When a cough afflicts one, there is coughing in the morning, in the afternoon, and at night. When the coughing won’t stop, it is devastating. There is a simple recipe that stops coughing that is comprised of two common ingredients. By combining white radish and honey, you can quickly relieve any cough!
White radish and honey stop coughing
Since the Edo period, the Japanese have used honey with white radish to relieve coughing, protect against cold and wind, and nourish their skin. Since the ingredients are readily available to everyone and the recipe is simple, anyone can make it at home. At the end of this article is the super simple recipe.
The health benefits of white radish
White radishes get their spicy taste from the isothiocyanate they contain. This substance can activate white blood cells and fight bacteria in the body.
Chinese medical practitioner Wu Mingzhu pointed out that the radish is flat and slightly cold, giving it a yin nature, and has the effects of clearing away heat and detoxification, strengthening the stomach and eliminating food, resolving phlegm, and relieving coughs, smoothing out the qi, and quenching thirst. She recommended combining the white radish with rock sugar to create a “Double-boiled White Radish with Rock Sugar”.
Chinese medicine food therapy contends that the white radish and rock sugar have the effects of moistening the lungs, cough, phlegm, and fire, and eating them together is more effective than eating them separately.
A teaspoon of honey at night can relieve a dry cough
Honey is also a popular health food; it has a sterilizing effect and can inhibit cold and flu bacteria. Takashi Ishihara, the director of Fuji Hospital in Kitashinagawa, Japan, pointed out that although the mechanism of honey’s ability to relieve coughs is not yet known scientifically, there are indeed studies that show that “drinking a teaspoon of honey before going to bed can reduce coughs, and the effect is even better than that of cough medication.”
Dr. Zou Xiaoling, a Chinese medicine doctor at the Hsinchu Hospital of the Chinese Medical University, indicated that the effectiveness of honey in relieving coughs is higher for dry coughs without phlegm. Honey, which is warm and moist in texture, can moisturize the lungs and stop dry coughs.
She also said that while sweets are prone to promote phlegm production, it may seem contradictory to promote honey for curing a cough. It is true sweets can make a cough worse, but the difference is in the artificial sweeteners, flavors, and chemicals in foods such as cookies and candies that make them more prone to producing phlegm and fire or yang energy. People with poor digestion or coughs caused by gastroesophageal reflux often cough more frequently after eating sweets.
White radish and honey cough recipe
Ingredients
Daikon radish
Honey
Preparation
Peel and dice the radish.
Put the diced radish into a glass jar.
Pour in enough honey to cover half of the radish.
Leave overnight at room temperature. The radish will become syrupy.
The next day, dilute the honey-radish syrup with warm water and drink it 4 to 5 times daily. Your cough will be much better the next day. If you don’t like plain water, you can also use black tea.
Translated by Eva
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