For autumn health we should eat moistening foods to repair the body after summer’s dry heat, and prepare ourselves for the cold of winter. The Chinese autumn is dry and cool, but on Whadjuk Noongar Boodja we go from Bunuru which is the hottest time of the year, to the cooler days and nights and the first rains of Djeran. And Djeran has been quite lovely this year.
TCM associates the lungs with autumn, and it is because these are easily affected by dryness that it is the time to eat moistening food. And we are withered by the long dry seasons Binak and Bunuru. Seasonal produce that moisten the lungs include figs, pears, sweetcorn, walnuts, molasses, fatty fish, and duck. Looking after the lungs helps with immunity, so it is good time to quit smoking or cut right back. Our medicine sees grief as the emotion that can damage the lungs. Sometimes things get to us, but try not to be sad. Just as the Noongar people repaired their shelters to prepare for winter, it’s a good time to use Chinese herbal medicine that is traditionally used to boost immunity and ward-off colds and flus.
Yes I’ve posted about autumn before, this is a reprise.
Image: AUTUMN LEAVES AT KAIANJI TEMPLE (Utagawa Hiroshige)