Traditional Chinese Diet Therapy

Traditional Chinese cooking is interesting and surprising because it is based on the philosophical principles of traditional Chinese medicine.

Many centuries ago, foodstuffs were described and classified in China.

According to this knowledge, each product has the following characteristics:

1. Character.
2. Taste.
3. Entry into the channel.
4. Replenishment and reduction.
5. Product nature

Food can cool or warm the energy of the body. It is clear that heated food warms, and food from the refrigerator cools the body. However, regardless of the temperature at which the dish is served, food has its own energy. In Chinese nutritional teaching, food has "four characters" or "four energies":

• cold
• cool (refreshing)
• warm
• hot

There is also an intermediate concept - neutral (average).

Everything is quite simple and logical. Cold foods cool the body, cool foods also cool, but more gently. This category includes most fruits, vegetables, salt, water, especially mineral water, from meat - pork, green tea, juices. In diet therapy, such products are recommended for fever diseases. Cold and cool foods replenish Yin, fluids, blood, cool.

Hot and warm foods warm the body. For medicinal purposes, these products are recommended for cold diseases. This category of products includes vegetable soups, meat broths, cereals, spices, spices, spicy vegetables, wine, coffee. Hot and warm foods replenish Yang, qi, warm, increase the movement of qi and blood.

From the point of view of philosophy, hot and warm foods are classified as Yang, cold and cool - as Yin. You may hear terms like "yang" or "yin" product. It is clear that in cold weather, without thinking about the nature of the product, we intuitively choose hot and warm food; in hot weather - cold and cool.

Neutral foods evenly have both yang and yin properties, nourish qi and replenish fluids, so they can be consumed constantly without harming the body.

The "taste" of the product.

Chinese medicine divides food into five types according to taste properties . Different products may have one or a combination of flavors.

• The sweet taste has a replenishing effect, soothes spasms, pains, replenishes the deficiency of blood, energy, deficiency of Yin and Yang.
• Pungent taste has a dispersing effect, revitalizes the blood, moves energy, opens holes.
• Salty taste has a laxative effect, softens hard formations in the internal organs, softens and dispels swelling, thickening, replenishes Yin and blood, it is used to treat constipation and swelling.
• Sour taste (astringent) stops shortness of breath, stops diarrhea, reduces sweating, soothes prolonged cough.
• Bitter taste dries up moisture, relieves heat, tones, removes toxins. lowers energy, calms the spirit, shortness of breath, cough. Helps with nausea, vomiting, dries up pathological dampness.

But with an excess of taste, there will be an excess of energy in the corresponding organ. And this will no longer be a stimulating, but a damaging effect of taste.

Thus, sour taste can damage the stomach, sweet taste can damage the kidneys, salty taste can damage the heart, bitter taste can damage the lungs, and spicy taste can damage the liver (according to the control connections of wu-xing).

Deficiency or excess of one of the five tastes leads to various diseases throughout the body. Therefore, every day in your diet should be present foods from the five tastes.

The preference for any taste indicates a lack of energy in the corresponding organ.

The theory of "entering the channel".

Products act on certain organs, certain channels. Some products are included in several channels at once.

There is a definite relationship between taste and channel. As a rule, the spicy enters the lung channel, the sweet enters the spleen channel, the sour enters the liver channel, the bitter enters the heart channel, the salty enters the kidney channel.

List of main channels and their products.

Spleen channel fresh ginger, tomato, pumpkin, carrots, peas, eggplant, beans, cinnamon, allspice, red pepper, buckwheat, garlic rice, barley, wheat, soybeans, apples, peanuts, mint, hawthorn, tangerine, mango, chestnut, figs, grapes, white sugar, honey, chicken, lamb, crucian carp, carp, silver carp, eel.

Lung channel: fresh ginger, radish, onion, garlic, carrot, allspice, mushroom, wine, tea, rice, honey, peanut, persimmon, apricot kernels, pear, banana, coconut, tangerine, grape, walnut, goose, duck eggs, goat milk, silver carp.

Kidney channel: buckwheat, garlic, allspice, salt, wheat, carp, eel, shrimp, snapper, ham, pork, pig kidney, pork liver, quail eggs, duck, goat milk, lamb, soybeans, cherry, pomegranate, mulberry , sesame, chestnut, plum, grapes, walnuts, cinnamon.

Liver channel tomatoes, buckwheat, wine vinegar, hawthorn, mint, apricot kernels, sesame, mango, figs, plums, eel, shrimp, crabs.

Heart channel: red pepper, green beans, wine, mint, persimmon, watermelon, melon, wheat.

Stomach channel: fresh ginger, onion, eggplant, tomato, radish, lettuce, celery, black pepper, mushrooms, melon, potatoes, rice, peas, green beans, soy sauce, salt, wine, barley, lemon, apples, pears, watermelon, hawthorn, peach, cherry, tangerine, chestnut, cow's milk, chicken, pork, pork liver, ham, beef, crucian carp, perch.

Bladder channel: watermelon, cinnamon, corn.

Colon channel: potatoes, lettuce, eggplant, mushrooms, allspice, mushrooms, buckwheat, salt, soybeans, corn, peanuts, persimmons, apricot kernels, banana, peach, pomegranate, honey, crucian carp.

Colon channel: salt, red beans, cucumber, goat's milk.

"Rising and floating on the surface" and "sinking to the bottom."

Fragrant, light foods are directed upwards, outward, and therefore are called "rising, floating on the surface." For example, spicy herbs have a dispersive, opening-opening action.

Heavy, full-bodied foods are referred to as "sinking and sinking to the bottom." For example, watermelon (purifies fever, stops shortness of breath, increases shortness of breath, increases urination).

Rising foods are yang, and descending are yin.

Replenishment and reduction

From the point of view of traditional Chinese diet therapy, some foods have the ability to nourish Yin, Yang, and add energy. Such a property is called replenishment, and products are replenishing.And others stimulate diuresis, have a laxative effect, remove pathogens from the body. This property is called subtractive, and the products are subtractive.

A person with a lack of energy, strength, with great physical and mental stress, after suffering a long illness, needs to eat replenishing foods. For various colds, dampness, and congestion in the body, the use of reducing products is recommended.

Few people attach importance to these symptoms: lack of appetite, intolerance to any foods, heartburn on certain foods, gas formation in the intestines, problems with stools. For many, the state of chronic fatigue and apathy, frequent depression, unmotivated irritability, anger, insomnia, an abundance of dreams, and excessive sweating at night have become habitual.

In traditional Chinese medicine, such conditions are taken seriously. There are concepts of lack or excess of something in the body. And methods of treatment: replenishment and reduction.