Sang Piao Xiao, Rou Cong Rong and Yi Zhi Ren Soup

Why people make this soup

Urinary incontinence — the inability to hold urine, or leaking before reaching the bathroom — can be deeply distressing, particularly for older people. In traditional Chinese medicine, this condition is often attributed to declining kidney yang (the warming, activating force of the kidneys), which loses its ability to “hold” the bladder securely. Nourilo’s food-therapy approach uses sang piao xiao, the dried and toasted egg case of the praying mantis, which has been used in Chinese medicine for over a thousand years as a kidney-tonifying, bladder-strengthening herb. Combined with cistanche (a warming kidney tonic), yi zhi ren (bitter cardamom, associated with warming the kidneys and reducing incontinence) and goji berries, this soup addresses the root pattern of kidney yang deficiency.