Foods Have Energy: The Chinese Energetics of Food Part 1
We are taught about protein, carbohydrates, and fat in the western diet. Compounds such as fiber, vitamins, and minerals are also familiar to most of us. As a dietitian, I educate, assess, and discuss food choices with people daily. What is not taught in western education is that foods and herbs have energetic properties. These properties affect specific organs and meridians that can strengthen, cleanse or regulate the body’s processes. It goes way beyond “real men don’t eat quiche”.
According to Chinese Medicine, foods have yin/yang energy, 5 temperatures, 5 flavors, and 4 directions. This part will focus on yin/yang energy and the 5 temperatures. Part 2 will discuss the flavors and directions.
The yin or yang action is the general property and the temperature is the extremeness of that property. Chinese medicine describes it as, “yin is cooling, builds blood and fluids and has a descending energy. Yang is warming, energizing and has an ascending energy”. By eating more yin foods your body is fueled to make more yin energy and when eating more yang foods your body may produce more yang energy. If something grows in the dark earth it is more yin versus if it grows in the air and sunshine where it is more yang. When a plant is soft, wet, and cool it is more yin than when hard, dry, and spicy which is more yang.
Many theories describe the warming and cooling (temperature) values of food like:
Slow-growing plants such as carrots and cabbage are more warming than those that grow quickly.
Fertilization, which stimulates plants to grow quicker, creates more cooling foods/energy.
Raw food is more cooling than cooked food.
Foods eaten cold are more cooling.
Foods that are colored blue, green, or purple are more cooling than the colors red, orange, and yellow. Example: a green apple is more cooling than a red apple.
Cooking methods requiring more cooking time, higher temperature, or higher pressure are generally more warming. Deep frying is more warming than steaming food and heatless methods of preservation or preparation, like fermenting, marinating, or sprouting that are cooling.
Yin and yang are relative to each other as well as unto themselves. It is best to demonstrate this by example. Although we categorize foods a particular way; yin/yang, warm/cool; fruit like a tomato (yes tomato is a fruit) grown in early spring or grown in a greenhouse may be more cooling than one grown in the heat of the summer. A mealy tomato is less yin than a juicy one that squirts when you bite into it.
Taste and smell can have a profound effect on one’s psyche. Certain odors or flavors that remind one of a traumatic event can trigger one to relive that event long after it is over. It stands to reason that smell, taste, and other qualities can make a subtle effect too.
Yin and Yang Property of Common Foods
Yin/Cold: Bamboo shoot, water chestnut, sugar cane, tomato, watermelon, banana, grapefruit, persimmon, mulberry, star fruit, seaweed, kelp, crabs, clams, sprouts, watercress, lettuces, and salt.
Yin/Cool: Millet, barley, wheat, buckwheat, eggplant, cucumber, celery, peppermint, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, mustard leaf, spinach, amaranth, pea, mung bean, pear, cantaloupe, apple, pineapple, persimmon, coconut, strawberry, orange, tangerine, mango, papaya, green tea, tofu, mushrooms, egg white, sesame oil, cream, yogurt, and cheese.
Harmonized Yin & Yang/Neutral: Rice, corn, taro, sweet potato, potato, turnips, carrot, cabbage, radish leaf, beetroot, soybeans, adzuki beans, peanut, cashew, pistachio, black sesame, sunflower seed, plums, fig, grapes, lemon, olives, shiitake mushroom, (sea) shrimp, pork, duck, oyster, beef, egg yolk, royal jelly honey, milk, soybean milk, and sugar.
Yang/ Warm: Coriander, chives, onion, leeks, green onion, asparagus, sweet peppers, spearmint, pomegranate, apricot, peach, cherry, lychee, raspberry, chestnut, pumpkin, glutinous rice, dates, walnut, pine nut, mussels, lobster, (freshwater) shrimp, chicken, venison, ham, goat milk, maltose, brown sugar, cumin, clove, fennel, garlic, ginger (fresh), dill seed, nutmeg, rosemary, star anise, Sichuan peppercorn, sweet basil, tobacco, coffee, vinegar, wine, vegetable oil.
Yang/Hot: Black pepper, cinnamon, ginger(dried), chili pepper, and mustard seed.
Source
Healing with Whole Foods, Oriental Traditions and Modern Nutrition, Paul Pitchford, 1993