like citrus? eat a pomelo
November 19, 2004
When I miss China, it always helps to eat something i would snack on when I was there.
I love citrus fruits. Oranges grapefruit really make me happy, but tangerines are a little too sweet. If you know Chinese medicine, things are usually separated into things that raise your internal heat, and things that lower your internal heat. This isn’t the same a temperature or spiciness, but there is some carry over.
Things that raise your internal heat can give you problems like a fever, acne, smelly sweat, infections, phlegm, and other problems like a scratchy throat or bloating. Why? When the body has too much heat energy it will then try to get rid of it.
What raises heat? Anything with lots of oil, so most meats, and many things that have a strong flavour, high caffeine, etc. Most citrus lowers heat, but not all of it is reducing enough. What is a girl with high internal heat and vitamin C craving to do? Well, pomelos and grapefruits are considered “cold” fruits.
Even beyond the whole idea of heat inducing and heat reducing foods, I really like them. They’re yummy and like massively oversized pear-shaped grapefruits. If my local grocery has them, they must be available at an awful lot of places. Unlike citrus, you can’t eat the skin surrounding the sections, it’s too tough, but the pulpy stuff inside the segments stays together much better than in an orange, so it’s a pretty clean snack.