Summer is the yang season in Yakuzen and is associated with the below.

Element – Fire
Yin organ – Heart
Yang organ – Small Intestine
Emotion – Joy
Taste – Bitter
Color – Red

Summer is here! It's time to enjoy BBQ with friends and family in the sunshine and the beach is calling you, but wait a minute...
Let me give you little tips to keep yourself healthy so this summer would be full of joy for you.

As the temperature goes up, your body temperature also rises up, sweating to adjust your body temperature, and your heart has to work harder to pump blood throughout your body.

While your heart is performing its functions during the hot summer, it could cause the exhaustion of Qi (vital energy) and Yin fluid in your body and summer fatigue symptoms such as irritability, insomnia, shortness of breath, heart palpitations, and indigestion.

Summer is associated with the heart organ as you see above, and eating heart-nourishing food can help your body combat hot summer.

So what can we eat to avoid summer fatigue?

1. Cool down your body - Bitter melon, mung bean, apple, eggplant, green tea, cucumber, tomato, and other summer vegetables
2. Replenish Qi - Rice, potato, Chinese yam, green bean, beef, tuna, eel, chicken
3. Nourish Yin - Asparagus, chicken egg, zucchini, tomato, tofu, white fungus, pork, oyster

Keeping yourself hydrated is important, but having cold drinks with lots of ice can weaken your spleen and stomach and affect your digestive system.
I recommend eating spleen-nourishing food such as edamame beans, rice, pumpkin, chicken, oatmeal, shiitake mushroom, and cabbage to improve your digestion as well.


If you are living in a climate with high humidity, I recommend adding the food with the property of reducing water retention such as mung beans, coix seeds, and lots of summer vegetables such as cucumbers, eggplants, and lettuces.

Let's stay healthy and enjoy your summer!

*Please remember that we all have different body constitutions and it’s very important to understand what body type you have.