What does it mean to put on weight in autumn

There is a phrase in the folk saying "putting on weight in autumn". What does it mean? Putting on weight in autumn is actually a custom since ancient times. We have all experienced that in the summer the weather is hot. On the one hand, people think that the heat makes them too lazy to eat, and on the other hand, people lose their appetite because of the heat. When the Beginning of Autumn comes, the weather will be relatively cool, so people will eat meat on this day to make up for what they didn’t eat before.

The Beginning of Autumn is the 13th solar term among the 24 solar terms, and falls on August 7, 8 or 9 every year. This day is commonly known as "putting on weight in autumn" among the people. It is popular among the people to weigh people on the day of the Beginning of Autumn and compare their weight with that at the Beginning of Summer to check whether they are fat or thin. Weight loss is called "bitter summer". At that time, people often judged health only based on fatness or thinness. Of course you need to "replenish" if you are thin, and the way to do it is to "put on weight in autumn" by eating delicious food with strong flavors. Of course, meat is the first choice, "putting on weight with meat". On this day, ordinary people eat stewed meat, while more sophisticated families eat boiled meat, braised meat, meat-stuffed dumplings, stewed chicken, stewed duck, braised fish, etc. Nowadays, young women often worry about gaining weight in autumn and hope to lose weight.

It turns out that in the past people had many concerns about the solar terms, most of which were related to diet and disease prevention, which was not unrelated to people's concern about their own health. “Food is the most important thing for people.” The Beginning of Autumn is a very important solar term, and people certainly won’t forget to eat. Therefore, "putting on weight in autumn" is popular among the people in Beijing, Hebei and Northeast China.

In addition to "putting on weight in autumn", "biting autumn fruits" is also popular in Tianjin and other places. People believe that eating melons at the beginning of autumn can prevent diarrhea in winter and the coming spring. There is a record in Zhang Tao's "Miscellaneous Notes of Tianjin·Customs of the Years" in the Qing Dynasty: "Eating melon at the beginning of autumn is called "biting autumn" and can prevent diarrhea." In the Qing Dynasty, people put melons, steamed eggplant preserves, fragrant glutinous rice soup, etc. in the yard to dry overnight before the beginning of autumn, and eat them on the day of the beginning of autumn to clear the summer heat and avoid dysentery.

The Beginning of Autumn is an important solar term that farmers attach great importance to. There is a proverb that goes "If you sit for a while at the beginning of the Beginning of Autumn, you will go hungry in the spring of next year", which reminds people to intensify their agricultural work and strive for a good harvest. An agricultural proverb says: "If it rains in the beginning of the dog days, there will be drought in the dog days; if it rains in the beginning of autumn, there will be good food to eat." There is also a saying that goes "In July, everything is harvested, in June, everything is lost." This means that if the Autumn Begins in the seventh month of the lunar calendar, there will be a good harvest of grains; if the Autumn Begins in the sixth month of the lunar calendar, there will be a poor harvest of grains. Another example is “North wind before autumn means rain after autumn, and north wind after autumn means dry riverbed”, which means that if there is a north wind before the beginning of autumn, it will rain after autumn; if there is a north wind after the beginning of autumn, the winter may be dry. For farmers who used to rely on the weather for their livelihood, the significance of the Beginning of Autumn is more than just about eating.

In the beginning of autumn, the main thing is to moisturize the body and be careful about gaining weight. In autumn, the weather gradually turns cooler, and people tend to experience varying degrees of dryness in the mouth, nose, skin and other parts of the body. Therefore, they should eat juicy foods that can nourish yin and moisturize, and eat less spicy and fried foods. In autumn, it is advisable to eat light, sweet, sour and cold foods. Coldness can clear away heat, sweet foods are nourishing in nature and have the effects of relieving urgency, harmonizing the stomach and nourishing, while sour foods have the effects of astringing, promoting salivation and quenching thirst. At the same time, Chinese medicine believes that the lungs have a close relationship with autumn air, so you should eat more foods that can moisten the lungs and promote fluid production, such as lily, lotus seeds, yam, lotus root, oyster mushroom, tomato, etc. It seems that after the beginning of autumn, we should pay special attention to regular and quantitative diet, as well as moisturizing and strengthening the body.