{"id":1171,"date":"2008-12-03T00:00:26","date_gmt":"2008-12-03T00:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dimsumdolly.com\/?p=1171"},"modified":"2008-12-03T00:00:26","modified_gmt":"2008-12-03T00:00:26","slug":"chestnuts_and_nutrition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dimsumdolly.net\/?p=1171","title":{"rendered":"Chestnuts and Nutrition"},"content":{"rendered":"

I found this article about chestnuts on the Chinese Cuisine Association<\/a> (\u4e2d\u56fd\u70f9\u996a\u534f\u4f1a) website and decided to translate it because it\u2019s about one of the nuts that I really like to eat \u2013 the chestnut. I love chestnuts prepared in all forms \u2013 roasted, stewed, made into a cream, pur\u00e9ed, stir-fried, etc. Anything to do with chestnuts, I like! Incidentally, one of my favourite Christmas carols is titled ‘Chestnuts Roasting’!
\nHere\u2019s the translated article which I hope you’ll find useful:
\nThere\u2019s a Chinese folk saying \u201c\u516b\u6708\u7684\u68a8\u67a3\uff0c\u4e5d\u6708\u7684\u5c71\u6942\uff0c\u5341\u6708\u7684\u677f\u6817\u7b11\u54c8\u54c8\u201d which, loosely translated, means the pear and date of August, the hawthorn of September, and the October laugh of the chestnut.
\n\u7b11\u54c8\u54c8 is the sound of laughter \u2013 the word \u7b11 means to laugh while \u54c8\u54c8 is literally read as \u2018haha\u2019 to show that someone is laughing. In literary terms, the latter can be called an onomatopoeia. My guess as to why this saying has personified a chestnut to say it\u2019s laughing is that when the chestnut fruit splits open to reveal the chestnut seeds inside, it looks like it’s breaking into a laugh with its mouth open (see below).
\n\"Chestnut<\/a><\/br>
\nImage source: http:\/\/www.sdqixia.gov.cn
\nSo October is the month when chestnuts are in season. In Chinese it’s known as either \u677f\u6817 (Ban3 Li4) or \u6817\u5b50(Li4 Zi3); the latter is more commonly used. Traditional Chinese medicine classifies the chestnut as a \u2018warming\u2019 food where it can help to nourish the digestive system, spleen, and kidneys, and strengthen the muscles and tendons, as well as improve blood circulation. It is also known to suppress cough and get rid of phlegm.
\nIt is especially used in treating immobility in the back and knees, weakness in the back and knees as well as incontinence that have arisen because of decreased kidney efficiency.
\nResearch has shown that the chestnut is a nut that\u2019s rich in carbohydrates (\u78b3\u6c34\u5316\u5408\u7269), and its \u2018warming\u2019 nature is good for helping the body to suppress and combat the cold. Thus it is more suitable to be eaten during autumn and winter.
\nDue to its many nutritional properties, the humble chestnut is also good for preventing or treating the following ailments:
\n–\tHigh blood pressure \u9ad8\u8840\u538b
\n–\tCoronary heart disease \u51a0\u5fc3\u75c5
\n–\tHardening of the arteries \u52a8\u8109\u786c\u5316
\n–\tOsteoporosis \u9aa8\u8d28\u758f\u677e
\nAs the above ailments are primarily associated with old age, many elderly people in China eat chestnuts often to keep healthy. Chestnuts are also rich in Vitamin B2 (\u6838\u9ec4\u7d20) and people who have canker sores (a type of mouth ulcer) can also eat it to alleviate the symptoms.
\nApart from eaten cooked, chestnuts can also be consumed raw. In fact, eating them raw is actually more beneficial to nourishing the kidneys. In the Tang dynasty, medicinal expert Sun Simiao (\u5b59\u601d\u9088) had already noted that the chestnut was the \u2018fruit of the kidneys\u2019 (\u80be\u4e4b\u679c); he pointed out that consuming it raw was good for treating immobility in the back and legs (\u8170\u811a\u4e0d\u9042). Middle-aged and elderly people who can cultivate the habit of eating air-dried (\u98ce\u5e72) chestnuts every day will do well to protect themselves from developing kidney deficiencies, sore backs and pain in the legs.
\n\u3000\u3000
\nHowever it\u2019s always bad to have too much of a good thing. Despite all its contained goodness, if consumed excessively, raw chestnuts are hard to digest whilst cooked chestnuts will cause blockage in the digestive tract. Generally, it is OK to consume about 5 to 10 chestnuts a day. Anything beyond that is considered excessive. Children, especially, have a less developed digestive system so it\u2019s not wise to consume too many. As the chestnut is also high in sugar content, diabetic patients are also advised to err on the side of caution and avoid eating too much of it.
\n\"Chestnuts\"<\/a><\/br>
\nImage source: http:\/\/www.ahny.gov.cn
\nFor the original article in Chinese go here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I found this article about chestnuts on the Chinese Cuisine Association (\u4e2d\u56fd\u70f9\u996a\u534f\u4f1a) website and decided to translate it because it\u2019s about one of the nuts that I really like to eat \u2013 the chestnut. I love chestnuts prepared in all … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1171","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-food"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dimsumdolly.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1171","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dimsumdolly.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dimsumdolly.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dimsumdolly.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dimsumdolly.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1171"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.dimsumdolly.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1171\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dimsumdolly.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dimsumdolly.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dimsumdolly.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}