We’ve heard them all, “Eat lots of spinach every day because it’s good for you “Drink milk to have strong healthy bones.” Drink lots of water each day to keep you well-hydrated and to wash away toxins off your body.” So many rules and advises to follow. What’s too little? What’s too much? Sometimes, all these can result in anxiety and confusion.
Compared to Western medicine, traditional Chinese medicine views food and how it impacts our health in a different way. Traditional Chinese medicine has a component that espouses the importance of dietary therapy as a form of medicine to treat and prevent illness and to preserve health.
Traditional Chinese medicine or TCM, for short, is seen from the perspective of opposing energetic forces known as yin and yang and the importance of achieving and maintaining balance between the two to bring about or preserve health and well-being and to treat disease. As a type of medicine, food is used as a tool by TCM to balance yin and yang through the exclusion or adding of specific types of food from a person’s diet. The internal organs of the body are associated with the five colors and elements of TCM: white/metal, blue & black/water, yellow/earth, red/fire, and green/wood as well as the five TCM seasons. Food follows these same rules and is grouped based on nature and flavor and arranged into five main categories.
The metal element is affiliated with the season of autumn and foods associated with it have a hot and pungent taste. The skin, large intestine, and lungs are considered “metal” organs and consuming foods that are pungent like ginger, onions, garlic, and peppers usually will make one sweat. Include pungent foods in your diet if you want to speed up your digestion and strengthen your appetite.
The winter season is associated with the “Water” element. The foods of this element are salty in taste. Water is related to the bladder and kidney organs in the body. Excessive consumption of water and salty foods such as pickles, watermelon, olives, soy sauce, mung and kidney beans, mushrooms, and miso can lead to issues like anxiety, water retention, hunger, and thirst. In the winter, our bodies usually crave foods related to the element of water.
Wood is the element that becomes prominent during spring, especially foods such as green lentils, green vegetables, citrus fruits, apples, wheat, rye, and oats. They all affect the gallbladder and liver and have a detoxifying effect on the body. Drinking a cup of lemon juice with warm water after a rich and heavy meal, for example, can help process fats.
Summer time and the element of fire go hand in hand and they’re associated with foods that are bitter and with the organs of the small intestine and heart. Foods that are bitter to the taste tend to be stimulating and have a laxative and cooling characteristic. They include green tea, corn, plain chocolate, black tea, and black coffee. Dehydration is the result of overconsumption of “fire” or bitter foods. It can also adversely impact the nervous systems that weaken the function of the digestive system and the heart.
In the late summer the earth element becomes preponderant. Foods it is associated with have a sweet taste and a nourishing quality. Earth element equates to the spleen and stomach organs. In TCM, the gateway to the abdomen is the mouth and during times of stress, people tend to eat more, or indulge in sweet foods to mitigate the stress. Foods that have phlegm-generating, lethargic, and sedating properties include cheese, sweet fruit, breads, pasta, and refined sugar. Consuming excess amounts of these can impair digestion and lead to bloating.
After you read this article, you may want to assess your eating habits. Do you, for example, like eating salty, sweet or spicy foods? Do you drink coffee to wake yourself up in the morning? Observe the taste you tend to crave and consume more than others. This will give you an indication of where you are out of balance.
Here are a few simple tips to consider when selecting the foods to eat to address a specific imbalance in your body:
1. Try to balance all five colors and tastes on your diet or eat foods that are affiliated with the present season
2. Chew your food properly
3. Always sit down when eating meals, make sure you eat foods associated with the current season
Synoma Wellness Centre
2150 Alt. 19, Suite B,
Palm Harbor, FL 34683
Phone: (727) 785-5950
https://palmharboracupuncture.com/
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