Diet & nutrition

Listed below is information on Chinese Dietary Principles, Food as Medicine, and Chinese Herbal Tonics.

Diet and the Four Seasons

Dietary therapy is seen as the first line of defense against illness. Sun Szu-miao stated, “the doctor should first correct the patient’s diet and lifestyle and only if these changes do not bring the correct results should acupuncture and herbal medicine be applied.” Below are the keys to successfully using your diet to remain in good health.

A. Harmonisation of the Five Flavours

A diet that is balanced in all five flavours is said to keep the bones straight, the sinews supple, the Qi and Blood flowing, the pores closed, and the functioning of the five Yin organs coordinated and harmonious. An excess of any of the flavours will eventually lead to its accumulation in the body and dysfunction of the organs and bowels.

Excess sour flavours cause overactivity of the Liver and underactivity of the Spleen. The tendons become flaccid, the skin becomes rough, thick, and wrinkled. The lips become shrivelled. Overindulgence in sour flavours is balanced by pungent flavours.

Excess bitter causes Spleen Qi to lose its moisture, affecting its ability to transform and transport food effectively. Stomach Qi cannot digest properly and may become distended. The muscles and tendons are affected and the skin becomes shrivelled and dry. The body hair falls out. Bitter can be balanced by salty flavours.

Excess sweet disturbs the Heart Qi causing it to become restless and congested, Kidney Qi is imbalanced and the complexion will blacken. There can be pain in the bones and hair loss. This is balanced by the sour flavour.

Excess pungent causes the sinews to slacken and blocks the vessels, the Shen can be disturbed and the Yuan Qi is damaged. Yuan Qi is the energy we are born with, it is inherited from our parents. We do not want to use or abuse this energy, as it dictates our health and the length of our life. There are spasms, tremors, and poor nails. This can be balanced by bitter.

Excess salt can repress Heart Qi, weaken the bones and causes muscle contraction and atrophy, coagulates the Blood circulation and changes the colour of the Blood. Balanced by sweet flavours.

B. Balance of Hot and Cold

This refers to the temperature food has and also that temperature’s effect on the body. Too much hot, spicy, greasy food will injure the Yuan Qi, the body fluids, and the Yin energy of the body. Too much cold, raw, and damp food will injure the Spleen and Stomach Qi, and will inhibit the effectiveness of the digestive ability.

C. Eat According to Your Constitution

Everybody has a different disposition when it comes to their constitution and this should be taken into consideration. For example Yin deficient people (hot types) should eat light foods which nourish the Yin
(cooling energy of the body) by being easy to digest and thus easily transformed into Qi and Blood. These may include eggs, fruits, vegetables, and tofu. Yang deficient people (cold types) should eat more pungent, warming foods like beef, lamb, dog, ginger, and pepper.

D. Set Time, Set Amount

Traditional East Asian medicine sees eating at a fixed time each day very appropriate as the body responds according to the circadian rhythms that are repeated daily. This can keep the body free of suffering. The exception to this rule is not to eat if you are emotionally upset. This is because the natural flow of the body’s Qi is upset and the pure and impure will not be separating during digestion, leading to food stagnation. It is better in this case to eat later.

T.E.A.M. also recommends that “you eat like a prince for breakfast, a merchant for lunch, and a pauper for dinner”, indicating that the meals get smaller throughout the day. Do not eat before dinner. The Chinese also like to say “walk 100 steps after eating”.

E. Avoid Being Starved or Stuffed

Failure to eat when hungry or drink when thirsty drains the Qi and Blood. On the other hand eating to excess damages the Stomach and Spleen and impairs digestion. The five results from overeating are:

1. Too frequent urination.
2. Too frequent defecation.
3. Disturbed sleep.
4. Obesity.
5. Indigestion.

It is suggested that you stop eating when you are 70% full. This allows for thorough digestion to take place.

Other dietary guidelines include

• Minimse your fluid intake when eating, as this can water down your digestive enzymes.
• Chew thoroughly before swallowing. Digestion starts in the mouth, and chewing consistently generates the saliva that holds the enzymes, while properly masticated food helps digestion because it has already physically broken down the food.
• Eat in a calm environment. No T.V., radio, computers, arguments.
• Put down your utensils between each mouthful.
• In Spring it is recommended to eat more sweet foods and not to over eat.
• In Summer consume easily digestible foods and avoid greasy, spicy food. Drink and eat foods of a cold nature, but not too many of a physically cold temperature (iced, or refridgerated.)
• In Autumn avoid too many cold, raw food and drinks.
• In Winter eat supplementing, highly nutritious foods for storage and repair. A little wine or alcohol is beneficial in Winter.

The flavour of food is sometimes difficult to describe, yet it provides insight into the therapeutic dimensions and actions of the food. The Five – Element associations are valuable, but for purposes of dietary healing, we must also know the flavours in terms of their thermal nature (warming/cooling value), their many remedial actions (drying, moistening, astringent, purgative, antibiotic, dispersing, tonifying etc.), where their energy is directed in the body, and how they are used therapeutically in various organ systems, not just the organs they relate to in the Five Elements. The bitter flavour of dandelion, for example, reduces both heat and damp conditions in general, particularly in those areas affected by the liver, spleen – pancreas, lungs and heart. Dandelion and other bitter foods also tend to direct energy inward and toward the lower part of the body.

The system of flavours we will use has been developed by traditional Chinese healers. Occasionally in this system, a food is assigned a flavour that does not correspond with the taste. This occurs because flavours are designated in part to reflect the properties of the food, and thus some assigned flavours may differ from the acknowledged taste.

A number of foods have two or more flavours to take into consideration, such as vinegar, which is both bitter and sour. Such a food is used therapeutically only if both flavours are needed.

Two flavours – pungent and sweet – are considered yang, tend to be warming, and direct energy outward and higher in the body. The remaining three flavours – sour, bitter and salty – are yin and cooling, and conduct energy lower and inward.

In the diet of a healthy person, the flavours should be balanced, with the sweet flavour predominating, because the Earth Element and its associated flavour – sweetness – are considered the most central aspect of the body and its nourishment. Such balancing is quite simple. It means that each day the sweet flavour – the primary flavour of most carbohydrates such as grains, vegetables, legumes, nuts, seeds and fruit – should be accompanied by small amounts of bitter, salty, pungent and sour foods. Very often these primarily sweet carbohydrates will contain sufficient secondary flavours themselves; otherwise, condiments can be used. When health is poor and during acute disease conditions, it is usually helpful to change just two flavours, emphasizing one obviously important flavour and restricting a contraindicated one.

The flavours not only create balance but also bring a person into harmony with seasonal influences. Invariably, the question arises how to balance flavours that attune to the seasons but contradict individual needs. The answer is first to balance the individual, then to work for seasonal attunement as much as possible without violating the individual’s internal climate. For example, a person with oedema cannot ordinarily tolerate salt, and so even though more salt is normally used in the winter, those with oedema should not increase salt. Instead, they can emphasise the bitter flavour, which is drying and also helps attune the individual to the colder season.

The quantity of flavours is important. If a flavour is generally helpful for an organ function, too much of that flavour has an opposite and weakening effect. This is often seen in the use of the sweet flavour, which benefits the spleen – pancreas and digestive function. However, when too much is taken, the result is weakening of digestive absorption, mucous accumulation and blood sugar imbalances such as diabetes.

Information from Healing with Wholefoods : Paul Pitchford ( 1993 ) North Atlantic Books, California.

Pungent (including acrid, spicy, hot and aromatic flavours)

Properties: A yang flavour; expansive, dispersive; when the pungent flavour has a warming energy (see examples below), it stimulates circulation of energy and blood, tending to move energy upwards and outwards to the periphery of the body.

Uses of the Pungent Flavour: Stimulates digestion, disperses mucous caused by highly mucous – forming foods such as dairy products and meats, and offers protection against mucous conditions such as the common cold. The diaphoretic pungents such as mint, cayenne, elder flower, scallion, garlic and chamomile are used to induce sweating during a common cold or other exterior condition. They can also lighten the effects of grains, legumes, nuts and seeds, all of which have moderate mucous – forming properties; they disperse stagnant blood and increase qi energy as well. Some of the extremely pungent flavours such as garlic, mugwort and cayenne destroy or expel parasites. In the West, pungency is consumed most often in the form of alcoholic beverages. Unfortunately, though these substances have some beneficial short – term effect, they ultimately cause necrosis, especially brain cell death.

Organ Functions:

1. The pungent flavour enters and clears the lungs of mucous conditions (do not use warming pungents [see examples below] if there are heat conditions anywhere in the body).
2. It improves digestive activity, which is ruled by the spleen – pancreas and expels gas from the intestines.
3. According to the ” Inner Classic ” pungent flavour ” moistens the kidneys,” which affect fluids in the entire body. One result of this is an increase of saliva and sweat from the action of certain pungents such as ginger. The hot pungent herbs also tend to be good for cold, contracted conditions of the kidneys, warming and relaxing them.
4. The pungent flavour stimulates blood circulation and is cardiotonic.
5. It helps clear obstructions and improve sluggish liver function.

Seasonal Attunement: The pungent flavour (in alliance with the full sweet flavour) attunes a person to the Spring. Those pungent flavours that are also hot provide the interior environment of, and attune the body to, Summer; these include cayenne, black pepper, hot green and red peppers, and fresh ginger. One may also use certain hot pungent flavours – most notably dried ginger and cinnamon – for overcoming signs of coldness, since these herbs are deeply warming for a relatively long span of time. Cayenne and other peppers are also warming, but are so extreme that they change to a cooling effect after thirty minutes or so.

Individuals Most Benefited: Those who are sluggish, dull, lethargic or excessively heavy benefit from the pungent flavour (as well as from the bitter flavour). Those inclined to damp/mucous conditions of the Metal Element organs (lungs and colon) can add pungent flavours for prevention and treatment. The person with cold signs improves with the use of warming pungents.

Certain pungent flavours can be beneficial for dry thin individuals or those who tend toward wind conditions of nervous, restless activity. Such flavours are found in the seed pungents which relax the nervous system and improve digestion; fennel, dill, caraway, anise, coriander and cumin. The pungent roots ginger, onion (cooked), and horseradish, along with black peppercorn, act as stimulants and also help promote general stability and smooth circulation of energy. However, not all pungent flavours are appropriate for the dry or unstable person (see below).

Cautions: Some pungent flavours worsen the condition of the dry, windy nervous or thin person. According to the Inner Classic, ” In qi diseases, avoid too much pungent food. ” This applies in times of deficient qi including weakness, or stagnant qi of the sort involved in obstructions and constrictions. Also avoid the many warming pungents when heat signs exist. Those who are overweight from overeating should choose cooling pungents.

Examples:

• Warming Pungents: spearmint, rosemary, scallion, garlic and all onion family members, cinnamon bark and branch, cloves, fresh and dried ginger root, black pepper, all hot peppers, cayenne, fennel, anise, dill, mustard greens, horseradish, basil and nutmeg.
• Cooling Pungents: peppermint, marjoram, elder flowers, white pepper and radish and its leaves.
• Neutral Pungents: taro, turnip and kohlrabi.
• The pungency of some foods is diminished by cooking. The loss of pungency in moderate simmering is easily noticeable in many common vegetables including turnip, cabbage, the onion family and horseradish. With mild steaming some pungency is preserved, but for full effect, eat the heat – sensitive pungents raw or pickled. Pungent leafy herbs such as the mints should be steeped, although most barks and roots such as ginger and cinnamon need to be simmered.

Salty

Properties: A yin, cooling effect; tends to move energy downward and inward; has ” centering, ” earthy qualities; moistens dryness; softens hardened lumps and stiffness; improves digestion; detoxifies the body; and can purge the bowels and promote emesis.

Uses of the Salty Flavour: The salty flavour may be increased in the diet to soften lumps, for example, hardened lymph nodes, cataracts and other knottings of the muscles and glands. Salt is used internally for constipation, abdominal swelling and pain, and externally for impure blood conditions with heat signs, such as most skin discharges, sore throat (in a hot water gargle), and porrhea (brush teeth with fine salt). Salt counteracts toxins in the body, increases appetite, and is greatly overused, especially in the form of common table salt, which is poor quality.

Organ Functions: The salty flavour, associated with the Water Element, ” enters ” the kidneys and is also considered a ” proper ” flavour for the spleen – pancreas, where it strengthens the digestive function. Salt also fortifies a weak heart – mind and improves mental concentration.

Seasonal Attunement: The descending, cooling nature of the salty flavour attunes one to the colder seasons and climates, and should be used progressively more throughout Autumn and Winter.

Individuals Most Benefited: Foods with a salty flavour moisten and calm the thin dry nervous person.

Cautions: Salt must be greatly restricted by those with damp, overweight, lethargic or oedemic conditions, and also by those with high blood pressure. Seaweeds, which are salty, are an exception to these restrictions, because their iodine and trace minerals speed up metabolism. Although salt is yin by nature, too much salt has the opposite effect, according to Ayurvedic tradition, and should be used very sparingly by aggressive people. Those with blood toxicity need to monitor their use of the salty flavour as well. ” Do not eat much salt in blood diseases. ” – Inner Classic.

Examples: Salt, seaweed (kelp, kombu, bladderwrack, dulse etc.); barley and millet have some salty quality although they are primarily sweet. Products made with substantial amounts of salt include soy sauce, miso, pickles, umeboshi (salt plum), and gomasio (sesame salt).

Sour

Properties: A yin, cooling quality; causes contraction and has a gathering, absorbent, astringent effect, to prevent or reverse abnormal leakage of fluids and energy, and to dry and firm up tissues.

Uses of the Sour Flavour: Used in the treatment of urinary dripping, excessive perspiration, haemorrhage, diarrhoea, and weak sagging tissues including flaccid skin, haemorrhoids and uterine prolapse. The sour flavour derives from a great variety of acids, some of the most common being citric acid, tannic acid, and ascorbic acid (Vitamin C). The most sour flavours such as found in black and green teas and blackberry leaves can be classified as ” astringent “. However, not all remedies that stop bleeding, diarrhoea, and other ” loose ” problems are sour or astringent in taste, and specific remedies for such conditions are given later.

Organ Functions: The sour flavour is most active in the liver, where it counteracts the effects of rich, greasy food, functioning as a solvent and breaking down fats and protein. Sourness helps in digestion to dissolve minerals for improved assimilation, and can help strengthen weakened lungs. Sour – tasting food is also the ” proper food ” for the ” heart – mind ” (the Chinese concept of the union of heart and mind), as it plays a role in organising scattered mental patterns.

Seasonal Attunement: Sour food draws one into harmony with the Autumn, the time of gathering (harvesting) and the beginning of the period of contraction, with the onset of cooler weather.

Individuals Most Benefited: Sour flavours collect and hold together the dispersed, capriciously changing personality. Sour foods do not occur frequently enough in the modern diet.

Cautions: Those with dampness, heaviness of mind or body, constipation, and constrictions should use the sour flavour sparingly. ” In diseases of the sinews ( tendons and ligaments ), do not each much sour food. ” – Inner Classic.

Examples: Most sour foods also have other prominent flavours, as seen below

Sour hawthorne berry lemon lime pickles rose hip sauerkraut sour apple crab apple sour plum sourdough bread

Sour & Sweet aduki bean apple blackberry cheese grape huckleberry mango olive raspberry

Sour & Bitter vinegar

Sour & Pungent Leek

Bitter

Properties: A yin cooling effect; causes contraction and encourages the energy of the body to descend. Reduces the excessive person (robust, extroverted, with thick tongue coating, loud voice, reddish complexion, etc.). Bitterness is antipyretic, lowering fever; it will also dry fluids and drain dampness. Certain bitter foods and herbs have a purgative effect and induce bowel movement.

Uses of the Bitter Flavour: Helpful for inflammations, infections and overly moist, damp conditions specified below. Also used for constipation. Perhaps the most underused and least appreciated of the flavours.

Organ Functions: The bitter flavour is closely identified with the Fire Element and heart, where it clears heat and cleans arteries of damp mucoid deposits of cholesterol and fats, in general tending to lower blood pressure. (Celery is a specific food for this purpose). The bitter flavour also clears stagnancy and cools heat in the liver (normally caused by overconsumption of rich foods).

Bitter foods and herbs drain various damp – associated conditions in the forms of candida yeast overgrowth, parasites, mucous, swellings, skin eruptions, abscesses, growths, tumours, cysts, obesity, and all moist accumulations including oedema in the body. Bitter also increases intestinal muscle contractions.

The kidneys and lungs are said to be tonified and vitalised by bitter flavours. Bitter is superb for removing mucous/heat conditions in the lungs, signified by yellow phlegm discharges. Even though bitter is the flavour that enters the heart, according to the Inner Classic, it is the ” proper ” flavour for the lungs.

Seasonal Attunement: One progressively increased the use of the bitter flavour throughout the Autumn and Winter, in order to contract and channel energy lower into the body for the colder season. Heat symptoms that arise during any season can be neutralised by the bitter flavour.

Individuals Most Benefited: Slow, overweight, lethargic, watery (damp) individuals; also overheated, aggressive persons are cooled by the bitter flavour.

Cautions: Persons who are deficient, cold, weak, thin, nervous and dry should limit bitter food intake. And ” those with bone diseases should not eat much bitter foods. ” – Inner Classic.

Examples: For a strong bitter flavour as an aid in major imbalances, try the commonly available bitter herbs such as dandelion leaf or root, burdock leaf or root, yarrow, chamomile, hops, valerian, chaparral, echinacea, and pau d ‘ arco. Their various properties should be researched before use. To make bitter herbs and foods more palatable, they can be cooked with a little licorice root, stevia leaf, or other sweetener. Following are some common bitter foods, the majority of which exhibit other flavours as well:

Bitter alfalfa bitter melon romaine lettuce rye

Bitter and Sweet amaranth asparagus celery lettuce papaya quinoa

Bitter & Pungent citrus peel (also sweet) radish leaf scallion turnip ( also sweet ) white pepper

Bitter & Sour vinegar

Sweet

Properties: A yang flavour, regularly subdivided into full sweet (more tonifying and strengthening) and empty sweet (more cleansing and cooling – the flavour that occurs in most fruits). The sweet flavour, especially when found in warming food, helps energy expand upward and outward in the body. It is a harmonising flavour with a slowing, relaxing effect. Sweet foods build the yin of the body – the tissues and fluids – and therefore tonify the thin and dry person; such foods also act to strengthen weakness and deficiency in general.

Uses of the Sweet Flavour: Especially in the form of complex carbohydrates, sweet food is the centre of most traditional diets; it energises yet relaxes the body, nerves and brain. Sweetness is used to reduce the harsh taste of bitter foods and to retard acute disease symptoms. Sweet foods, in the form of complex carbohydrates such as grains, vegetables and legumes, if not cooling varieties, are suitable for treating the cold or deficient person. Most dairy and animal products are considered sweet, and these may be necessary for extreme deficiencies.

Organ Function: The sweet flavour ” enters ” and strengthens the spleen – pancreas and is said to be an appropriate food for the liver, since it soothes aggressive liver emotions such as anger and impatience. It is traditionally used to calm acute liver attacks. Sweet food also moistens dry conditions of the lungs, and slows an overactive heart and mind.

Seasonal Attunement: The sweet flavour is appropriate in every season, and especially desirable for harmony at the time of the equinoxes and solstices, as well as during late Summer, the juncture between Summer and Autumn.

Warming and/or ascending sweet foods attune one to the upsurges of Spring, as do warming pungent foods. Examples of warming sweet foods that acclimate one to Springtime include spearmint (also pungent), sweet rice, sweet potato, mochi, amasake, rice syrup, molasses, sunflower seed, pinenut, walnut and cherry. Sweet – flavoured foods with an ascending direction and thermally neutral effect are cabbage, carrot, shiitake mushroom, fig, yam, and peas. Since not many fresh fruits and vegetables are available in most temperate climates in the Spring, these can be stored dried, canned, or taken as juice. Some of them also keep well in a root cellar. As with all therapeutic substances, their other properties should always be taken into account.

Individuals Most Benefited: The dry, cold, nervous, thin, weak or scattered person needs whole sweet foods in greater quantity; the aggressive person benefits from the retarding effect of the sweet flavour. When the sweet flavour is used in the form of grains, then wheat, rice and oats often benefit both these individuals.

Cautions: The sluggish, overweight individual, or those with other damp signs, including mucous conditions, should take very sweet foods sparingly and even whole – food carbohydrates moderately. Chewing carbohydrates well makes them much less mucous – forming and therefore has a lighter, less damp impact on digestion.

According to the Chinese healing arts, too much sweet food damages the kidneys and spleen – pancreas, weakens the bones, and causes head – hair loss. The Inner Classic warns not to eat much sweet food when diseases of the flesh are present (including obesity, tumours and oedema).

Examples: All of the grains number among the most important sweet foods, although rye, quinoa and amaranth also are quite bitter. All legumes (beans, peas, lentils) and most meats and dairy products are considered sweet.

Below is a sampling of foods from other categories that have a sweet flavour:

Fruits apple apricot cherry date fig grape ( s ) grapefruit ( s ) olive ( s ) papaya ( b ) peach ( s ) pear ( ss ) strawberry tomato ( s )

Vegetables beet button mushroom cabbage ( p ) celery ( b ) chard cucumber eggplant kuzu lettuce ( b ) potato shiitake mushroom spearmint ( p ) squash sweet potato yam

Nuts & Seeds almond chestnut coconut sesame seed and oil sunflower seed walnut

Sweeteners amasake barley malt honey* molasses rice syrup whole sugar ( unrefined cane juice powder )

b = also bitter

p = also pungent

s = also sour

ss = also slightly sour.

*Although sweet to the taste, raw honey has a pungent, drying effect on the body after digestion. It dries up damp, overweight and mucous conditions, but is not useful for those with a dry, deficient, thin, nervous or overheated constitution. Honey that has been heated in processing or cooking has the moistening effect of other concentrated sweeteners (effective in overcoming dryness and aggravating to damp/mucous conditions).

Chinese Herbal Medicine

The ancient Chinese invested an enormous amount of time in the study and refinement of herbal medicine.
This can be seen not only in the diverse range of things they are willing to ingest but also in the ways that they choose to ingest them.
The Chinese developed many ways of taking herbs including soups, powders, pills, special pills, syrups, medicinal plasters and even medicinal wines.