When I think of summer images of beaches, grilling meats and hanging out spring to mind. Unfortunately here in North America summer is probably the worst time of year to eat barbeque steak and hamburgers.
Why? It’s already hot, especially this year in BC where we had an epic summer and quite possibly the worst barbeque weather ever. Why? Summer is a “yang” time meaning there is already an abundance of heat (sun) and light – two things that keep us warm, happy and energized naturally.
Barbequing meat puts a lot of heat (think energy) into a meat that already contains a lot of energy especially red meat. In fact beef and lamb are the two hottest meats one can consume much warmer than say fish.
In Chinese Medicine we are always looking at things in terms of energy “Qi” and food is comprised of one of four energies: cool, cold, warm and hot (and neutral meaning neither hot or cold). If I were to list meat and fish from hottest (meaning a lot energy) to coolest it would look something like this:
Hot: Beef, Game Meat, Lamb
Warm: Chicken, Cold Water Fish: Salmon, Halibut, cod, trout, lobster, mussels, oyster, shrimp
Neutral: Crab, Duck, Chicken Eggs, Goose, Pork, Turkey
Cool: Scallops, Warm Water Fish: tuna, haddock, sole, tilapia, sea bass, red snapper, perch
Cold:
Clams
In the summer we would ideally be consuming warm water fish like tuna, sole, tilapia and sea bass, which makes sense because they are coming from tropical areas. Remember this if you go south on holidays – eat cooler foods!!!
Now that the weather is turning cooler this is the time for grilling and roasting red meat. Bon Appetite!
