourishing soup that tonifies the kidneys and nourishes the blood. For women, adding a small amount of angelica root can enhance the blood-nourishing effects.
Beyond their nourishing properties, black beans are less commonly known for their detoxifying effects. Ancient medical texts record that black beans were used during famines to stave off hunger and detoxify various poisons. The *Food Materia Medica* states, "Raw black beans can be ground and applied to abscesses; their boiled juice can kill toxins, relieve pain, and reduce edema. They dispel heat in the stomach, treat internal injuries, and break up blood stasis and accumulations of cold." Li Shizhen noted that black beans combined with licorice can detoxify a wide range of medicinal poisons and treat facial and body edema.
Source: http://www. takungpao. com/ news/ 06/ 06/ 02/ GY- 574131. htm
Black Bean Soup
Family soups are often prepared for their nourishing and therapeutic benefits, but many home cooks focus on using herbs, vegetables, and meat while overlooking legumes. In fact, legumes offer excellent health benefits, with most varieties known for their ability to tonify the kidneys, detoxify, and promote diuresis (reduce edema). Adding legumes to soups not only enhances the flavor but also provides a rich and savory taste. Legumes are inexpensive and highly beneficial, so why not use them more often?
In my family, we prefer using black beans for soups. This preference stems from my elder brother's childhood experience with acute kidney disease. After being hospitalized, his body was left weak, and my father, deeply concerned, sought various therapeutic recipes to strengthen his health and prevent a recurrence of the illness. By chance, we met a traditional Chinese medicine practitioner from mainland China who recommended stewing black beans with old coconut. The method involved stuffing about thirty pre-soaked black beans into a small hole at the top of an old coconut (with its shell) and stewing it for four hours, consuming only the liquid. My brother drank this daily for over two years, prepared tirelessly by my mother, rain or shine, reflecting the meticulous care of parental love.
**Kidney Disease Remedy: Black Bean and Coconut Water Stew**
Strangely enough, my brother's weak constitution gradually improved, and he has remained free of kidney issues for decades. Today, my mother and sister-in-law often prepare black bean soups for the entire family to enjoy their nourishing benefits.
Black beans, also known as black soybeans, are a type of soybean with similar nutritional value. They are highly nourishing, capable of dispelling wind-dampness and detoxifying. The *Newly Revised Materia Medica* from the Tang Dynasty states, "Black beans can treat edema." The *Supplement to Materia Medica* notes, "They treat wind-bi syndrome, warm and tonify, and improve complexion with long-term consumption." The *Compendium of Materia Medica* recommends, "Black bean juice can detoxify medicinal poisons and treat kidney diseases." Modern medical research has found that black beans are rich in plant-based proteins, vitamins A, B, and C, making them highly nutritious.
For everyday soups, black beans can be paired with foxnut seeds and pork ribs. This soup is suitable for the whole family, offering benefits for dispelling dampness and tonifying the kidneys. It is particularly beneficial for elderly family members suffering from rheumatic pain, as it promotes diuresis, dispels dampness, and strengthens the kidneys and spleen.
When preparing this soup, the black beans and foxnut seeds should be soaked in water for two to three hours beforehand. The quantity can vary, but around six taels (approximately 225 grams) per person is a good guideline. After blanching the pork ribs, simmer them with the beans for about an hour and a half.
A folk remedy involves stewing black beans with pig heart (adding a small amount of longan meat). This is said to help with beriberi (vitamin B deficiency) in the elderly, which can cause foot swelling, nausea, headaches, and even respiratory discomfort (known as "beriberi attacking the heart" in traditional Chinese medicine). Consuming this soup can provide auxiliary therapeutic benefits. Another variation includes pig heart, black beans, longan meat, and light wheat, which can calm the heart, nourish the blood, and promote fluid production, benefiting those with night sweats, restlessness, and insomnia.
For lotus root soup, adding a handful of black beans along with red dates, dried tangerine peel, and pork ribs creates a nourishing soup for women, offering blood-nourishing and kidney-tonifying effects.
Some traditional Chinese medicine practitioners recommend stewing black beans with eggs and red dates for a nourishing soup that tonifies the kidneys and nourishes the blood. For women, adding a small amount of angelica root can enhance the blood-nourishing effects.
Beyond their nourishing properties, black beans are less commonly known for their detoxifying effects. Ancient medical texts record that black beans were used during famines to stave off hunger and detoxify various poisons. The *Food Materia Medica* states, "Raw black beans can be ground and applied to abscesses; their boiled juice can kill toxins, relieve pain, and reduce edema. They dispel heat in the stomach, treat internal injuries, and break up blood stasis and accumulations of cold." Li Shizhen noted that black beans combined with licorice can detoxify a wide range of medicinal poisons and treat facial and body edema.
Source: http://www. takungpao. com/ news/ 06/ 06/ 02/ GY- 574131. htm