What exactly is healthy eating?

And how can food be used as medicine?

Most of us agree that a diet rich in whole, natural, unprocessed foods is essential for good health. We also understand that a good rule of thumb is to eat food that grows locally and is in season.

Now, imagine doing an activity multiple times a day, every day, for your entire life – like eating, for example. When you look at food and drink in this way, it becomes clear just how powerful an effect it has on our wellbeing. Besides providing nourishment, energy, and pleasure, food can be a very effective medicine.

According to Traditional Chinese Medicine, all foods have a “nature” (once ingested, they have properties of warming or cooling; moving energy up/down/in/or out; drying or moistening; or nourishing a specific organ system). Eating foods with the right nature or properties, can help to re-balance and heal your body.

Below is a great article by Natural Harmony, on the warming and cooling natures of food. For the original article, click the following link. http://www.naturalharmonytcm.com.au/food-properties/

Yours in good health,

Caryn

 

Nourish yourself with the nature of foods

Since ancient times Chinese medicine practitioners have used the warm and cool nature of foods to prevent and treat illness while balancing the body’s yin and yang to maintain abundant health!

The amazingly unique qualities of foods, that are warm or cool in nature, aid the body through warm foods promoting warming effects to your body and cool foods promoting cooling effects to your body.

This is due to yin being the body’s cool element and yang the warm element and where imbalance occurs within the body, the characteristics of food can help to counteract the imbalance and present itself in uncomfortable symptoms!
So let’s understand our body’s make-up and how food can promote healing and balance!

There are three thermal natures within the body in Chinese Medicine:
1. Cooling foods

2. Warming foods

3. Balanced or neutral foods that are neither cool nor warm.

Cooling food effects

Foods with a cool energy have the effect of nourishing yin while calming excess heat (yang in nature), as yin is cool in nature. They calm and cool heat and blood, while ridding the body of toxins.
This can be necessary in those who have heat within their body and often exert symptoms such as thirst, constipation, perspiration, pungent odour when expelling wind or stools, and heat following bowel movements. Anxiety, feeling overall hot and presenting with red eyes, face and tongue.  A tongue that is red and also has a thick yellow coating, can demonstrate damp-heat within the body. A rapid pulse, heartburn and dark yellow urine.

If this sounds familiar we’ve compiled a list of foods that will help nourish your yin and restore balance!

Cooling Foods

Fruits	Vegetables	Grains, Legumes & seeds	Meat, Seafood & Dairy	Condiments & Beverages
Apple Banana Grapefruit Kiwifruit Lemon Orange Pear Persimmon Pineapple Pomelo Star fruit Strawberry Watermelon	Alfalfa sprouts Asparagus Bamboo shoots Bitter Gourd Celery Chinese Radish (Daikon) Cucumber Eggplant Green leafy vegetables Kelp Lettuce Lotus Root Mushroom Spinach Swiss chard Tomato Water chestnut Watercress Winter Melon	Barley Buckwheat Millet Mung Bean Soy Bean Tofu Wheat bran Whole wheat	Clam Cheese Chicken Egg Crab Cream Duck Egg Kelp Rabbit Seaweed Yoghurt	Chrysanthemum Tea Green Tea Peppermint Tea Salt Sesame oil Soya sauce

 

Warming Food Effects

Warming foods are a key component for people who are yang deficient, as warming foods have the effect of raising yang while encouraging the movement of Energy/Qi (chee) and blood to organs. This assist in the circulation and ridding the body of cold.

If there is deficiency in yang symptoms such as cold hands, feet and overall body can occur. Diarrhoea, stomach discomfort and pain after eating and drinking foods or drinks that are cold. Bloating, lethargy and fluid retention.

If this sounds like you, fortunately there is also list of foods to raise yang and restore balance!

Warming Foods

 

Fruits	Vegetables	Grains, Legumes & seeds	Meat, Seafood & Dairy	Condiments & Beverages
Apricot Cherry Chestnut Chinese Red Dates Coconut meat Coconut milk Guava Hawthorn Fruit Longan Lychee Mandarin peel (dried) Mango Nectarine Peach Raspberry	Chives Leek Mustard greens Onion Pumpkin Spring onion Squash	Caraway seed Chestnut Glutinous Rice Malt Pine nut Pistachio nut Walnut	Butter Chicken Deer (Venison) Eel Goat Milk Ham Lamb Mussels Prawns (shrimp) Sea cucumber	Basil Black pepper Brown Sugar Chilli Cinnamon Clove Coffee Coriander Cumin Fennel seed Garlic Ginger Ginseng Jasmine tea Mustard Nutmeg Rosemary Spearmint Vinegar Wine

There is also a list of yummy foods that are neither cool nor warm in nature and are for anyone’s delicious enjoyment!

Fruits	Vegetables	Grains, Legumes & seeds	Meat, Seafood & Dairy	Condiments & Beverages
Figs Goji Berries Grape Olive Papaya Plum	Black fungus mushrooms Carrot Chinese cabbage Corn Potato Pumpkin Shiitake mushroom Sweet potato Taro Turnip White fungus	Adzuki Bean Almond Black sesame seed Black soybean Broad bean Kidney bean Lotus seed Peanut Peas Rice bran Rye String bean Sunflower seed White rice Yellow soybean	Abalone Beef Cow’s milk Duck Fish Oyster Pork Scallop	Peanut oil Honey Saffron Licorice

Balance is key!

Understanding your body’s constitution (cool or warm) allows your to choose foods that will promote your body’s overall health! As Chinese Medicine commonly provides treatment for people with diseases or illnesses that are exasperated through choice of foods; we wanted to share the above lists with you so you can make the best choices for your own body!

As seasons change and develop, our body sends us signs to let us know what we need in order to stay balanced. Our environment can tell us so much!

For example, heading into summer our body will often feel overheated and dry, that can lead to constipation and dry skin, encouraging us to stay hydrated and choose fresh fruits and vegetables.

What foods will you choose to best suit your body constitution today?
Your body can’t wait to connect with you through the foods you nourish it with!