Glutinous Rice and Wheat Porridge

Why people make this porridge

When someone in the house goes down with gastroenteritis — the constant runs to the bathroom, the nausea, the total loss of appetite — heavy foods are the last thing they need. This plain, warming porridge is exactly what Cantonese food therapy prescribes: something light enough for a churned-up stomach to handle, and gentle enough to coax back a little appetite. The combination of glutinous rice and whole wheat is associated in traditional practice with warming and steadying the digestive system, relieving the kind of urgent loose stools where food passes through barely digested, and easing the accompanying fatigue and thirst.