Feeling run down? Eat dog soup!

Caroline recently started subscribing to the Korea Herald, which is Korea's only English language newspaper. Reading it is an interesting experience- it's an opportunity to learn more about Korean culture, and there is usually coverage of international events that probably get little or no mention back home. One example is the fact that the U.S. Air Force recently went head-to-head with the Indian Air Force in a mock aerial combat exercise, with the Indian Air Force winning 90% of the fights using Russian-built jets. But I digress... what I actually wanted to write about is an article in this week's paper about how Koreans beat the summer heat. You might think that with Korea being a peninsula, going to the beach would be an obvious way to beat the heat. That's true, but there is an even more common practice. Eating popsicles, you say. Yes, that's also true, but there is still something else. Koreans beat the heat with heat- by eating special foods that are believed to have great health-restoring properties.

In an article called Pick Your Summer Energizer Carefully, writer Shin Hae-in describes the symptoms of summer fatigue as weariness, sleepiness, lack of appetite and energy, and recommends the treatment: eating boyangsik, energizing food that will dispel all these symptoms at once.

"Instead of turning to cold food to cool off from the heat, many local people... choose hot dishes such as samgyetang (chicken soup with ginseng and jujube) and bosintang (dog meat soup) as their summer pick-me-up."

"Other well-known boyangsik include broiled eel, chueotang (soup made of loach fish) and jeonbokjuk (abalone porridge)."

"This method of beating the heat with hot food is based on the Oriental medical theory which compares the human body to well-water. The theory is that like well-water, which stays cool in summer and warm in winter, our inner body actually gets cooler as the outer part heats up. This is due to the fact that the human body loses a large quantity of heat as perspiration evaporates."

The article goes on to say that while it is important to eat boyangsik in summer, you must choose which food you eat according to your body type, because choosing the wrong food could have a detrimental effect on one's health. According to the Sasang Constitutional Medicine Theory, humans can belong to one (and only one) body type, which includes personality. Dr. Gwak (I'm pretty sure that's prounced "quack") Chang-kyu of Kyung Hee University Kangnam Korean Hospital provides some insight into the four types:

"Soeum people are generally thin, diminutive, quiet people who frequently suffer from indigestion. It is recommended that they eat a typical boyangsik.

Taeeum people are tall and chubby with strong ambitions who often feel their heartbeats quicken after drinking coffee. Their recommended diet consists of food made with beans, vegetables, and lean beef, as they must be careful of fat intake.

Soyang people are whimsical people who are the best at keeping cool in summer. Because they keep warm easily, they should eat cool summer fruits which help bring down their body temperature, and pork and mud-turtle soup to strengthen their kidneys. Eating hot soup like samgyetang could be detrimental for soyang people, because it raises their already-high body temperature and could cause serious headaches.

Taeyang people usually display strong leadership, and they rarely suffer from minor illnesses such as the common cold. Normally they have large heads and broad shoulders. This group is extremely rare (one in a million), and they usually have a weak liver, so seafood and fresh green vegetables is recommended."

There's so much that I want to say about this, and so much eyebrow-raising "science" behind it that all I can do is smile and appreciate the cultural difference. But if it's hot where you live, and a Slurpee from 7-11 just isn't doing the trick for you, you might want to try some boyangsik!!

To read the entire Korea Herald article, click here.