Yeet Hay (literally translates to “hot air“) is a condition that the Chinese believe you get when you consume too many “hot” foods. The Chinese culture revolves around yin and yang, so when you eat too many “hot” foods (eg. greasy/spicy food, lychee, durian, mango, etc.), your body will become imbalanced causing annoyances like cankersores, acne, dried lips, sore throats, nose bleeds, etc.
My parents and grandparents use to warn us all the time that eating too much of something will give us yeet hay but I always thought it was just something they said to make us stop eating junk food and never believed it until I got older.
Lychee is my favorite fruit and has deadly yang properties, hence the quote, “one lychee equals three torches of fire“. I can probably eat 985641564lbs in a sitting despite my dad’s warnings but one day a light bulb went off in my head and I realized why I was getting so many cankersores in the summer (after basking in a pile of lychee)… YEET HAY! So my dad wasn’t lying after all.
IT’S TRUE. YEET HAY EXISTS. OH-EM-GEE.
One discussion that I have with my Chinese friends and family is: is there an English term for “yeet hay”? It’s always difficult to explain to our non-Chinese friends because there doesn’t seem to be an official term for it since the concept doesn’t really exist in any other cultures. The funniest definition I’ve heard is, “Are you sure it doesn’t mean yeast infection? …Chinese yeast infection?”
The Chinese believes that to cure yeet hay, you have to balance it out with yin (or “cool”) foods, for example, logans are the opposite of lychee (too bad they’re not as good).
Every ten li a station swirling with dust,
Every five li a post to urge couriers on;
Men die like flies, their corpses line the road,
So that lychees and longans may be delivered to court.
Carriages race over hills, boats sweep through the seas,
With new plucked fruit on fresh boughs, the leaves still dewy,
All to win a smile from the beauty in the palace,
Though it cost bloodshed and strife,
and its effect remains for ever.â€- Su Shi, 11th Century Chinese Poet, from A Lament for Lychees
I still eat shitloads of lychee. It’s totally worth the yeet hay considering I only get to eat it about 2 months out of a year. Slurp.
I’ve never heard of this before, but that’s so interesting! When I’m eating fruit I really like, I usually eat it in excess. I love mangoes, watermelons and LYCHEE in excess haha but I haven’t noticed any symptoms. I’ll check for it next time
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When I first read this post, it cracked me up cause believe it or not, I was trying to explain to my PBF about this term. I had no idea that lychee caused it though. I know that mango and pineapples do. You should talk about the ‘Leung’ term, like watermelons and I dunno what else… but do you have any clue what I’m referring to?
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[...] example: “Those white people don’t know what yeet hay [...]
Yeet Hay? I’m Chinese and am not familiar with this XD hahaa but I think we call it a different thing. Is this in Cantonese? Or Mandarin or Hokkien? I’m more fluent in Mandarin and Hokkien. I do know of that Chinese belief though! haha
And I still love Lychees too! 
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THATS TOTALLY TRUE!
The Vietnamese believe that as well because my parents constantly tell me that i eat wayyyy too much “yeet hay?” and thats why i get break outs sometimes . . .hmmmm so i guess my parents weren’t crazy and that they were right all along. haha!
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This was a really interesting entry! I’d love to know more about the chinese culture and beliefs. Somehow it all makes much sense!
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My parents still tell me this! And any time I get a canker sore or anything, they blame it on me eating too much “hot” stuff, mostly candies and chocolates for me, and not enough veggies. I don’t know what they call this in Vietnamese though, but I think it’s interesting that Asian cultures have this because i know I tried to explain this to some of my friends and they had no idea what I was talking about.
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oh i believe filipinos have those sayings too i know what you mean how it’s so hard to explain it to someone outside the culture considering that there really isn’t a proper way of explaining it. i guess i’m like you i love lychee lol i probably could sit there myself and eat a ton of them
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lychees burn my lip after i eat a fourth one.
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No wayyyy! I refuse to believe that yeet hay exists! All my life my grandma and my mum have all been like “STOP EATING THAT, YOU’LL GET YEET HAY!” and I was totally like “Nah, you’re just trying to make me stop eating all the good stuff!” I am still convinced it’s a ploy to stop me from getting fat
LOLLL. And even if it does exist, like you said, it’s totally worth it since all the awesome foods (like lychees!) give it to you!
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Interesting post and so true! You’re right though, even though there are consequences, does it really stop anyone from eating the foods they love? haha
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Wow, I never thought of longan as the counterpart of lychee — in fact, I always thought they were quite similar! I’m sure the Vietnamese address this problem too because my mom always complains about skin problems after eating mango and durian.
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Katy
September 9th, 2009 |
My mouth + throat always feels weird and my lips get dried if I eat a lot of mango. I don’t know about durian yet because I can usually get a little bit…. it tastes to sweet and rich.
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I didn’t know the logans were the lychee’s counterpart… my mom cooks wintermelon soup when we eat too much “hot” stuff… it’s funny you post about this because just the other day my brother was trying to explain this concept to his Slovakian girlfriend hahah FAIL.
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Katy
September 9th, 2009 |
Lol yeah I wrote this entry after my sister and I was wondering what the word meant in English. I know my friends and I try to describe it to people in the past but never succeeded. It makes me sad that lychee and mango are bad for you though because they’re soo good. I hope nothing is wrong with watermelon!
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Hmmm I love lychee and if I had my way everything I put in my mouth would be spicy
(and likely greasy), but I rarely get canker sores (or dry lips – but I’m a compulsive exfoliator) and I’ve had maybe 1 nosebleed in my entire life. I don’t really believe in food having energy. I think most white people don’t gorge themselves in those foods though. Even at Asian restaurants, most of the white people (NOT ME) are busy dipping every bite in mayonnaise. I think the only foods that give you bad *energy* are processed stuff.
BTW, Donny and I were talking about how we want to try chicken feet! He’s never had them either. Do you know of any good places to eat in Portland?
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Katy
September 9th, 2009 |
I don’t really believe in the yin/yang thing either but I think some foods just have too much or too little of certain nutrients that cause you to get those things. Like oily foods really do give you acne… but I don’t think that “hot air” is the real cause of it.
Yes, you should try chicken feet! Have you ever had dim sum before? Go and order “black bean chicken feet” (dark reddish-brown color)… don’t get the chicken feet that’s white (not sure what method they cook that in) because that one isn’t as flavorful.
I’ve never eaten dim sum in Portland before but there must be some good places there. I can really tell the difference between good and bad dim sum so hopefully you’ll find a good place so you won’t be put off with it forever! Dim sum here ranges from $2CAD (extremely cheap) to $5+ (expensive) per dish. There are a lot of places in Vancouver that sells $2.50 dim sum that’s better than the more expensive places.
If you don’t know what to order, I suggest going to a dim sum place where they push carts with food around or at least try find one with pictures on the menu.
I googled some links for you if you haven’t already:
http://www.yelp.com/c/portland/dimsum
http://portland.metblogs.com/2005/02/26/best-dim-sum-in-pdx/
http://www.altportland.com/eatdrink/food/dimsum.shtml
Sorry for the super long reply… the thought of dim sum gets me excited. LOL.
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J
September 9th, 2009 |
I have had a lot of dim sum dishes, but never formally. I’ll keep your tips in mind! Donny can’t eat much salt, so it’s really tough trying to find Asian places we can both eat at (especially Chinese!).
I’m on the lookout though.
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Geez I love longans, I wouldn’t know how to stop too
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nei sek gong gong tong hua gah? *wave* haha
that’s what my popo (grandma) used to say to us, when we ate too muchy of rambutans, durians, and choc…and she will followed by ‘yam do tit sui ar’ (drink more fluid)
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My dad used to tell me that all the time too. I really thought it was so he could scare me. Until I got a nose bleed. Merr.
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Man lychees are such a tease. I love them too but get the same yeet-hay syndrome. I describe it to white people as “too much hot energy” which they seem to get. But I still wonder…do white people get cankersores from eating too much yeet hay stuff, or is it just Asians? Maybe they’re immune to yeet-hay as long as they don’t know about it?
One time the BF had a cankersore and my dad made him a bittermelon shake (extremely cold-hay) and it went away almost immediately! So maybe drink a bittermelon shake while you eat lychee to balance it out?
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Katy
September 9th, 2009 |
I think everyone gets the same symptoms from eating that kind of stuff but the explanation of it in other cultures is probably lack of vitamins or too much of something. I don’t think anyone is lucky enough to be immune to yeet hay… if only though!
Bittermelon shake? What else is in it? I hate bittermelon but I hate cankersores even more so I think I’d have the guts to try it next time.
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Louise
September 10th, 2009 |
I dunno if you’d like bittermelon shake if you hate bittermelon. It was basically just bittermelon, ice, and some sugar blended together.
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I’ve never had a lychee in my entire life actually. It’s one of those fruits that if I ever saw for sale I’d buy, but I never seem to find ‘em in the “weird fruit” section of the grocery store…
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