“Drink plenty of warm water and eat bitter foods to maintain good health during summertime.” According to Lin Huan-chin, doctor of Chinese medicine at the Ministry of Health and Welfare’s Fengyuan Hospital, the scorching hot weather of the summer months is a busy time for the body’s metabolism. As one sweats more and easily becomes thirsty, it is necessary to keep the body well hydrated. However, one should drink warm boiled water to cool the body and quench the thirst, and eat foods such as watermelon, sweet mung bean soup and rice bean soup. Lin also says one should cut down on cold or iced drinks and raw, cold fruit in order to avoid shocking the body with extremes of temperature.
Lin says that after the summer solstice, when the weather becomes even hotter and the body perspires even more, the heat causes the body’s internal temperature to rise and this can lead to, among other things, an imbalance between the spleen and the stomach, increased irritability and reduced appetite. To combat this, one can eat bitter-tasting foods, since bitterness removes heat from the blood, cools down the body, provides relief from sunstroke and lifts the spirits. Eating a little bitter gourd or drinking some bitter tea can cool the blood, but Lin warns that if the tea is made from predominantly “bitter-cold” ingredients, drinking too much may cause diarrhea.
(LIBERTY TIMES, TRANSLATED BY EDWARD JONES)
Photo: Ou Su-mei, Liberty Times
照片:自由時報記者歐素美
「夏季養生,宜多喝溫開水及吃點『苦』」。衛福部豐原醫院中醫科醫師林煥欽表示,夏季氣候炎熱,也是人體新陳代謝旺盛時期,不僅汗多,也容易口渴,應補充水分,但消暑解渴應多喝溫開水,或吃些西瓜、綠豆湯、赤小豆湯等,冰涼飲料或生冷瓜果不宜多食,以免驟冷驟熱,反而造成身體機能失調。
林煥欽指出,夏至後天氣更加炎熱,加上身體大量出汗、暑氣誘發內熱,可能會出現脾胃不和、肝火上升及胃口差等情形,可吃一些苦味的食物,因苦入心涼血,具有退熱、消暑、提神等好處,夏天吃點苦瓜或苦茶,可清心涼血解暑去熱,但苦茶使用的藥材多偏苦寒,多喝易腹瀉。(自由時報記者歐素美)
The strongest earthquake to hit Taiwan in 25 years killed at least 16 people and damaged dozens of buildings, but the destruction was largely contained thanks to decades of preparedness work. Taiwan sits on the “Ring of Fire,” an arc of intense seismic activity along the Pacific Rim, and — much like neighboring Japan — has a long history of catastrophic quakes. How does April 3 compare with other recent quakes? The April 3 earthquake, which measured 7.4 on the moment magnitude scale, was felt across Taiwan. It was the most severe since a 7.6 magnitude quake in 1999 killed
A: Artificial intelligence technology has been causing controversy lately: a student was caught cheating with AI to win the grand prize in an art contest. B: That’s so absurd. Does this mean that AI paints better than humans? A: Maybe. Luckily, the student was later disqualified. B: And more absurdly, it’s becoming more and more popular to use AI technology to “resurrect” people. A: Yeah, some netizens even posted videos featuring the late singer CoCo Lee, who was “resurrected” by them with AI software. A: 人工智慧的爭議不斷,有學生違規使用AI參加美術展,甚至贏得首獎。 B: 真誇張,這是不是代表AI比人類還強大? A: 或許吧,幸好得獎資格被取消。 B: 還有更誇張的︰讓死者重現的「AI復活」技術越來越熱門。 A: 對啊,還有網友製作已故歌后李玟「復活」的影片呢! (By Eddy Chang, Taipei Times/台北時報張聖恩)
Around the time of the Dragon Boat Festival in June, the streets of Taiwan are filled with the delightful aroma of zongzi, a traditional snack made of sticky rice wrapped in leaves. The leaves are folded into a cone and then filled with sticky rice and other ingredients such as braised pork belly, peanuts and salted duck egg yolks. The filled leaves are then tightly tied with kitchen twine and ready for cooking. 每到六月端午時節,街頭巷尾就會飄出粽子的香氣。粽子是將糯米包進粽葉的傳統美食,先將粽葉折成圓錐狀塞入糯米,以及紅燒肉、花生、鹹鴨蛋黃等配料,用棉線綁緊後即可烹煮。 Dragon Boat Festival (n. phr.) 端午節 aroma
It’s another school day with the same ritual. You wake up to your smartphone’s alarm, scroll through messages during your commute, and listen to your favorite playlist with your wireless earbuds between classes. These devices, integrated smoothly into your daily routine, certainly make life more convenient. However, where do these devices end up after you replace them? In fact, the issue of electronic waste is a growing global concern. According to the United Nations, in 2019 alone, we generated an astonishing 53.6 million tons of e-waste—an average of 7.3kg per person. Projections hint at the figure soaring to 110