What I eat to look and feel good when I'm breaking out - The Chinese remedy that's stayed in my rotation for the last 30 years 🫘✨
Alice Sun (@alicecsun) shares a unique view into her life through the ways she uses food to nurture wellness, cross cultural divides, and bring people together, all through the medium of storytelling.
Alice Sun
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July 28, 2026
Breaking out is my body's way of telling me something is off internally. But instead of attacking the breakouts with acids, I was always taught to listen to it first instead of fighting it.
In traditional Chinese medicine, acne is almost always linked to excess heat and dampness in the body, which sounds abstract until you realize that the things that typically trigger breakouts like stress, sugar, greasy food, alcohol, are exactly the things that create heat and dampness internally.
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Eating the right foods are key for rebalancing the body from the heat and dampness. This Chinese breakfast/dessert, also known as mung bean soup, is known for its ability to detoxify and cool the body from the inside out. Mung beans are one of the most powerful heat-clearing foods, while lily bulb soothes inflammation and calms the nervous system. The sticky rice makes the soup gentle for sensitive tummies and the rock sugar adds just enough sweetness.
Soak the mung beans (½ cup), sticky rice (¼ cup), and dried lily bulb (10–12 large stalk) overnight in a bowl of water.
Drain and rinse right before using.
Add the mung beans, sticky rice, lily bulb to a pot with water (4–6 cups) and the rock sugar (2 ⅖–2 ⅘ tsp).
Bring everything to a boil, then lower the heat to simmer for 45 mins to an hour, until the mung beans are soft and starting to split open.
Serve warm or chilled, both are equally good!
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