Poached Pears: A Great Winter Cough Remedy

Many people are coming to our clinic with a cough as wintertime colds and flus can easily move down into the chest. Sometimes coughs can linger for weeks causing a lot of sleepless nights, back and rib pain, and fatigue. Besides acupuncture and cupping, Chinese nutritional therapy can be helpful for helping to clear a cough.

Here is one wonderful recipe that can help calm a cough, especially in the winter. Chinese food therapy is an important branch of Chinese medicine. Based on the balance of Yin and Yang , different foods can help with different body systems or even certain conditions. In this system, pears soothe and cool dry and heat conditions in the body. Coughs that are worse at night and that follow a cold or flu are often heat based conditions. Acupuncture and cupping therapy can help release this heat but if you want something to prepare at home, then pears are the perfect remedy. Any pear will do, but traditionally the dish is made with Asian pears and rock sugar that you can buy at an Asian grocery store.

Poached Pears with Cinnamon

Eat ½ to 1 pear before bed time.

Directions- Wash and core pears (organic is always best!). Halve pears the long way and sprinkle with cinnamon. You can also put a cinnamon stick where the core was. Put in a glass baking dish with the flesh part of the pear (cinnamon stick down).

Add ½ inch of water to the pan and bake 350 degrees until the pears are soft and skin is easy to pull off (about 20-30 min).

You can keep the pears in the fridge for 3-4 days.

Enjoy the pears as a treat in morning with your granola or in the evening for maximum effect on your body.