While winter is clearly on its way out, the chilly rainy days of early spring can make me feel stuck. I call it the post-winter blahs. Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) calls it dampness. Loose bowels, gurgling digestion, bloating, nasal drainage, skin breakouts, flat energy and an overall stuck feeling both mentally and physically are signs of dampness. While the weather contributes to this condition, the richer foods we eat to keep warm and energized during the winter can promote dampness come spring.
If you are feeling this way it’s time to dry out. Start by taking a break from foods that weaken digestion, cause fluid retention and promote mucus formation: white flour, sugar, alcohol, processed foods, chocolate, dairy, salty, fatty and fried foods. Then add foods that dry. If you tend to feel cool at this time of year, try warming foods such as winter squash, parsnips, cabbage, bok choy, mustard greens, turnip greens, leeks, onions, garlic, and ginger. If you tend to feel warm, add cooling foods such as Swiss chard, collard greens, turnips, radishes, celery and watercress. The good news is that warming foods can be cooled off by serving them with horseradish, radishes or eating them raw. Cooling foods can be warmed up by adding spices such as ginger, garlic, bay leaf, basil, thyme, cardamom, coriander and fennel or by cooking them.
This spring, my husband and I have been indulging in the dampness curing power of roasted garlic. Garlic becomes sweet and nearly addictive when roasted. It is known to lower blood pressure, reduce LDL “bad” and increase HDL “good” cholesterol and reduce blood clotting risk. Incidentally, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and blood clotting are all damp conditions in TCM. Garlic’s pungent smell is due to sulfur compounds. Sulfur is essential for the production our bodies main antioxidant glutathione. It is high in manganese which is necessary for the proper function of several other antioxidants in our body. Garlic also has documented anti-inflammatory, anti-bacterial and anti-viral abilities.
Garlic is arranged in a tear drop shaped head or bulb wrapped tightly in a paper like sheath. Loose cloves or sprouting are a sign of age. Strike the fat end of the “tear drop” on the counter to loosen the individual cloves. Loosen the sheath from a clove by pressing it with the flat side of a knife. The sheath and the clove then separate easily. Certain varieties store well through the winter without sprouting. Ask your grower.
To roast garlic, preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Slice the pointed part of the teardrop off the garlic head crosswise, revealing the cloves. Place the desired number of heads of garlic in a baking dish, one or two per person. Drizzle each head of garlic with ¼ to ½ teaspoon of olive oil and sprinkle with a pinch of thyme. Bake uncovered for 30 minutes, then reduce the heat to 250 degrees and bake for one hour. Allow to cool enough to touch. To serve, squeeze the fat end to express the soft creamy cloves. Puree into winter squash or parsnips, toss several cloves with greens, add to pizza or pasta, spread on bread or crackers, or eat as is.
This article appeared originally in the May 2006 issue of the Kansas City Wellness Magazine, www.kcwellnessmagazine.com.
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