Hacker News Reader

Comment by davchana | Hacker News Reader

Yes, correct. Just to add, things with hot taseer are recommended to be eaten in winter, to stay warm (not temperature wise), and cool things in summer.

One of my childhood memories is eating a lot of mangoes (which is hot) in one sitting in summer (which is when mangoes are available), and them getting nose bleed (because its hot). Worth it :)

View on HN

This nosebleed stuff: Is there any proven science behind it? I hear it from Chinese people also. I never believe it. Supposedly, fresh lychee fruits are "super hot". I can eat a huge bunch. No ill effects -- including nose bleeds. Many non-Chinese laugh when I tell this story -- "me too".

I don't know about science, but this has happened to me multiple times in life at different ages. The common scenario with all of them is that there's a bucket full of ice water & suckable mangoes (the one you don't cut, you just bite and make a hole, and then press the mango & let it ooze from that hole), its summer, and I am under a shade in open, in around afternoon or high sun, and I eat 10-12 of mangoes, I will feel the blood flowing through nostrils, and it will start dripping. If I eat 2-3, then no nose bleed. No nose bleed ever in life.

Ok, it sounds like a food allergy.

Its not the food, its the quantity.

Some people get nose bleed from just being in summer heat or high temperature.

I wonder how much overlap there is between substances that are considered hot/cold in ayurvedic vs traditional Chinese medicine. I think mangoes are considered cold (阴) in Chinese, though they are relatively recent to their experience.

I'm curious: is there any correlation between the perceived spiciness of a blend and the taseer, or is the designation based moreso on observations on when it is appropriate to eat them (e.g., someone noticed that it was better to eat something in winter, or people tended to eat something in winter and so designated the spice as having high taseer)?

Taseer is of anything, not exclusively only of spices. Warm milk raises body's temperature, so hot, so is mango fruits dipped in ice water. So is dry fruits eaten at room temperature. Cold milk with half water, and some ice cubes is of cold taseer. Mint drinks are cold, so if rubbing mustard oil on forehead & foot soles. Rubbing ghee or almond oil is hot taseer.

Taseer is not based on spiciness or taste, it is based on how one's body temperature changes after consuming that food.

To add, there is also a concept of acidic & base foods. If one has too much of base foods, like one day old lentils, or gourds, one may feel like having sticky spit, or white crust of lips, or sore throat. The home remedy is to have a thick soup of dried ginger, onions & black pepper. This balances the body acid back to ph7 levels.

By body acid do you mean stomach acid? Why would you want that to be at a pH of 7, which is neutral.

Its not based on English meaning of acid base, but that was the closest similar meaning words I could muster in English.

The whole idea of acidic/basic foods is not grounded on the scientific meaning of basic/acidic.

Food considered to be "acidic" often has no particularly low pH, and vice versa. And most of all: you can't influence your body's pH (i.e. blood) by eating something specific. You would be dead immediately if this was possible.

The pH of your stomach content might vary if you just ate, but your body will create the acid by itself. As soon as you see food.

There might be still something to whole acidic/basic idea, but it has nothing to do with pH ;)

Yes, true, it's not based on English meaning of acid base, but that was the closest similar meaning words I could muster in English.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com