The effects and benefits of mung bean soup
1. Clears heat, detoxifies, relieves internal heat, and alleviates summer heat.
Mung beans are sweet and cool in nature, and have the functions of clearing heat and detoxifying, relieving internal heat and summer heat. Drinking mung bean soup regularly can help excrete toxins from the body and promote normal metabolism.
Mung beans are more effective when cooked with other foods, such as mung bean and honeysuckle soup: take 100 grams of mung beans and 30 grams of honeysuckle, add an appropriate amount of water and cook for about 10 minutes. Drinking the clear soup will relieve the summer heat.
How much mung bean soup should you drink in a day? It depends on your individual situation. People who are physically strong, prone to getting inflamed, or even have internal heat can drink a stronger mung bean soup and it's okay to drink several bowls.
2. Prevent indoor radiation in summer
Air conditioning blasting, doors and windows tightly shut – this is the common environment people face working in office buildings during the summer. Working in such an environment all day long, day after day, inevitably leads to dry skin and dry eyes.
At this time, it's advisable to drink several large bowls of mung bean soup daily. While there's no scientific data to prove that eating mung bean products, such as mung bean soup, directly protects against radiation, mung beans are known for their detoxifying properties. They can alleviate or treat various discomforts caused by external environmental factors, such as radiation. In particular, they can play a significant preventative role, and drinking a bowl of mung bean soup daily can achieve this.
The mung bean soup turns red due to oxidation, which reduces its cooling effect.
The residents boiled two pots of water, and after the water boiled, they put in the same amount of mung beans to cook. One pot was covered, while the other was left uncovered. After 5 minutes, when they checked again, the color of the mung bean soup in the uncovered pot had gradually deepened and turned red; while the one covered was bright green.
This is because mung bean skins contain polyphenols, which readily oxidize into quinones upon contact with oxygen, and further polymerize into darker-colored substances. This is similar to how tea leaves deepen in color over time. While the nutritional value of reddened mung bean soup remains intact, its heat-clearing and detoxifying effects are significantly reduced. When boiled in water with the lid on, the soup retains its green color because it is not exposed to oxygen. However, as it sits, the color deepens, turning reddish. The heat-clearing and detoxifying effects are strongest in unoxidized mung bean soup.
How long should mung bean soup be cooked?
Mung beans are a common food used to clear heat, detoxify, and quench thirst. They are cool in nature and sweet in taste, possessing the effects of clearing heat, detoxifying, and reducing internal heat. They are also a representative food in traditional Chinese medicine that combines food and medicine. Nutritionally, they are rich in protein, carbohydrates, B vitamins, calcium, phosphorus, iron, amylase, and oxidase. Mung beans have a strong detoxifying effect, capable of neutralizing various toxins, but this applies to raw mung beans. Therefore, it is particularly important to note that raw mung beans have the strongest heat-clearing, detoxifying, and internal heat-reducing effects; their nutritional components and medicinal properties change with temperature after heating.
Therefore, to maximize the detoxifying effects of mung beans, raw mung beans should be boiled in cold water until it comes to a boil, then boiled over high heat for about 5 minutes. Otherwise, as the processing temperature increases and the cooking time lengthens, the various enzymes in the mung beans will be deactivated due to overheating, and the nutrient content will also decrease. At the same time, as mung beans change from raw to cooked, certain physical and chemical changes occur, and their efficacy also changes accordingly; the heat-clearing and detoxifying effects will also decrease. However, for people with weak spleen and stomach, if they are concerned that mung beans are too cooling, they can wait until the mung bean soup boils and then cook it for an extra hour before drinking it.
Mung beans have excellent effects in clearing heat and detoxifying, relieving summer heat and irritability, quenching thirst and strengthening the stomach. Appropriate consumption will be beneficial to your health. There are many ways to eat mung beans, and making mung bean soup is a common method. In summer, mung bean soup is a must-have refreshing drink for many families. Making mung bean soup is very simple. What are the taboos when making mung bean soup? Below, we will introduce the taboos when making mung bean soup. Let's take a look.
Many people don't know that you shouldn't add alkali when cooking mung bean soup. This is because mung beans are rich in B vitamins, a key component of their cooling properties, which help replenish nutrients lost through sweating. Alkali can severely destroy many B vitamins. Additionally, the flavonoid antioxidants in mung beans will be lost due to the addition of alkali, causing structural changes and turning the color yellow. Therefore, it's best not to add alkali when cooking mung bean porridge. If you want a thicker porridge, consider adding a small amount of rolled oats or glutinous rice to "thicken" it.
The flavonoids in mung bean skins can react with metal ions to form darker-colored complexes. For example, adding honey to mung bean soup will turn it black, which is due to this reason. While this reaction doesn't produce toxic substances, it may interfere with the antioxidant properties of mung beans and hinder the absorption of metal ions. Therefore, using an iron pot is least suitable for cooking mung bean soup, while an earthenware pot is ideal.
Special reminder
When cooking mung bean soup, the pot should be covered to prevent oxygen from entering. In summer, mung bean soup should be consumed five minutes after boiling. People with weak constitutions should not drink mung bean soup frequently. If you want to cool down, drink the mung bean soup while it is still green.
