The concept of cold or hot features of food has a double meaning: one meaning is the cold or hot in temperature
, the other meaning is the cold or hot in the food’s attribute
. As the weather is becoming colder, we should not only eat more hot/warm food in terms of the food’s temperature, but also eat more hot/warm food in terms of food’s attribute. This article will talk about food in terms of its attribute, not the food’s temperature.
The wise Traditional Chinese Medicine divides food by its attribute,
the application of the food’s attribute is good for adjusting the inner environment of the human body, thus helping with the prevention and recovery of the diseases
This is called “food treatment”
. It is a natural, effective way to prevent and help treating diseases and helping recovery. The attribute of food is generally being categorised into cold and hot/warm.
Generally speaking, cold food helps the body to get rid of heat. It also helps to remove toxins in the inner environment. Hot/warm food helps to warm up the stomach
(middle of the body), clear coldness, and strengthen the body.
Generally speaking, people who have an inner environment with a cold manifestation should eat more hot/warm food, and people who have an inner environment with a hot manifestation should eat more cold food.
As a rule, people who have an inner environment with a cold manifestation are likely to have the following symptoms: Feel cold, cold hands and feet, aching knees resulting from coldness, like hot weather and dislike cold weather, infrequent urination, faeces with undigested food in it, deficient in energy, depression
, need lots of sleep, in favour of hot food, pale face. In contrast, people who have an inner environment with a hot manifestation are likely to have the following symptoms: like cold weather, dislike hot weather, hot in five “little centres” (two palms, two feet and chest), thirsty with dry throat, feel stressed, upset and nervous, insomnia, like to eat cold food.
||Hot /warm (even) food
||Lamb, beef, pork, chicken, duck, kangaroo meat, deer meat
||Rabbit meat, frog
||Prawns, eel, butterfish, carp
||Clams, crab, oyster
||Ginger, garlic, onion, leek, carrot, pumpkin, taro, sweet potato, corn, cabbage, spinach, broccoli, potato, chilli, green beans, beans
||Chinese cabbage, bai cai, cucumber, melon, fresh mushroom, bamboo shoot (Australian), radish, kelp, seaweed, celery, tofu, bitter melon, eggplant, tomato, bean sprouts
||Plum, papaya, grape, jujube, orange, peach, apple, rockmelon, lychee, walnuts, fig, mango, grapefruit, cherry
||Pear, watermelon, kiwi, banana, pomegranate, apricot, loquat, mandarin, persimmon, lemon, strawberry, pineapple
Prevention and wisdom are the two principles of Traditional Qi.
Written by: Angela Zhu
(TCM Practitioner, Qi Gong & Tai Chi Instructor)
Translated by: Alan Huang
© Copyright Angela Zhu 2011