Ch. 1: Energies and Flavors of Food

Presented by Satori Poch

Differences in the Chinese Diet vs. the Western Diet

Chinese Diet: Diet designed to lose

weight & treat other ailments (hypertension, diabetes, colds, etc)

Food precautions and/or restrictions based on symptoms.

Foods considered for their flavors, energies, movements, and common and organic actions.

Western Diet: Focuses on diet

for weight loss.

Foods are considered for their protein, calories, carbohydrates, and vitamin and nutrient content.

Chinese Diet:

• States that you should eat foods to counteract the way your body is acting.

• When you are sick it’s because your body is unbalanced.

• Gingerwarms you• Mung Beancools

you• Sugarstrengthens

stomach• Yamsstrengthens

kidneys

Western Diets:

• Doctors & nutritionists can tell us what vegetables contain what vitamins and nutrients, but it cannot tell us what effect the food will have on our body.

5 Flavors of Foods: Pungent Foods (green onion, chive, clove,

parsley, coriander) Sweet Foods (sugar, cherry, chestnut,

banana) Sour Foods (lemon, pear, plum, mango) Bitter Foods (hops, lettuce, radish leaf,

vinegar) Salty Foods (salt, kelp, seaweed)

Includes: green onion, chive, clove, parsley, coriander

Pungent foods act on the lungs and the large intestines.

• Consumption of such foods results in inducing perspiration and promoting energy circulation.

Pungent Foods

Sweet Foods:Includes: sugar, cherry, chestnut, banana, etc.

acts on the stomach and spleen

- can slow down acute symptoms and neutralize the toxic effects of other foods.

Sour FoodsIncludes: lemon, pear, plum, mango

- act on the liver and gallbladder

- can obstruct movements useful in checking diarrhea and excess perspiration.

Bitter Foods

Includes: hops, lettuce, radish leaf, and vinegar

- act on the heart and small intestine

- can reduce body heat, dry body fluids, and induce diarrhea (which is why many Chinese herbs used to reduce fever and induce diarrhea taste bitter)

Salty Foods

Includes: salt, kelp, seaweed

act on the kidneys and bladder

- can soften hardness, useful in treating tuberculosis of lymph nodes and other symptoms involving the hardening of muscles or glands.

Determining the flavors of foods that have no distinct tastes

Process:

• Some foods have obvious flavors and are found to act on some organs but not others.

• Relationships between flavors and internal organs are studied and analyzed using the inductive method.

• Those that are harder to determine undergo the deductive method which uses their organic effects and specific actions to determine their flavors.

5 Energies of Foods:“Energies of food” refers to their capacity to generate sensations-either hot or cold-in the human body.

- cold (tea)

- hot (black pepper)

- warm (chicken)

- cool (cucumber)

- neutral (corn)

* Do not refer to the present state of foods when assessing their energies.

Cold vs. Hot

The human body is also classified into cold and hot types.

- a cold person should eat hot foods.

- a hot person should eat cold foods.

Chinese refer to this as a “balanced diet.”

Scenario #1:

It’s monsoon season and your car just broke down about ten miles away from a gas station. You have no cell phone. So you decide to walk out in the cold rain. You managed to make it to the station and the tow truck takes you home. You arrive soaked and shivering with cold.

What do you drink??

-fresh hot ginger soup (ginger has warm energy to combat the cold).

Scenario #2:You ate some crawfish at Red Lobster. After you’ve had a whole bucket of them you go home and your mother tells you that you’re allergic to them. About an hour later you break out into hives. You’re body feels like you have a million mosquito bites all over your body.

What do you drink???

- cook a bowl of mung bean soup with sugar. (the cold energy from the soup heals your hot symptoms)

Movements of Food:Human body is divided into 4 regions:

• Inside (internal)

• Outside (skin and body)

• Upper (above the waist)

• Lower (below the waist)

2 Additional Characteristics of Food Associated with Movement• Glossy (sliding): spinach and honey

- facilitate movement

- good for constipation and internal dryness

• Obstructive: guava, and olive

- slow down movement

- good for diarrhea and seminal emission

Movement of Foods Associated with the 4 Seasons:

• Food that moves upwards is good to consume in the spring. (this is the time when living things grow and move upwards)

• Food that moves outwards is good to consume in the summer. (this is the time when everything is outgoing as in perspiration and expansion)

• Food that moves downwards is good to consume in the autumn when things begin to fall (as in leaves).

• Food that moves inwards is good to consume in the winter. (this is when things go in and is best to stay indoors)

Ch.2 Actions of Foods and the Balanced Diet

Organic Actions of Foods refers to the specific internal organs on which the foods can act.

Chinese focus on 10 internal organs for dietary treatment:

-Lungs -Liver

-Large intestine -Kidneys

-Small intestine -Spleen

-Gall bladder -Heart

-Bladder -Stomach

Relationship between internal organs and body surfaces:

• Eyes are associated with the liver

• Ears are associated with the kidneys

• Nose is associated with the lungs

• Mouth and lips are associated with the spleen

• Tongue is associated with the heart

Ex. Chicken liver is effective for treating blurred vision.

Common Foods Associated with the Organs:

•Bladder: cinnamon bark, grape fruit peel, watermelon

•Gall bladder: chicory, corn silk

•Heart: chicken egg yolk, longan, mung bean, watermelon

•Kidneys: black sesame seed, chestnut, chive, duck, eel

•Large intestine: bean curd, black pepper, cucumber

•Liver: brown sugar, celery, chicory, vinegar, wine

•Lungs: carrot, cinnamon twig, garlic, ginseng, tangerine

•Small intestines: chinese wax gourd, salt, spinach

•Spleen: barley, bean curd, beef, squash, string bean

•Stomach: barley, clam, rice, salt, taro, sugar cane

Balanced Diet in Chinese Theory1. You should eat foods of various energies and organic

actions rather than concentrate on a single flavor or energy or organic action. This is called the “common balanced diet.”

2. A balanced diet also means that foods are selected according to your needs and physical constitution. This is referred to as an “individual’s balanced diet.”

Six Types of Physical Constitution:

• Hot

• Cold

• Dry

• Damp

• Deficient

• Excessive

* A person’s physical constitution is determined in terms of a number of key factors such as subject sensations, urine, stools, tongue, etc.

Determining Your Physical Constitution

-If you feel hot, thirsty, normally prefer cold drinks, and have a reddish complexion then you probably have a hot physical constitution.

-If you feel cold, thirsty, normally prefer hot or warm drinks, and have a pale or whitish complexion then you most likely have a cold physical constitution.

-If you easily feel thirsty, your lips, nose, throat, and skin are all dry, and when you cough it is mostly a dry cough without mucus then you have a dry constitution.

Determining Your Physical Condition (cont.)

• If you feel heavy in the body, often tired, and if your tongue appears glossy and greasy then you have a damp physical constitution.

• If you are weak in energy, normally low in spirits, pale complexion or shortness of breath then you have a deficient physical constitution.

• If you are strong, energetic, often in high spirits, and speaks in a high pitched voice then you have an excessive physical constitution.

Organic Balanced DietRefers to a diet that maintains the balance of internal organs.

-each individual has organic strengths and weaknesses

ex. Person strong in digestive functions are weak in reproductive functions.

Diet for organic balance guarantees that all internal organs are kept in good shape.

-when one is excessively strong, others are weaker (organic imbalance).

ex. When one man gains 20-30 pounds within 2 or 3 months he may become sexually weak or impotent. This is due to the excessive strength of stomach putting pressure on kidneys (responsible for sexual capacities).

Restoring Body BalanceWhen a person becomes ill, the balance of the body is lost.

-the symptoms you develop are consistent with your physical constitution.

- if you are hot then you will develop hot symptoms (skin eruptions, and hot rheumatism)

- if you are cold then you will develop cold symptoms (cold vomiting and cold rheumatism)

* Symptoms may sometimes conflict with one’s physical constitution.

Ch. 3 Body Types & the Yin-Yang Principles

Everything in the universe can be regarded by Yin and Yang.

•Yang = man, sun, day, functions of the human body

•Yin= women, moon, night, shape

Y-ScoresThe author designed a comprehensive chart of scores by which foods and body types, diseases, moods and 4 seasons may be classified into yin and yang.

Y-scores stand for the yin or yang scores of a given item.

+ = yang

- = yin

The chart compares the y in and yang to that of another object.

Understanding Y-scores

To determine y-score of a food, the y-score of its energy and that of its flavor should be taken into account.

Y-scores of flavor and those of energy of a given food should be calculated separately; then add them and divide by two to arrive at the y-score.

Foods with a score of +4 may be used to treat downward diseases, -4 to treat upward diseases

Your Body Type• Body can be distinguished into yin and yang.

-Yin should eat more yang.-Yang should eat more yin.

• Four factors that should be taken into account include:

-hot/cold-dry/damp-dispositions-sex life

Allergies and Body Types

• Allergies occur when a person eats food that drives them towards their yin or yang limit.

Diseases and Y-scores

There are hot and cold diseases

-if disease gets worse on exposure to cold surroundings or if it gets better

on exposure to warm or hot surroundings, then it is a cold disease.

Moods and Y-Scores

• Foods can alter moods.

Important Concepts:• The Chinese diet differs from the Western diet in that the

Chinese diet is designed to lose weight and treat other ailments while the western diet focuses mainly on diet for weight loss.

• Eat foods to counteract the way your body is acting.• There are 5 flavors of food: pungent, sweet, sour, bitter, and

salty.• There are 5 energies of food: cold, hot, warm, cool, and neutral.• It is important to know the relationship between foods and your

organs.• Eat a variety of foods.• People have a mixed physical constitution so adapt your diet

accordingly.