Why your summer salad might be making you hotter, and what actually cools you down from the inside.
Margaret arrived at her GP surgery in the midst of a sweltering July, looking absolutely miserable despite following every piece of summer nutrition advice she'd found on Instagram. She'd been dutifully consuming raw salads, green smoothies, and cold gazpacho, convinced that eating "cooling" foods would help her cope with the heat. Instead, she felt bloated, exhausted, and somehow even hotter than before.
"I don't understand," she told her doctor, fanning herself with a crumpled NHS leaflet. "I'm eating all the right foods - everything's raw and cold. But I feel awful, and I'm still overheating constantly. My digestion's gone to pieces, and I've got no energy. What am I doing wrong?"
Margaret had fallen into one of the most common traps of modern nutrition advice: confusing cold temperature with cooling energy. In her effort to beat the heat, she'd been systematically dampening her digestive fire while doing very little to actually cool her internal temperature. It's a classic case of good intentions meeting incomplete information from wellness influencers who've never heard of Chinese dietary therapy.
This scenario plays out in countless households every summer. People follow well-meaning advice about "cooling foods" that's based on temperature rather than energetic properties, and end up feeling worse despite their best efforts. The confusion between cold foods and cooling foods is one of the most misunderstood aspects of traditional nutrition science.
The Great Temperature Mix-Up
Western nutrition tends to think about food temperature in literal terms: hot soup warms you up, ice cream cools you down. It's logical, straightforward, and completely missing the bigger picture of how foods actually affect your internal thermostat.
Chinese medicine operates from a far more sophisticated understanding of food energetics. Every food has what practitioners call a "thermal nature" - essentially, its effect on your internal temperature regulation - that has nothing to do with whether it's served hot or cold. A food can be served chilled but still generate internal heat, or served warm but create cooling effects in your system.
This energetic temperature is based on how the food affects circulation, digestive function, and overall constitutional balance. It's about the food's inherent nature and how your body processes it, not just the temperature of your tongue when you eat it.
For example, chili peppers are energetically very heating despite often being used in hot climates. They create internal heat that eventually leads to sweating and cooling - but the initial effect is definitely warming. Ice cream, meanwhile, might cool your mouth but can actually generate internal dampness and heat in many people because of its high sugar content and difficult-to-digest nature.
Margaret's raw salads were cold in temperature but not particularly cooling energetically. Worse, the large amounts of raw, cold foods were dampening her digestive fire, making it harder for her body to process food efficiently. This created internal dampness and stagnation, which can actually generate heat rather than dispel it. She was essentially trying to cool down a house by opening all the windows while simultaneously turning on the heating system.
Why Raw Food Isn't Always the Hero
The raw food movement has convinced many people that uncooked vegetables are automatically healthier and more cooling than cooked ones. While raw foods certainly have their place, this blanket approach ignores fundamental principles of digestion and individual constitutional needs.
Traditional medicine recognises that digestion requires adequate "digestive fire" - essentially, your body's ability to transform food into usable energy. This process requires warmth and energy, much like a cooking fire needs fuel to keep burning. When you constantly eat cold, raw foods, you're essentially pouring cold water on your digestive fire.
For people with strong, robust digestion and plenty of internal heat, some raw foods in summer can be refreshing and appropriate. But for anyone with digestive weakness, tendency toward bloating, fatigue after eating, or loose stools, raw foods can create more problems than they solve.
The irony is that when your digestive fire is weakened by too many cold, raw foods, your body actually has to work harder to process what you're eating. This extra work generates internal heat - the opposite of what you're trying to achieve. You end up feeling both hot and bloated, tired and overstimulated.
Many people spend entire summers feeling sluggish and overheated because they're forcing themselves to eat raw salads when their constitution needs gentle, warm foods even in hot weather. Their bodies are using enormous amounts of energy trying to "cook" the raw vegetables internally, leaving them depleted and paradoxically hotter.
What Actually Cools You Down
Genuinely cooling foods work by supporting your body's natural cooling mechanisms rather than overwhelming your digestive system. They tend to be foods that are easy to digest, support circulation, and help your body release heat efficiently.
Cucumber is probably the most genuinely cooling food commonly available. It's naturally hydrating, supports kidney function, and helps clear heat without dampening digestion. You can eat it raw in small amounts, lightly pickled, or even cooked into cooling soups. The key is that cucumber's energetic nature is cooling regardless of how it's prepared.
Watermelon is another classic cooling food, traditionally used in Chinese medicine to clear heat and generate fluids. But here's the crucial part - it's most effective when eaten in moderation, at room temperature or only slightly chilled, and ideally not combined with other foods that might interfere with digestion.
Green tea might surprise people looking for cooling foods. Despite being served hot, green tea is energetically cooling and can help regulate internal temperature more effectively than ice-cold drinks. The warm temperature supports digestion while the tea's energetic properties help dispel heat.
Mint is cooling both in temperature and energetically, which makes it particularly effective for summer heat. You can use it in teas, add it to room-temperature water, or include small amounts in cooking. Fresh mint is generally more cooling than dried.
Mung beans are considered one of the most effective cooling foods in traditional Chinese nutrition. They can be cooked into cooling soups, sprouted, or prepared as the base for cooling drinks. Unlike raw salads, mung bean preparations are both cooling and easy to digest.
The Art of Cooling Preparation
How you prepare foods can dramatically affect their energetic temperature. This means you can make inherently neutral or even slightly warming foods more cooling through proper preparation methods, while also making cooling foods more digestible.
Light steaming preserves much of a food's cooling nature while making it more digestible than raw preparations. Lightly steamed vegetables retain their nutrients and cooling properties while being much easier on the digestive system than raw salads that require enormous digestive effort to process.
Room temperature preparation is often ideal for summer eating. Foods don't have to be ice-cold to be cooling. In fact, extremely cold foods can shock the digestive system and actually require more energy to process. Room temperature foods with cooling energetic properties are often more effective than their ice-cold counterparts.
Cooling spices and herbs can transform neutral foods into cooling meals. Adding mint, coriander, dill, or fennel to dishes can increase their cooling properties. Even a simple room-temperature noodle dish becomes cooling when prepared with cucumber, sesame oil, and fresh herbs.
Hydrating cooking methods like poaching, light simmering, or steaming with aromatic herbs can create cooling effects while maintaining digestibility. A light vegetable broth with cooling herbs served at a comfortable temperature is often more effective than cold gazpacho for actually reducing internal heat.
Know Your Type
Not everyone needs the same approach to summer cooling, and this is where individual constitutional assessment becomes crucial. What cools one person effectively might leave another feeling depleted or even hotter.
Hot constitution types are the people who genuinely benefit from more raw, cold foods in summer. They tend to run warm, have strong digestion, rarely feel cold, and often crave cooling foods naturally. These people can handle raw salads, cold fruits, and chilled drinks without digestive distress.
Cold constitution types need cooling foods that don't further weaken their digestive fire. They might feel hot in summer but also experience digestive weakness, fatigue, or feeling cold in air conditioning. For these people, cooling foods need to be prepared in warming ways - like cucumber soup served warm, or cooling herbal teas rather than ice water.
Damp constitution types often feel heavy, sluggish, and overheated in summer, but raw, cold foods make them feel worse. They need foods that cool while also resolving dampness - things like corn silk tea, winter melon soup, or lightly cooked vegetables with aromatic spices.
Dry constitution types need cooling foods that also generate fluids. They might experience dry mouth, dry skin, or feeling parched despite drinking plenty of water. For them, naturally moist cooling foods like pears, melons, or aloe vera can be particularly beneficial.
Practical Summer Eating
Building cooling meals that actually work requires thinking beyond just temperature to consider the overall effect on your system. The goal is to create meals that satisfy summer's need for lighter, cooling foods while still providing proper nourishment and supporting healthy digestion.
Breakfast might include room-temperature congee with cooling ingredients like mung beans and a small amount of fresh herbs. Or perhaps green tea with lightly steamed vegetables and a small amount of easily digestible protein. The key is starting the day with foods that nourish without creating internal heat.
Lunch could feature lightly prepared vegetables with cooling grains like barley or millet, served at room temperature with sesame oil and fresh herbs. A light soup with cooling vegetables can be more hydrating and cooling than a heavy salad while being much easier to digest.
Dinner might emphasize easily digestible proteins with steamed vegetables, perhaps with cooling herbs or light, aromatic spices. Even warm foods can be cooling if they're prepared with cooling ingredients and don't overtax the digestive system.
The key is eating lighter without eating cold, focusing on foods that support rather than challenge your digestive capacity while providing genuine cooling effects.
Hydration That Actually Works
Summer hydration goes far beyond just drinking more water, especially ice water that can actually impair digestion and cooling mechanisms. Effective hydration supports your body's natural cooling systems while maintaining digestive health.
Room temperature water is often more hydrating than ice water because it doesn't require energy to warm up before your body can use it. Adding a small amount of natural salt or electrolytes can improve absorption without the sugar load of commercial sports drinks.
Herbal cooling teas can be far more effective than cold drinks for regulating internal temperature. Chrysanthemum tea, green tea, mint tea, or combinations of cooling herbs provide hydration while actively supporting your body's cooling mechanisms.
Natural fruit waters made by infusing room-temperature water with cucumber, mint, or citrus can provide gentle cooling effects without the sugar surge of fruit juices or the artificial ingredients of flavoured waters.
Coconut water is naturally cooling and hydrating, though it's best consumed at room temperature rather than ice-cold. It provides natural electrolytes without added sugars or artificial ingredients.
Foods That Make Things Worse
Understanding what creates internal heat is just as important as knowing what dispels it. Many foods that seem healthy or appropriate for summer can actually generate more internal heat and make temperature regulation more difficult.
Excess sugar in any form generates internal heat and can worsen summer discomfort. This includes fruit juices, smoothies with multiple fruits, and obviously processed sweets. Even natural sugars can overwhelm the system when consumed in large quantities.
Heavy, rich foods require significant digestive energy and generate internal heat through the process of digestion. This includes excessive nuts, heavy proteins, rich dairy products, and complex meals that tax the digestive system.
Alcohol is particularly heating and dehydrating in summer, despite being commonly consumed at summer social events. It interferes with temperature regulation and can worsen heat-related symptoms.
Excessive raw foods can paradoxically create heat by dampening digestive fire and forcing the body to work harder to process nutrients. This is particularly true for people with weaker constitutions or digestive systems.
Spicy foods might seem obviously heating, but they're worth mentioning because some people mistakenly think that sweating from spicy food will cool them down. While this might work in very hot, dry climates, it's generally not effective in humid conditions or for people who already have internal heat.
When Things Go Wrong
Sometimes people do everything "right" nutritionally but still struggle with heat intolerance or summer discomfort. This often indicates deeper constitutional imbalances that need professional attention rather than just dietary adjustments.
Hormonal imbalances can create heat symptoms that don't respond well to cooling foods alone. Menopausal hot flashes, thyroid dysfunction, or other endocrine issues may need integrated treatment approaches.
Underlying constitutional deficiencies can make it impossible to stay cool regardless of dietary choices. These patterns require professional constitutional treatment rather than just cooling foods.
Medication effects can interfere with temperature regulation. Some medications generate heat or interfere with sweating mechanisms, making dietary cooling strategies less effective.
Chronic stress creates internal heat that often doesn't respond to cooling foods because the heat is being generated by nervous system dysfunction rather than dietary factors.
The Bigger Picture
Effective summer nutrition isn't about following rigid rules or forcing yourself to eat foods that make you feel worse. It's about understanding your individual constitution, supporting your body's natural cooling mechanisms, and eating in a way that maintains both comfort and health during the challenging summer months.
Margaret's breakthrough came when she stopped forcing herself to eat raw salads and started paying attention to how different foods actually made her feel. She discovered that lightly steamed vegetables with cooling herbs, room-temperature soups, and properly prepared cooling teas worked far better for her constitution than the raw, cold foods she'd been struggling with.
Your summer nutrition should leave you feeling energised, comfortable, and properly nourished - not bloated, depleted, or still overheated. If your current approach isn't working, it might be time to reconsider the difference between cold foods and cooling foods, and to experiment with approaches that support rather than challenge your individual constitution.
After all, the goal isn't to follow the latest summer nutrition trends promoted by Instagram influencers, but to eat in a way that helps your body thrive during the season of fire energy. Sometimes that means warm tea instead of ice water, and sometimes it means lightly steamed vegetables instead of raw kale. Your body's wisdom, when you learn to listen to it, is usually a better guide than any dietary dogma dreamed up by someone trying to sell you a juice cleanse.