Last month, a few friends and I went on a cooking course at the CookHouse in Battersea run by Emma and Stephanie. We went for the Dinner Party Nibbles course and learnt how to prepare appetising canapés and mouth-watering dips. Held in Emma’s kitchen, the evening was a perfect balance of hands-on cooking, sharing of useful tips, chatting, sampling our creations and drinking wine.
We spend an enjoyable evening talking about food, making food and of course eating! It reminded me what a central part food plays in traditional Chinese Medicine.
Did you know that according to traditional medicine, food is considered the first choice for prevention and treatment of health imbalances or illness?
In the West, food is described according to its chemical ingredients, protein, fat, minerals, vitamins and so on. According to traditional Chinese medicine, foods are classified according to their characteristics and the effect it has on the human body after the food has been consumed. These main classifications are the flavours, the energetic temperature, the effects on energetic direction, and the relationship with meridians.
Flavours
There are five flavours: sour, bitter, sweet, pungent and salty plus a neutral flavour, and each flavour corresponds to and affects an energetic organ system.
· The salty flavour belongs to the water element and affects the Kidney
· The sour flavour belongs to the Wood element and enters the Liver
· The bitter flavour belongs to the Fire element and enters the Heart
· The sweet flavour belongs to the Earth element and enters the Spleen
· The pungent flavour belongs to the Metal element and enters the Lung
What does this mean exactly? Let’s take the sweet flavour for example related to Earth and to the Spleen/Stomach. The Spleen in Chinese medicine is not just the obscure little organ than most of us are hard-pressed to locate and define. It is the centre of all digestion and transformation of food to energy, the absorption and digestion of ideas as well as an essential element in the production of blood. Food with a sweet flavour helps support a deficient spleen and stomach whose function of transformation and absorption is impaired. In this respect a craving for sweetness is an accurate message that our spleen is out of balance and needs rebalancing. Unfortunately, with cravings for the sweet flavour we tend to overwhelm our system with processed sugar, the ‘Pure, White and Deadly’ stuff of John Yudkin’s book (1986) that alters our metabolic processes and increases plasma concentration of cholesterol and triglycerides, and we create further imbalance. Instead we should choose non-processed alternatives like sweet potatoes, carrots, grapes, avocadoes, courgettes or even spinach that according to TCM, all have a sweet flavour.
Thermal properties:
Is the food we consume Hot, Warm, Neutral, Cool or Cold? According to traditional oriental medicine, it is not a measure of how hot or cold the food feels when consumed but its effect on the body after digestion. Does it warm us or cool us down? Root vegetable soup is surely more appealing on a cold winter evening than a on a hot summer day!
Effect and Directions
Food can move the energy of the body in four different directions: upward, downward, floating and sinking. Cooling foods tend to direct energy inwards and downwards by cooling the upper and outer parts of the body first. Warming food move energy upwards and outwards from the core and warm us from the inside out. Think about the effects of a hot curry on your body and how cucumber and yoghurt counterbalance the heat of a curry.
Preparation and cooking methods can influence flavour and thermic nature of food. For example, cooking in hot oil has a heating effect. Longer and slower methods of cooking also produce more warming effect than the steaming method.
You can see how someone who feels cold all the time for example would benefit from more warming diets.
Relationship with Meridian
Each food is also said to enter one or more meridians directing its effect towards particular Organs. Pears for example enter the Lung meridian and walnuts enter the Kidney meridian. Pear in Chinese Medicine has a cooling effect, and a sweet and slightly sour flavour. It specifically affects the Lungs, it moistens the lungs, throat and dryness in general, eliminating heat and excess mucus. Classic symptoms of heat on the lungs include chills and fever, dry cough, shortness of breath, sore throat and yellow nasal discharge.
Looking at this model of nutritional therapy, it becomes evident that one diet does not fit all. Chinese dietary therapy always yields a highly personalised list of dietary recommendations. A healthy diet to prevent illness or recover balance depends on each individual’s desired outcome. It takes into accounts the presented signs and symptoms, the seasons, each individual imbalance tendencies.
Finally, remember to relax and enjoy! When eating, please focus on just eating! Don’t work, don’t read, don’t walk, don’t travel… just eat!
If you want to know more about Chinese Nutritional therapy, contact me @ sophie@silverwoodacupuncture.co.uk