The Importance Of Cold And Hot Foods In Chinese Nutritional Therapy

There is nothing more basic to human health than eating healthily. Sadly, there is a lot of confusing information out there that it is really very difficult to select the right one. The aim is to give a few fundamental standards of Chinese Nutrition that anyone can follow without altering what they consume.

Some aspects of the Chinese diet can be very puzzling and may even necessitate diagnosis prior to the recommendation of a certain diet. This article is designed to set some simple rules that anyone can integrate into their everyday habits.

According to Chinese medicine in Bellmore, of which Chinese nutritional therapy is a branch of, there are three parts to any good diet:

• Current state of health
• Environment
• Basic body constitution

At all times should these three aspects be taken into account; this is the reason there is no such thing as good food or bad food in Chinese medicine, only food.

Chinese medicine mainly pertains to Chi which is required to flow freely at all times. When it fails to flow in a smooth manner, it will result in all types of diseases. This is the one single purpose of acupuncture, Qi Gong, and even Chinese herbs.

In regard to food, Chinese medicine states that the human body reduces Chi from food via a number of steps, until there is not a single Chi left. The Chi can be excreted as stool and urine. This is why Chinese medicine is primarily designed to reinforce the body in order to tap the energy or Chi that is in the food in contrast to Western nutritional therapy which mainly focuses on nutrient supplementation.

1. Current state of health:

In Chinese nutritional therapy, a person’s current state of health needs to be considered seriously. So, for instance, if a person suffers from Chi deficiency, he’s likely to always feel cold, and if he consumes salads excessively, or in the morning eats cold cereal with cold milk, it will exacerbate his Chi deficiency even more.

Chinese medicine classifies foods into: hot, warm, neutral, cool, and cold. In addition, the nature of food can be changed by cooking.

2. Environment

Environmental factors are as equally important as a person’s basic constitution. This is what’s totally missing from the Western diet as Chinese nutritional therapy classifies foods as warm, cold, or neutral. It matters a lot in Chinese medicine whether some kinds of food are consumed at a specific season. For instance, most people would say that in the winter, they find it difficult to eat a raw food diet. This is because, by nature, raw food is cold food, and the environment is cold in winter, making eating raw foods just too much for the body to handle. Of course, this is not an issue during summer since the warm environment balances the cold food.

3. Basic constitution

Each person has his or her own basic constitution. Individuals usually prefer cold or hot climate. Some like coke and other cold drinks while others prefer hot drinks such as coffee or tea. Obviously, seasons are major factors in Chinese medicine and so another question to ask is if someone prefers winter to summer or vice versa.

Generally speaking, foods are sorted in the following categories:

Cool: Sour cream, sprouts, cucumber, yogurt

Cold: Most vegetables, dairy products except butter, which is warm), seafood

Neutral: Wheat, potato, rice, most staple products

Warm: Onion, pork, goose, duck, red wine, coffee

Hot: Alcohol, beef, lamb, got, meat products

How the nature of food is changed by the way it is cooked

For instance, when food is cooked at a higher temperature, more Yang energy is carried to the food. Steaming or boiling is an extremely gentle form of cooking while barbecuing or deep frying introduces a significant amount of Yang energy into the food.

So how can we combine all these principles?

If you have a cold constitution, you should eat more cooked food more so during the winter, or when you have cold feet and hands, and/or when you feel tired.

If you have a warm constitution, you need to eat foods that have been gently cooked especially in the summer. You also need to avoid spicy food.