Alcohol

Description: warm, sweet, bitter and pungent; affects the heart, liver, lungs and stomach

Rice wine is fermented pulut rice, which is rich in iron, low in fat and free of cholesterol with high dietary fibre to reduce risk of heart attack and diabetes. It promotes blood circulation, expels cold energy and speeds up the effects of herbs. It contains 10 to 20 percent alcohol. The commercial name is Shaoxing wine. The recommendation is that you should consume about 12 bottles of rice wine during the confinement month. This is not difficult to achieve because almost every dish will have the wine in it. I personally prefer to use rice wine made by my mother (bottle on the right). It is slightly sweeter and smoother compared to commercially prepared wine.


Brandy, Dom and Yomeishu are the recommended alcohol for consumption during the confinement month because they are ‘yang’. Guinness Malta which is non-alcoholic has high iron content therefore is suitable if you are anaemic and breast-feeding.

If you are a non-drinker, this sudden consumption may cause alcohol rash, redness in the face and heart palpitations, so do take it easy. Alcohol does go to the baby through breast milk, so if you want a good night’s sleep, drink the alcohol after your dinner. The content of alcohol is reduced during cooking therefore you might consider adding it to your food during cooking instead of drinking it neat.