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Alcohol Part 2
73 Plays11 months ago
We break the seal on the bottle, tangents and swearing in this episode. We have plenty of good content coming your way this year, be on the lookout for episodes bimonthly or save yourself the anticipation and hit the subscribe button to make sure you never miss an episode.
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Transcript
Introduction to Alcohol Series
00:00:05
Speaker
Welcome back to Voices on the Mountain. This week we're doing part two of our series on alcohol. Stay with us.
Beer and Microbreweries
00:00:14
Speaker
So making our way back from our hard alcohol tangent. That's right. Almost like we were drunk on some hard alcohol. Let's do the beers, the brewskis. The brewskis. Ever more popular on the mainland. We got all these microbreweries popping up. That's right.
00:00:33
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. In Colorado, obviously tons of that too. You bet. So the brewskis are damper. So they're the dampest. If we said the hard liquors were the hottest, these ones are the dampest. And you can see it, right? You can see your bellies. What's that? Beer belly. Yeah, sure, too. Yeah, exactly. They get a very localized growing of a damp ball.
00:01:00
Speaker
Yeah, or of a phlegm baby or a dap baby. Yeah, that's true. That's exactly right. And so, yep, this is a good case of where you can even see it's cloudy and so forth.
Non-Alcoholic Beer Options
00:01:14
Speaker
It's, that's the damper ones. And here's an interesting point too. For those of you out there who enjoy the flavor of alcohols, but don't want these effects, you clearly obviously could go to non-alcoholic options, which have gotten so much better, by the way. So that's what I would indulge in. If, you know, if I'm going to pick something, I mean, I probably drink alcohol maybe like once a year.
00:01:41
Speaker
I don't really care anymore, so that's roughly about once a year, but it might be longer than that. It's mostly just because I feel like when you get pressured to drink a million times, a millionth and one time, sometimes you're like, okay, I'll take that.
00:01:54
Speaker
I'll take a wee flute of something. But it doesn't do much for me, so it wasn't hard to give up. But non-alcoholics, no problem. I'm happy to drink those or whatever. But here's a good point, though. If you are drinking a non-alcoholic beer and you have dampness issues and they start getting worse,
00:02:15
Speaker
you know what part of the problem is. So even though it's non-alcoholic, it still has dampness. And that's fine. As long as you are moving the fluids fine, you're probably fine. But if you're starting to get a thicker tongue coat or some damp symptoms in any of your burners, upper, middle, or lower, just don't forget that even non-alcoholics have damp. They just don't have the heat because they're not alcoholic.
00:02:38
Speaker
Is there...
Origins of Hard Alcohols
00:02:39
Speaker
So this one makes a lot of sense for me because the brews are made with a lot of grains. Yep. Or hops. Yeah. Yeah. And in the grains themselves would be dampness. Correct. And then backtracking to the hard alcohols, a lot of those are root crops. I guess not all of them are root crops. Oh, like potatoes?
00:03:02
Speaker
Yeah, I was thinking that like cassava, I mean, basically you can take any root crop and make moonshine out of it. And just more distilled, right? Yeah. So like the more kind of what we would call the essence of it, like it's literally the Jing of the alcoholic thing, taking more and more Jing. And what's left over is just hard alcohol.
00:03:27
Speaker
Too bad this doesn't nourish your dreams.
Fasting and Taste Perception
00:03:30
Speaker
Guys, alcohol is great for your kitties. Not so much. Yeah. So it's usually the degree of processing there. I got it. Okay. And then so then, yeah, for beer, it's that that's kind of the big thing. Lighter beers, you bring up an interesting point, though, as far as hops go as and also those grains go. So grains are sweet.
00:03:55
Speaker
If none of you guys have ever experienced this, there's two cool ways you can do it. One is fasting and one is crackers. I think most people would like crackers. But if you fast for two days, just do a water fast for two days. If you're comfortable and we're not giving you medical advice here, check out your acupuncturist or somewhere else to make sure. But most people can handle a fast for two days, obviously.
00:04:22
Speaker
Pay attention if you've got hypoglycemia or something like that. But if you fast for two days and then you eat a bowl of rice, you will taste sugar. It tastes sweeter. It's not like sugar, like cornflakes with a bunch of sugar topped on top, but you're like, wow, they weren't lying. This is sweet. Grains really are sweet. It's just most of us can't tell because our tongue is jacked up on sugar all the time.
00:04:49
Speaker
And so things don't taste sweet anymore. It's so nuts.
Dietary Differences: NZ vs USA
00:04:53
Speaker
I mean, going to the store and trying to find something that doesn't have like added sugar and whatever, that's processed or packaged, right? Yeah. Stay away from all that stuff. I just got back from New Zealand and one of the first things we did was went to the supermarket and I, it was like their really cheap supermarket. It's called Pack and Save.
00:05:12
Speaker
And I was just in love because it was like real food. Like, I mean, they still have like the, the live branding for a little bit of it, but for the most part, it's like their dairy is just like great dairy. Their other food was just, it didn't, there was no high fructose corn syrup in anything.
00:05:30
Speaker
added sugar and anything. It was nuts. And then there was also very wholesome marketing where they were just like, we have good ingredients. This is who we are. This is boring oat milk. And it was like the most popular brand of oat milk that there was. Just say oat. This oat. That's funny, dude. You're right. They probably don't have an excess of coin like we do. Hence, high fructose greens are
00:05:54
Speaker
And they're not jacked up on it. I mean, they don't subsidize corn. I mean, that's the reason we do it. It's because we have to make use of this shit that we already paid
Grass-Fed Dairy Benefits
00:06:04
Speaker
for. They have high lactose sheet milk instead.
00:06:07
Speaker
They have, they actually have lactose free milk where they put in lactase. Yeah. Enough that it's, yeah, yeah. I was like, Oh, that's why don't we do this? What a great thing for, but even just like their dairy just is different. I don't know if it's because they don't give them the growth hormones that we give our cattle or if it's what they're feeding them or where it is in the production, but it's, um, it was a different beast and you know, people that, uh,
00:06:35
Speaker
that will remain nameless who can't drink milk out here or who can't drink milk in the States. Cause otherwise they'll like have to urgently use the restroom. Yeah. Can drink milk over there and do all the dairy they want. I was just like, Oh, that's awesome. Yeah. Good. I bet you it's grass fed man. That is a game changer for dairy.
00:06:56
Speaker
Yeah, I mean in Hawaii, our dairy is grass fed because we can't grow grains out here and it's so expensive to ship hay or anything. Interesting. And maybe why people generally do better on the goat stuff because goats are more likely to be fed. Not crap. Interesting. Yeah. They'll eat anything but then people feed them the good stuff.
00:07:21
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, depending on who who's making you your goat cheese, but it's like, I mean, like, if it's like a home person that's doing their goat cheese, it's like they're not paying extra money for that. They're just like, go, go eat the forest. You'll make me cheese. Totally. I love it, dude.
Chinese Medicine on Grains
00:07:42
Speaker
I love it.
00:07:43
Speaker
And so talking about that sweetness factor too, so grains are sweet. Yeah, they don't taste exactly like sugar, but they're way sweeter than we give them. And so Chinese medicine has identified them as sweet for as long as we've known Chinese medicine. Well, here is a mind blowing idea. We know that sweet is the spleen and stomach flavor. Everybody knows that. Everyone who goes to first year college knows that. First year acupuncture, TCM stuff knows that. But they don't tell you it nourishes what?
00:08:14
Speaker
So, if that was true, then just eat more sugar, get strong spleen. And we know that doesn't work. You eat more grains, get strong spleen. No, if you go to China, they eat like more rice than I've seen any country in the world eat and they're in 70% spleen division. So, grains don't fortify your spleen's function. They fortify your spleen's liquid or yin.
00:08:40
Speaker
This is a game-changing idea is, all right, well, once we get all that, what is too much liquid that's not happening on movement? It's dampness. So people that can move that stuff, sure, they can have a beer night or something, non-alcoholic ideally. But people who can't move that now, any excess production of fluids gets stuck in the stomach. So no bueno? No bueno.
00:09:04
Speaker
And then the wines.
Red Wine for Menstrual Relief
00:09:06
Speaker
Wines. So in general, the white wines are kind of just like lighter. So they're not quite as hot, not quite as damp. But they don't seem to have as much of the moving function. The red wines are the ones we isolate more as having the moving blood moving additional function. So that's the one where if you wanted to call any of these three alcohols medicine, say for like a menstruation time,
00:09:33
Speaker
that right before, like right when a lady's about to get her period, that's the time where I would probably call red wine medicinal. And really medicinal. Because it's a blood mover. Because it's a blood mover. That's right. Yeah. And so red wine. And here's a fun trick. If you guys have access to Hong Hua,
00:09:51
Speaker
Which is safflower, not saffron, but safflower. It's the little red guy. These little like red spiky dudes. Soft, though. And just take like a couple tablespoons of Hong Hua, put it in a jar, and then put like some hard alcohol. The classic would be like a brandy or something. And then just bring up the brandy until it just covers the herb.
00:10:13
Speaker
let it sit for a couple weeks, and then next time menstruation rolls around, take a tablespoon of that, use like a filter, otherwise you'll have a bunch of little floaty bits in there, and toss it in some red wine or some hot ginger cinnamon tea or something. It's a great combo for just a regular thing to do for your period. Nice. Is that the same herb that's in our dit-da-jow? Yes, the floaty red guy in the dit-da-jow, that's exactly right. The trauma one, not the tendon one.
00:10:42
Speaker
Yeah. That's right. Cause you, you identify it with that floating guy, right? Yeah. I mean, the smell too is just so different. I just kind of know the color, all the things, but yeah, that one's in that one. I'm trying to figure out, we have a flower
Food Color and Organ Health
00:10:57
Speaker
out here. That's pretty similar. And I'm like, if it looks the same, does it do the same thing? Do you try, do you try teapot full and see what happens? No, I'm waiting for you to come out and visit. And then I want to be like, Stephen, let's shut knowing this. Let's eat a little bit and just taste what happens. Yeah.
00:11:12
Speaker
So the red wine is a blood mover. It's a little bit more hot. Yep. Is a little warm, not as hot as the fire water. That's right. Right. Okay. But warm, warm. And then does this track back to it being made from a grape at all? Yeah, I think it's connection to right grapes, red, affect blood, more red, purple, whatever.
00:11:37
Speaker
And so then we would say they tend to have more blood-moving quality. So basically any red foods affect the heart. And when it comes to color, generally we're talking about strengthening or tonifying. So when you want to talk about strengthening or tonifying, if we go back to spleen, the color of the spleen is yellow. So yellow foods actually strengthen a spleen. It's yang function because color is yang. But the flavor, which is a yin nature,
00:12:06
Speaker
nourishes the yin of that organ. We'll get to that in a five flavor episode. No, but that was great. Just a little hit me up. So the flavor is for yin and the color is for yang. Correct. And so the flavor generates the yin, which is like fluid for that organ, and the color strengthens its yang function. And therefore, red foods like red grapes and stuff generally help the heart move its blood better. Yeah. But then the pungent spicy acrid things like wager and
00:12:35
Speaker
Guizhi doesn't actually do this, but like Dangui is a good example. He nourishes blood very well. Okay. That is awesome to know.
00:12:44
Speaker
So is this why goji berry then would help again of the heart as well as your spleen? Because it's sweet and then the color red? That's a good point. So because it's sweet, it should generate fluids.
Fermentation in Digestion
00:13:00
Speaker
And specifically in the spleen, it is a little sour too. Generates fluids in the liver. But because of its red color, we would say it helps move and circulate them. So not generate blood, but move and circulate stuff through the heart vessels.
00:13:14
Speaker
which makes it such an amazing herb. It's a great herb. Awesome. So those were the three alcohols. Do we want to talk about the backbone of the fermentation process?
00:13:27
Speaker
Oh, yeah. What do we think about that? Go to the Su Wen quote. Nice. Let's do that. Let's go to that Su Wen quote. So you can pull this up from a lot of different quotes from the Nejing, but we'll pull up one from the Su Wen. It's from Chapter 14, at least by Chinese count. I think it's the same. And it's the Tang Ye.
00:13:49
Speaker
Laoli chapter and so this one starts off with So it's a whole chapter based on fluids Yeah, it means fluids tongue is like decoction and it technically is the ancient word for soup It's true, but decoction and then Laoli is a word for alcohol So here the yellow Emperor he says alright, so what's called the five? I'll read in English what's called the five grains fluids
00:14:18
Speaker
and alcohol or this lolly.
00:14:21
Speaker
He's saying, what is this? So then Chi Bo responds, and he says, these have to be grains, or what he calls dalmi. And then this very interesting word, chui, talks about how they basically cook the grains. Now, it's true. You can cook grains if you want to make things like mash or whatever. I'm not exactly sure. I've never made beer, but I know roughly of the process. But here, what we're really interested in is the fermentation process.
00:14:49
Speaker
And this word really describes that it's actually the fire radical with drinking radical on the other side so fire next to drink fire water if you will and the key here is fermentation for us is basically like cooking. Whether or not it started.
00:15:05
Speaker
with a cook. It doesn't matter. So kimchi would be another good example. You don't cook your kimchi before you make it. It's cooked through the fermentation process. And this is why it continues on and says dalmi jo wan, which means there's completeness or it's finished.
00:15:24
Speaker
And some people would translate this as it's got like tons of function, but actually I would say the other way, I would say this one is really talking about that it's completed its fermentation process. And now here we have something that can affect us immediately. So this kind of gets to the point where we're talking about some people will be like, well, how come alcohol hits me so fast, right? Maybe I eat a banana and I get some energy, but not like in seconds.
00:15:50
Speaker
And yet alcohol, you drink it and it goes right to your head. Same idea. And so this is because it's basically gone through the fermentation or digestive process already. So you put it in, it's immediately absorbed.
00:16:03
Speaker
Yeah, I also just think it's interesting the parallels between that description and then also our like character for Chi. Just like it starts with the grain and then you have the fire or fermentation and it's like this is how sometimes I just think about Chi is like this kind of gauge of change that's happening in the body. I love that gauge of change and you have such interesting phrasing. I love it.
00:16:25
Speaker
So then the quote continues and it says, so like this one can describe it as basically again, it's like processed, it's cooked and therefore it's strong or you could say so strong would be a good translation of Jin.
00:16:41
Speaker
I would not describe this as strengthening or fortifying. We all know that alcohol does not do that, but it is powerful and strong in its own right. Then the quote continues and it says, so how does this happen? I'm paraphrasing slightly. If you want the classic, it says, huy ran. And then Chiboy says, this is, this is a really beautiful one. And I really like how Asher thinks about this one too. But he literally says,
00:17:11
Speaker
It's because it receives the harmonization or harmony of heaven and earth. Gao xia zhi yi, like the benefit of both high and low, gu nong zhi wan, and therefore it can kind of achieve this complete fermentation or finished process.
00:17:30
Speaker
So if I was thinking about this on my own, I'd be like, okay, the earth part makes sense because we just took like a grain that came from the earth. Yes. And then, so then where's the heaven coming in? Is it coming in with the fermentation? Is it the fire? Yeah, exactly. So it's the fermentation. It's the fire. It's like that cooking process with or without an actual fire.
00:17:55
Speaker
but the fermentation, it heats
Alcohol's Effects and Fermentation
00:17:58
Speaker
up, right? So when there's activity generating all that bacterial growth and all that stuff in the liquid that's processing and turning it from sugar to alcohol, it literally heats up. It'll heat up the bowl. That's just the process we know of as intangible heat and fire, like chi, right?
00:18:18
Speaker
Interestingly too, a lot of stuff just relies on, like sourdough starter is a good example, it just relies on what's in the air, right? So kind of that beneficial stuff that's in the air to combine with what's in the water or the earth, the grain, whatever. So this combination of both. And then we know it works if it produces this kind of complete product at the end, this finished pre-digested grain.
00:18:45
Speaker
Awesome. And the parallel is, again, with like our own digestion that happens inside of us is the combination of heaven and earth, and then we... hopefully you get Jing, like we just talked about alcohol being Jing too.
00:18:58
Speaker
It's very much just that whole what what's outside the universe is also happening in our body. So so true. So true. And that idea of like, basically, it goes through this process. And then, you know, in this case of alcohol, we just take off the tippy tappy jing, we drink that or in the case of our digestion, we just take out that tippy tappy extra goodness, the jing, and then we're fortified by that.
00:19:21
Speaker
which then means all the rest of the stuff, or I believe that maybe is called mash, but the leftover grainy stuff is basically like the beer poo poo, right? It's like it's gotta clear out, that's the stuff. In fact, we have a word for it called zal poo, but it's like the leftover mixed grainy stuff. Okay, is that what zal poo translates to? It's not beer poo poo? No, that would be the stuff that's coming out of the human, that's right. Okay.
00:19:51
Speaker
Yeah. But the idea that like, ah, we don't need all that stuff. Just spread it on the field, maybe use this fertilizer, but we don't need it. And then just take the good stuff that came out of it. Yeah. Well, it served its purpose and back to the earth it will go. Yeah, totally. So kind of this good idea of like how we view alcohol as like, yeah, very strong in its effect and kind of a distillation of the grains that it comes from, literally.
00:20:21
Speaker
Metaphorically literally now means figuratively too. So you're kind of you're covered if you just say literally totally We might want to touch on frequency too because we just briefly mentioned that to like people like oh, how often should I be drinking?
Healthy Drinking Habits
00:20:37
Speaker
I like to tell people, let's assume that they don't have the worst splint in the world, they don't have the best. They don't have no damp, but they don't have tons of damp. Let's say maybe once a week would be a good idea. Try and keep it to once a week or less. Remember, there really isn't an idea where you're like, oh, I need to drink for this medicinal purpose. But if you can keep it to once a week or less, that'll really help. The daily consumption of alcohol is kind of a toughie on the body because then you're just never letting your body come back to balance without it.
00:21:07
Speaker
Yeah, that's huge. And then I'm sure it's going to mess up your sleep cycle and you storing in then.
00:21:15
Speaker
Yeah, no, no, no good all around. Totally, totally. And like Asher said, right, we don't have to be monks about it. But let's think about maybe like, you know, getting a little tipsy once a month. Yeah, maybe, maybe, maybe a little more, but still once a month would be that's a nice one. If you're getting drunk or having a drink 12 times a year, any spleen should be able to handle that unless you're like mid long COVID or something.
00:21:39
Speaker
Right. But yeah, it also gives people a good idea to like, well, they're like, just like Asher said, well, I use the alcohol to deal with the stress of my day.
00:21:49
Speaker
Yeah, but exercise is actually more effective and doesn't have any side effects. So not to say that everybody has that energetic boost at the end, but what if you kind of planned your day that like say maybe if you're still going into an office, if on the way home you exercise, right? Like maybe your gym is between there or, you know, run at lunch or something, something like that. And I realized not everybody's going to come home from a long day and be like, all right, now I'm going to restart my engines and go back out and work out. Hopefully,
00:22:19
Speaker
But yeah. Yeah. Well, and even running that off in the morning can be helpful. Yeah. Either literally or figuratively, however you want to work out and get your exercise. And then if it is like an end of the day type thing.
00:22:33
Speaker
You can kind of double up on if you have a chore. It's like, can you walk to the store to get the groceries? Can you bike to the store? Is there a way for you to incorporate movement more throughout your day so that it doesn't have to become a set aside timesing at the end where you're crunching and overlapping with other stuff?
00:22:52
Speaker
Um, and even then take a walk after your dinner. It doesn't have to be anything crazy. Yeah. Um, but just that will help your digestion and your, and your mental state. Heck yeah, man. Heck yeah. I mean, shoot, just like Asher said, you can even combine it, like do horse stance when you wash the dishes or something, you know, full shell and monk on this thing. Uh, it's a little bit hard though with the way that the countertops work, like the shelving underneath the cabinets, right? Easier in China. China is made for like five foot tall people.
00:23:23
Speaker
Because the previous generation was, I think, a little malnourished or something. I cannot cut vegetables without being in some sort of horse or bow stance out there. It's just like this will not work for a six foot person. But your knees don't bang into the cabinets? Horse stance works better because it's side to side. Yeah. Got it. Okay, okay, okay. Yeah. Don't bow stance. Also, it'd be hilarious to chop in a bow stance. I feel like someone would feel threatened.
00:23:51
Speaker
I always try to get furniture out of the house because it gets more movement in every day. You get up and down off the ground. I just like the ground better. I hate being sitting. I think it's terrible. Basically, I treat people for sitting all day. I'm like, I don't want to go home and sit. Terrible.
00:24:10
Speaker
So even the little things like that can help too. Heck yeah. Heck yeah. Or like, yeah, exactly. Like if they're doing a lot of computer work, like standing desk, sitting desk, go between the two throughout the day. I saw some people have like these like mats where they kind of have like knobby things on some parts and not know. Yeah. So it could be like massaging their feet while they're working and stuff. Totally. Yeah. Do your taxes while you're stretching on the floor?
00:24:35
Speaker
I love that one because I mean shoes are bad. Yeah, I'll just say that we can go more detail at some other time.
Movement and Spleen Health
00:24:43
Speaker
But giving your foot a variety of like what it gets to experience instead of it just being like flat hard concrete all the time is so huge. Yeah, I definitely cut down as much as I can on that kind of time and in adding
00:25:00
Speaker
of mat like that. You can do that in the kitchen too, when you're washing dishes, another one. Or cutting, cutting up food. Yeah, that kind of touches on the five fatigues that we mentioned before. Sitting harms the spleen. Check it out how many office workers got damp, right? Right. And then standing harms the bones over extended standing harms the bones. And it's interesting because the flat just like Azure said 100% like you're not getting any movement in the foot, but also the hardness of concrete out of one patient she
00:25:29
Speaker
She got a full hip replacement, but she was doing fine. And then she walked on concrete for like a day or two. And so she was doing fine for months after she, of course, went through a healing period. Then it was like hiking mountains, doing crazy stuff, no problem. And then was walking on cement for like a day or two at like an amusement park.
00:25:48
Speaker
And since then, which was months ago, her hip just chronically gives her tons of pain. After the treatment, she was doing really well. And then she was walking around doing everything, again, hiking even. It's a little bit smaller than she was, but she's building back up. And then she was walking to an airport again, hip pain came back. And you're like, dude, literally, every time she's on a hard surface pounding that hip into the socket, it's creating pain, even if it's an artificial one.
Heel vs Forefoot Striking
00:26:17
Speaker
Yeah, it's no good too. I mean, if, and then with the way that the shoes designed and the way a lot of us walk with heel striking, you're not really absorbing anything the way you should. And so instead of the knee being a spring and absorbing some of that shock, it's just sending everything straight through the hip. Just transferring the force.
00:26:41
Speaker
Yeah. And if you have more of a forefoot strike, um, then you'll have one spring between the forefront to the heel. Yeah. And then the knees more bent. So then the knee actually lands bent and then straightens back out more. So, so then that's two. And then the rest, the rest of it goes up to the hip. Love it, dude. Two kind of springs before you hit that hip. That's right. Hit that.
00:27:10
Speaker
Sweet. Yeah. So drinking once a week, get smammered once a month if you really feel like it. Yeah. Or maybe drink once a month for those of you really on the path or whatever. Whatever. Yeah. I mean, for me too, I was going to say it wasn't even in my thirties that drinking became one fun because I started to get like hangovers like an hour after having my first drink. Yeah.
00:27:33
Speaker
So what is hangovers for us? Is it just dehydration? Is it we move too much? That's such a good point. It is part dehydration. That is part of it. But it's actually mostly because we're tweaking our fluid metabolism. So this is an interesting one. Who was it? Someone was drinking date and ginger tea. Oh, I know.
00:27:59
Speaker
Also, an unknown source I will describe. But anyway, so taught him how to make a ginger and red date tea from actual slices of ginger, actual red dates, super easy.
Ginger Tea for Fluid Metabolism
00:28:12
Speaker
If you guys want the recipe yourself, it's basically try not to eat more than five red dates a day. It's true, red dates come in variable sizes. So if you're getting like the tank bullet red dates, probably just stick to one. Some of those things are huge. They're like the size of my forehead.
00:28:26
Speaker
You also get the red dates that are like literally like a pupil of an eyeball and you're like, okay, I think I can handle 10 or 15 of these bad boys. But the standard ones are like basically a twin long, like a full finger digit long.
00:28:42
Speaker
Okay. That's kind of the standard one. So think about roughly five a day would be the goal there. And here's a super key point. Open those bad boys up. If you simmer those in any sort of liquid and you don't open them up, they'll just balloon up into these gross little balloons that don't impart any of their goodness or flavor into the liquid. So they become gross because it's like a steamed date. I mean, seriously.
00:29:08
Speaker
So tear them open, cut them open, whatever you got to do. Open those five bad boys up. And then for each five dates, I usually do one to two inches of sliced ginger. So just like one of those finger knobs that's coming off, you can do roughly an inch of that, slice it up thin, and then simmer them up 20 minutes. So it's like no ginger at all then compared to the date. Yeah, maybe two inches of ginger. Yeah, so two inches.
00:29:34
Speaker
Yeah. You're looking for ginger flavor, but nothing that's going to burn on the way down. Nothing spicy. Oh, man. I'm going over for ginger. Yeah. But again, it depends on your constitution. So if you feel like you need to move fluids more than generate, do make it a little spicier. So your body might be telling you what you want. Yeah. So anyway, so then we get that bad boy. And then I like to make it in a big picture. So maybe triple that.
00:30:00
Speaker
So like 15 dates, three to six inches of ginger, and then you just store it in the fridge. And we don't generally drink cold things, but here's a trick. If you do want to drink cold beverages, put ginger in it. That's the Chinese medicine trick. So that's why they say drink ginger in the summer. What they're telling you is we know you're going to drink cold stuff in the summer because it's hot, but put ginger in it and it won't stop it from circulating.
00:30:24
Speaker
Cause that's why we don't like cold in the first place. And so what I usually do is we'll keep it in the fridge, pour. If you want a great morning beverage, just take a mug and fill it up about a third with that cold tea and then just pour in two thirds boiling water. Instantly you've got like a great temp, great tea. It's nice and toasty. It's perfect. Yeah.
00:30:43
Speaker
So is this a hangover cure or not a hangover cure? That is an all the time can drink fluid metabolizer mover.
Hangovers and Fluid Metabolism
00:30:50
Speaker
So it boosts and move those fluids. And actually this patient, she was drinking that regularly because she loved it so much. And then she went out and drank and didn't get a hangover.
00:31:00
Speaker
Like same amount that her husband drank, same amount that she would normally get her hangover and didn't, which tells us that her spleen function was better and her processing of the fluids, basically how her triple burner was moving was much better. So when it comes to a hangover for us, that basically is dampness stuck in the middle burner.
00:31:24
Speaker
Hence, you think, okay, well, I'm going to have a stomach or what we call a yangming frontal headache, check. We have some nausea, double check. Most foods going to taste and sound bad, triple check, and probably maybe some loose stools and diarrhea on the other end. We've got all the good stuff, so this is basically cold and damp in the middle burner, which is funny because you got hot, but the cold is really coming more from the damage of the middle
00:31:55
Speaker
Okay. So like on the other side of the stuckness, there's going to be a lack of movement. Correct. And cold vacuum. That's right. And so there's a really great formula for most people's hangovers. I wouldn't call this a universal hangover formula. There actually is even more classical ones too, that are specifically dealing with hangovers and or trying to get off alcohol. They come from Li Donggen, the spleen boosting school guy, the earth boosting school.
00:32:22
Speaker
But a classic easy-to-find formula that's all the way around everywhere, it's called Huo Xiang Zheng Chi San. And that's a really good formula for hangovers because it deals with the frontal headache, it deals with stomach pain, it deals with nausea, and it deals with loose stools. So you can see symptomatically, it really does fit quite well with almost all of them. And it does, it really helps people get over it a lot faster.
00:32:47
Speaker
Nice. But our favorite way of preventing or stopping a problem is preventing it in the first place. That might be a good idea. So if you can drink once a month, that's an even better one. And also, if you're drinking well and you're really strengthening your organs, and again, working on that fluid metabolism, sometimes you drink and you just don't have the hangover, which is great. Yeah. No, as you're healthier. You can handle more. Yeah.
00:33:14
Speaker
Also, Li-10, I even knew the name and number this time. Li-10 is just a phenomenal point for hangovers. Uh, something one. Five Wu, one upper. Chosang Li. Okay. Chosang Li, yeah. The hands really.
00:33:32
Speaker
Well, Juan and Lee are synonymous. I knew where you were going. Full points for showing your work. Thank you. Any more thoughts on alcohol? I think that's about it.
00:33:51
Speaker
Well, maybe we'll do one last one, which is for those people who haven't gotten around to the switching over to the exercise and still like the alcohol at the end of the day, see if it's not the ritual that you like.
00:34:06
Speaker
I sometimes, I've been playing with this to try and get some of them. I think if they made a rich, maybe a ginger, I didn't realize it's at the evening day, but whatever, so not too spicy. We don't want to break our own rules here. Maybe a ginger red date and then a lot of hibiscus or something, it'll be a little bit thicker. The hibiscus has that deep red wine looking color.
00:34:29
Speaker
something like that, you know, like build in the ritual and see if it's not the ritual that they need for decompressing more than it is the alcohol itself. For sure. I think for me, I mean, I grew up in wine country, so and there's also lots of microbreweries there. So having a meal without alcohol or without a special drink is kind of difficult habitually. So then I started making a first I started making kabucha and that was years ago.
00:34:58
Speaker
I can never really get it to go right. Now I'm making ginger beer and now I'm so lazy because ginger beer, it's finicky too. I'm just doing like ginger tea and I let it sit for three days. So it's a really short fermentation. Um, and then just like, and I make it super strong and then I do a soda stream to make it carbonated. And then that's, that's my special drink. Dude, I love that. It's like a little sour, like fermented stuff.
00:35:26
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just in the three days, it gets a tinge of the sour fermented bit. That is fascinating. Going longer out here because there's so much mold in the air. I have a problem keeping everything clean. Yeah, that's a good idea. I probably don't want to risk throwing some stuff in the tummy that you don't know what it is, right? Yeah. What's your one that you want in the kombucha bai chow or bai ju? Bai ju.
00:35:55
Speaker
baiju. So once I get my hand in some some baiju, I'll try fermenting that and dude in my ginger. Yes, that would be incredible. Anything that can grow along baiju is going to be good for your tummy. Yeah, that's the ultimate color. Litmus test. Yeah, yes, exactly. You bet. Yeah, that's true. Yeah, I think you're absolutely right. Kate nice. I'm like, I'd say pretty, pretty often we'll, we'll do like either a non alcoholic beer or I don't know if you have you ever heard of ghost geo se?
00:36:24
Speaker
No. It's a kind of beer. It's like a sour beer, basically, as far as I can understand. It's just like, I guess, some beers. I don't know what the difference is. I've never made them myself. But some are sour-er, and some are just like the other one. So when it comes to the ghosts, they're just normally sour beers. But then this is a non-alcoholic version of it. And it's fascinating because it really, if you just worked out hard or something, it's that same idea. It's that naturally sour stuff really does help replenish your fluids nicely.
00:36:55
Speaker
because it generates yin, right? Yeah. And if you try and find ones that are nicely aromatic, oh, so we had never actually talked on this, but hops is like that. I'm pretty sure it looks like little buds. Yes, clearly. I live in Colorado, but it looks like bud to me. I think it's actually in the same family as the cannabis. That would make sense because it smells kind of terpene or something.
00:37:23
Speaker
Yeah, but hops to put the whole kind of the whole point of it is that, you know, they used it for like India pale ales and stuff. And so as a really happy, but it's kind of bitter and it's really aromatic. So this is an interesting point that aromatic things are the way to combat dampness.
00:37:41
Speaker
So by putting hops in beer, it's less damp. So same cloudy liquid, but now you've got an aromatic damp transformer. We use a lot of them. I've always wondered if people would use Charin for it. I hope they don't do it too much though, because it would deplete our stores of Charin.
00:37:56
Speaker
But it would be a brilliant thing to put it into beer so things like tangerine peel which i know citrus peel in general a lot of beers have like citrus things really smart dealing with the dampness ahead of time.
00:38:12
Speaker
Nice. So what are they called? The hazy IPAs? Correct. Are really going to be your your least damp of the damp beakers. That's right. Because if it's aromatic and or right poppy or any of those things, that's combating the dampness as as you're imbibing it, right? Yeah, it's funny. I think they call it hazy IPA because it's more cloudy. But yeah, cloudy was like citrus stuff. Maybe they could do a clear IPA because all IPAs are like crazy poppy thing, right?
00:38:43
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Which are great. They really bring out the spice. I don't know if there's a Chinese medicine thing there too, but I used to love drinking hoppy beers with Mexican food in California. Oh man. It's just, yeah. The spice from the Mexican food will just have new levels of high. Really? Like it feels spicier. Yeah. If you've never tried before, try it. Just for fun.
Alcohol Rituals and Relaxation
00:39:09
Speaker
Just to burn the face off a little.
00:39:10
Speaker
Yeah, or at least, you know, I mean, you don't have to go as hot with your Mexican food and it'll still have a bunch of kick in it. Interesting. Yeah, you can do it with anything. And also then don't do it with things if you don't want that. I got I got an experiment for you. So we mostly use damp transformers. So big shout out to Baidoko. Sharon helps with this too. But Baidoko is incredible. Tangju, incredible for rehabilitating taste and smell.
00:39:37
Speaker
So, post COVID, people obviously is the biggest category you can think of right off the bat. And it really helps rehabilitate that taste and smell. So, if you're talking about something that has an aromatic transformer in it, which should heighten your sense of taste for everything. So, I'd be curious... Now, obviously, you're probably not going to put it with tiramisu or something, but it would be hilarious to try your IPA with a different flavor besides spicy and see if it also enhances that.
00:40:05
Speaker
I'm sure, yeah, I'll give it a shot. I don't drink that much these days anymore, but next time I'm feeling it all, yeah. Just shout back to what you said, too, about it being a ritual. That is for sure a huge bit of...
00:40:20
Speaker
of everyone's kind of thing and I mean just like the the sound for people right of just like the and then you're like I'm done with my day like I have no more responsibilities I don't give no fucks like it's just it's a thing for the brain to to kind of shut off and I used to tell people too with marijuana smoking that you know it's not the
00:40:39
Speaker
the smoking it's the breathing that gets you high because how often do people like slow down and focus on an inhale throughout their day and it's like you never do it but then it's habituated ritualized and with smoking cannabis. I love that dude. I worked at a restaurant after college after undergrad between
00:41:00
Speaker
There and then heading to New York and then China, but it was interesting because the guys sometimes I was the line cook for like six months and They would take like smoking breaks and I'd be like well that shit sucks You get a break for just being a smoker. So I would take smoking breaks and just stretch So I just take stretching breaks and I'd go out deep breathe and just like stretch. We're like the best things in the world, man Yeah
00:41:24
Speaker
Like, what are they going to complain unless they stop smoking? I'm going to keep stretching, you know what I mean? Oh, for sure. Yeah, that's nuts too. Never thought of that. Yeah. I'm going to take my smoke break. It's like, I'm going to take my breath. I'm going to take a break too. Yeah. Just to breathe out and just to walk out of this building and get to change the scenery. So true, dude. Yeah, that ritual is really key. Sometimes I find even things like carbonated water, like if you open up a San Pellegrino or something,
00:41:49
Speaker
Same effect. Same effect. And you just got delicious bubbly, high mineral water. Heck yeah. Yeah. How do you feel about the bubbles? I think the bubbles are fine unless people actually have what we call, it sounds funny, intestinal wind, chongfung, or wind in the intestines.
Carbonation and Digestion
00:42:08
Speaker
Are these the gassy people?
00:42:10
Speaker
They often are the gassy people. They're the Borbirgme people too. They got the Gulu, Gulu, Gulu all the time in their tummy. Those people don't usually do great on it. But if they're not prone to that bloating, gurglies, the bubbles are probably like we would describe that as actually more yang.
00:42:26
Speaker
water. So almost like more activated water. Technically, there is an interesting word we use, we use kandu shui, which is like sweet dew water. And it's or sometimes they'll call it lao shui, which is like labored water or laborious water. And it's where they take the water and they just like have a ladle and they go up and down like bring the water up and let it fall down like right in the bucket.
00:42:50
Speaker
Aerating it. Aerating it and they're supposed to do it 10,000 times or something. Or by San Pellegrino. There's some formulas that call for using this kind of water because it won't stagnate as much.
00:43:04
Speaker
Wow, that's so interesting. Yeah. So besides the blow to gas, people actually technically carbonation is really quite wonderful. And on top of that, the mineral water is great. So you can find good minerals. That's, that's just basically makes it easier for your spleen and triple burner to move things around. Ah, nice. Well, Colorado water is high minerals. I mean, nice.
00:43:28
Speaker
Yeah, I don't know if you've noticed that or what your water situation is. Yeah, we started doing Eldorado a little while ago, some Eldorado Springs at the home now. And it's just wonderful. It even tastes different. It's great. Yeah. The minerals took me a while to get used to. But then once I got used to it, I was like, oh, this is great. Yeah. Didn't mind at all.
00:43:54
Speaker
Yeah, that's what everyone wants. Yeah, because electrolytes are basic, which are minerals, right? They're basically like, it's a good Western medicine trick, but it's basically making the stuff easier to move around. Whereas the Chinese medicine way is to try and work on the organs that are doing the moving around of the fluids. So when we do ginger in it, that's helping our organs move the fluid better.
00:44:19
Speaker
But when you put electrolytes in water, it's making it easier for your organ to do the job. So one changes the substance and one changes the organ function. Is it almost like having the water post-Chihua? It's closer to that, yes. That's correct. An electrolyte is closer to the Chihua processed water. That's correct. Right. And so there's less work for us to do, to move it around and process it.
00:44:46
Speaker
Ah, cool. Yeah. So electrolytes are really, they're quite effective for a lot of things, but like from our perspective, they're just temporary because the next cup of water, unless that also has electrolytes in it, you're not going to be processing that one very well, right? Right. It's basically, it's a short term little thing. Yeah. It's a short term thing to change the substance instead of to change the organ's function. Right. But could be helpful, especially like when you're in dire straits. Oh, yeah.
00:45:14
Speaker
Now, a lot of the electrolyte stuff that I see, it's whenever I put it in my water, I'm like, did I just put a ton of sugar in my water? Most of the time, the answer is yes. What the fuck is going on here, guys? So those electrolytes. And then in my brain, I'm like, do I not know what electrolytes are? Are electrolytes just sugar? That's a great point. So this is a good point for people, too. Electrolytes, there's really only three things you need to look for.
Homemade Electrolyte Cubes
00:45:43
Speaker
Low sodium.
00:45:44
Speaker
low or no sugar, high potassium. So you always want more potassium than there is sodium. Unfortunately, most of them are high sugar and more sodium than there is potassium. There's actually a cool way that you could make your own mineral electrolytes is beet greens, just simmer beet greens forever and make like a crazy broth. And we freeze them into cubes and then we just toss the cubes into our drinks.
00:46:10
Speaker
Fuck yes. That is so easy. It's so easy. So we'll do like a whole bunch of beet greens, which is usually the greens off of three beets. Wash them real good because they're sandy and whatever. Although you're just going to, you know, cook them anyway. You could eat the green at the end. Sure, we eat them all the time too. But if you're doing it this way, I just recommend people like crockpot them for like a day or two.
00:46:34
Speaker
Just cook them down to whatever because what you want to do is cook all the minerals out. You don't really want to leave anything left. And remember, minerals don't break down with heat. So the more heat, the better. You're just extracting more.
00:46:47
Speaker
They're not going to literally denature. You can't denature a mineral. But you will separate it with heat, which is why you have it. Correct. So you want to extract it with the heat. That's exactly right. And then for that, you do want some sodium. It's true. The key is you just want more potassium than sodium. So for like three beats worth of big beautiful greens, then I usually use about a tablespoon maybe of good healthy salt
00:47:14
Speaker
a little more or less. Sometimes I toss a couple bay leaves. I don't know. That's about it. And then just simmer that thing for two days, toss it into like little ice cube trays, and then store those in bags once they freeze up. You got electrolyte cubes, man. Super easy. Super easy. So healthy. Yeah. And they kind of make things taste like pink lemonade.
00:47:35
Speaker
I was going to ask you if the taste is good. The taste is so neutral, but it's like, I think pick lemonade is mostly a mind thing. When it's pink and then you put other things in it, it tastes like pink lemonade. Got it. Cool. Knee little trick there for those of you who want to make your own electrolytes and not just drink sugar. Yeah. But if they want to do a, just follow those three rules. If you want to buy a commercial one, low to no sugar, more potassium, less sodium.
00:48:06
Speaker
Are there other crops that you're just looking for anything high in potassium then? That's correct. And beet greens just happen to be the king. They're so high. They're so much higher than even every other good green. And I love every vegetable in green. But for some reason, beet greens are just skyrocketing high.
00:48:23
Speaker
And it's nice too because, I mean, like you said, you can't eat the beet greens and there are even beet greens that are grown specifically for the tops. You still have the root crop available. So you're like making use of the whole plant. Yeah, exactly. So many people throw them away. It's so sad. I mean, I'd rather throw the beet away than the greens.
00:48:43
Speaker
Yeah. It's basically like chard is what it feels like when I eat it. Heck yeah. Yeah. And that one is pretty tough. I basically would recommend people never try and eat beet greens raw unless they're super tiny and like tender. Um, but boy cooked is just delicious. You can cook it in every way. We cook it like Chinese greens, like with like tofu or something like that. We could get oyster sauce. Oyster sauce would be delicious. We do a gratin sometimes we'll do like kind of like a gratin in the oven with, you know, some rich creamy stuff with it.
00:49:13
Speaker
For those of us lemons, what is a gratin? Oh, it's like you mix it with like dairy, like cheese, you know, dairy cheese or non-dairy cheese. We don't mind a little cheese. And then some sort of like creamy sauce. If you want to go non-dairy, you could do coconut milk or you do like a cream. And then you kind of like roast it in that. So like it's just delicious. It's kind of like the idea of like cream spinach, but baked really nice. Check out Alton Brown's got a good recipe for beet green gratin.
00:49:43
Speaker
G-R-A-T-I-N. Graton. Graton. Fancy. Oh, yeah. And we like dairy. That's like cheese and the cream because it's fermented and so it's the jing of the dairy. That's a good point. Exactly. So it's really good at nourishing yin.
00:50:02
Speaker
So, of course, there's some people that are allergic to it, so that's a slightly different category. We could talk about what allergies are at their root anyway from a TCM thing, but for most part, we'll just skip to what dairy is. Dairy is actually not bad. I know a lot of people are like, oh, Chinese medicine says just eat congee all the time and never eat dairy.
00:50:19
Speaker
Yeah, but those people are really damping their spleens and dairy is yin. It's like a high density yin thing. So what you need then is to combine it with something or just have a really good spleen function. That's correct. So certain things do help move things.
00:50:39
Speaker
So as we mentioned, are actually in this episode, scallion is incredible. So green onions, chives, scallions, anything in that family is really good at moving. And that's why you can think of like, you know, like green onion or sour cream kind of thing, that sort of combo or whatever.
00:50:56
Speaker
really good for moving. Also fennel, like fennel bulb is a pretty effective mover. So combining that with cheese is a really, you know, quality, quality combo because you get the yin. And that's what I like to get across to people is we want in that's like the whole point of eating is to absorb good yin things. But you need to process like function processing function in order to do that.
00:51:23
Speaker
Right. And most of us nowadays don't have that. And back in the days where the kanji was very popular, you didn't have enough yen. Correct.
00:51:31
Speaker
So that is exactly right. Like I guarantee you, if you go back to shang han lun times, part of the reason why they love Joe so much back in those days, you open, you know, anybody opens their mouth, you'll see a cracky tongue. You'll see like a dry desert cracked tongue. Cause they just, they were, you know, close to starvation, right? Um, so yeah, if you're starving, eat as much congee as you can. Yeah. But if you're a dam, you may not so much. Exactly.
00:52:02
Speaker
Sweet. All right. That wraps it up for this week's episode on alcohol and all the other tangents that we hit on boy. Hope you guys enjoyed. Cool. Peace out. Good to see you guys. Hear you guys sound you guys. Don't forget to hit the like button, subscribe and share this podcast with all your friends.