Health
Retiree shares knowledge of Chinese remedies

• Recipes from Carolyn Choy that have soothing effects

By Beverly Creamer
Advertiser Staff Writer

The Chinese characters for "good health" adorn the booklet retired teacher Carolyn Choy has assembled of centuries-old Cory Lum • The Honolulu Advertiser

Making her way down the aisles, she points with authority at packages labeled in Chinese, declaring this good for a cold, or that a great virus killer, or that useful for clearing the urine and another for helping bronchitis. Picking up a package of fungus that looks like hunks of sponge, she avows that its use in drinks and soups and tonics will "keep the lungs moist and cool."

Although Choy is no doctor, and these remedies aren't the sort of thing to fight the biological threats we're seeing today, for centuries they've had a place in keeping people healthy. According to longevity statistics, Chinese women have the longest life expectancy — 86.11 years — both in Hawai'i and the nation as a whole.

At 89 and in good health, Choy is certainly an example of how useful such kitchen cupboard concoctions can be in maintaining good health.

Her self-published booklet "Health through Chinese Food" is a collection of recipes used by the Chinese for generations to keep you healthy — much the way chicken soup has become a universal nourishing remedy associated with Jewish mothers.

Last Friday, she brewed up a pot of watercress herb soup good for a cold for the Green Thumb group at the Makua Ali'i Senior Center on Kalakaua Avenue. Instructor George Sakata, 77, has invited her back three times, because the group likes her remedies.

"A lot tried it, and we all liked it," said Sakata, who got a cold over the weekend and turned to Choy's soup to help fight it after visiting a doctor. "The soup warms me up and I perspire more. I think it's helping me," he says.

The group has been wanting Choy to return, said Sakata, because she offers something new each time. "They want someone to explain everything and she comes out with the good and the bad points."

Although some of the ingredients — like ginger, Chinese parsley, garlic — can be found in every supermarket, there's nothing like the bustle of Chinatown to give them added mystique.

"Whenever I go to Chinatown, I am curious what the people are buying and what those packages of herbs do for anyone," explains Choy. And so, a few years ago, she not only started asking about the concoctions the Chinese use, but began codifying the remedies her mother used instead of medicine when she was a child.

Over a decade, the retired teacher gathered together enough to fill a small book and now is a sought-after speaker happy to impart her wisdom at retirement facilities and seniors clubs. As she tells her audiences: "Think positive, feel positive and stop talking about your aches and pains or people will avoid you."

"This one," she says, moving on through Meng's and pointing to a greenish package, "cholesterol tea. Yunnan tuocha. This is in a lump. It's hard as a rock. But you put it in the microwave for half a minute and then you break it all up and use a piece for tea." Then she adds: "Good price."

The Chinese have classically divided the world into warming and hot, cold and cooling foods, and Choy's collection of remedies falls along those lines too.

According to naturopath Dr. Laurie Steelsmith, who uses a few of the same principles in suggesting alternatives to patients when appropriate, Chinese medicinal concoctions brewed from the kitchen cupboard will not harm you and are often very helpful.

"There are some energetic principles definitely at work here," said Steelsmith. "For instance, when you use ginger as an herb, it's very warming to the body. It's great for people with a cold stomach. You want a stomach that's going to be warm so it can digest your food."

The same goes for cooling foods. Recently Steelsmith recommended that a patient in the last month of pregnancy take watermelon juice to control a hot red rash.

The alternative was important, said Steelsmith, because the pregnancy prevented the woman from taking regular medications. And the cooling watermelon worked to control the rash.

"You want this in hot weather," said Steelsmith. "Or if someone has a fever or a rash. More cooling foods. Or even if they have a lot of acne. That's a sign of too much heat in the body."

Ginger and garlic, Chinese mushrooms, fungus, Peking dates, black and red dates, seaweed, wolfberry, apricot kernels, they all find a place in Choy's tonics.

For instance, Choy suggests pouring two cups of boiling water on 10 cloves of garlic and letting it sit overnight in the refrigerator to help bronchitis.

Strain out the garlic, add a little honey and take a tablespoon three times a day, she says.

A general tonic for good health involves boiling five cups of water and adding ´ cup of red wolfberry, ´ pound of lean chicken or pork, 3 tablespoons of apricot seeds, 3 tablespoons of apricot kernels and five Peking honey dates, says Choy. Simmer it for an hour, and then drink the broth and eat the solids. "It's very pleasant," she says.

Choy always was frustrated by those who told about recipes by saying "a little of this, a little of that." She wanted exact amounts, and has taken great pains to make sure they're accurate. And she uses them all herself.

Carolyn Choy's cookbook, "Health through Chinese Food," is available for $7. Order by calling 955-1831.

Recipes from Carolyn Choy that have soothing effects

Red Date Soup to Build Strength After Illness

• 1 chicken
• 3/4 cup whiskey
• 10 Chinese red dates
• 1 piece fresh ginger, 2 inches long

Rinse chicken, rub with salt, and remove skin or excess fat before cutting in chunks. Rinse dates and scrape ginger and chop ginger in slivers.

Put all ingredients in a covered casserole to steam, bringing water to a boil. Don't let it boil dry. Steam two hours.

The Chinese believe red dates tone blood circulation and dry up mucus.

White Fungus Drink

• 2 lumps white fungus soaked in water for 1/2 hour, broken into pieces
• rock sugar to taste
• 4 cups water

Cook fungus on a low boil for an hour, add sugar, and simmer another half-hour. The Chinese use fungus to help lower blood pressure.

Soup to Nourish the Lungs

• 1 package bar-wong fah, also called sword flower
• 1/4 cup apricot kernels
• 1/4 cup apricot seeds
• 1/4 lb. lean meat
• 8-10 Peking honey dates
• 5 cups water

Rinse and drain ingredients, then parboil meat cut in 2-inch chunks. Then put all ingredients into boiling water and return to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer 2 hours. Skim fat.

The herbs in this remedy help keep the lungs moist, so there will be less coughing and phlegm.

Watercress Herb Soup

• 1/4 cup Chinese apricot kernels
• 1/4 cup apricot seeds
• 8-10 Peking honey dates
• 1 bunch fresh watercress
• 5 cups water

Rinse all ingredients, boil the water, and then add ingredients. Return to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer 3 hours.

Watercress, especially, is used for throat dryness, a dry cough or excessive phlegm.