Warming and cooling foods

Warming and cooling foods

When a Westerner hears the term “hilarity” or “hilarity,” he/she would probably ask what it is. In Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), this is a common concept related to balancing 'Yin' and 'Yang'. Most people, especially Chinese people in Asian countries such as China, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore, are familiar with this term of Heaty (Yang) (as opposed to Cooling or Yin) as it is a Chinese form to express certain symptoms or sensations, often associated with emotional or physical reactions, such as:

o Feelings of irritability;

o Short temperament;

o Fever;

o constipation;

o Flushed face or cheeks;

o Dark yellow urine;

o sore throat;

o Nosebleeds;

o Breakouts of pimples and acne;

o Skin rashes;

o Mouth ulcers;

o Digestive disorders.

Excessive “cold” energy in the body, on the other hand, makes us feel weak, lethargic, tired and restless.

The constitution of every person is influenced by innate factors as well as the acquired lifestyle (e.g. diet, stress level, exercise and sleep intensity, living environment) and varies from person to person. In other words, different foods act on the human body in different ways and affect our health status. The body's metabolism, organ function and organ structure determine our susceptibility to these heat and cooling effects of food.

Examples of cooling and hot foods:

Cool (Yin) foods:

Bamboo shoots, banana, bitter gourd, clam, crab, grapefruit, lettuce, persimmon, salt, seaweed, starfruit, sugarcane, water chestnut, watermelon, lotus root, cucumber, barley, tofu, egg white, marjoram, oyster, pear, peppermint, radish, strawberry, Tangerine and yogurt, broccoli, cauliflower, zucchini, corn, tomatoes, pineapple, turmeric.

Neutral (balanced yin and yang) foods:

Corn, abalone, apricot, beef, beetroot, black mushroom, carp, carrot, celery, chicken egg yolk, squid, duck, fig, honey, kidney bean, lotus fruit and seeds, milk, olive, oyster, papaya, pork, potato, pumpkin, radish leaf, red bean, plum, Sunflower seeds, sweet rice, sweet potato, white mushroom, yellow soybean, Brussels sprouts, snow peas, sweet potato, taro, dates, figs, raspberries, raisins, sage, rosemary, thyme, brown rice, apple.

Hot (Yang) Foods:

Pepper, cinnamon bark, ginger, soybean oil, red and green pepper, chicken, apricot kernels, brown sugar, cherry, chestnut, chives, cinnamon sprig, clove, coconut, coffee, coriander (Chinese parsley), date, dill, eel, garlic, grapefruit peel, spring onion, guava, Ham, leaf mustard, leek, longan, mutton, nutmeg, peach, raspberry, rosemary, shrimp, spearmint, basil, tobacco, vinegar, walnut, jackfruit, durian, leek, shallots, spring onions, apricots, blackberries, blackcurrants, mangoes, peaches, cherries, tangerines, grape.

How a meal is prepared is also important. For example, beef is considered neutral, but if you have fried or grilled it, it is considered spicy. Additionally, there are some interesting general guidelines for determining whether a particular food is hot or cooling:

Hot/Yang Foods:

o grow under the hot sun;

o are sweet;

o have a lot of fats;

o rich in sodium;

o are hard, dry or sharp.

Cold/Yin foods:

o grow in little sunshine;

o are salty;

o are slim;

o rich in potassium;

o soft and wet;

The heat and cooling effects of foods refer to their ability to produce sensations - either hot or cold in our bodies. They do not refer to the condition of the food, but rather to its effect on our body. For example, tea is a cooling food. This means that it creates cold energy in our body. To achieve a balanced diet, we can classify foods mainly as yin or yang. So if you eat mostly yin foods, your body can only produce cold energy, while eating mostly yang foods produces hotter energy. If a person is suffering from cold rheumatism, it would be helpful to eat foods with warm or hot energy. If a person suffers from acne breakouts due to eating fried foods, it is beneficial to consume cooling foods to counteract the heat and relieve symptoms.

The concept of heat is not useful or relevant in the paradigm of Western medicine. However, it is believed that there are some parallels to acidic (hot) and alkaline (cool) balance, or to protons and positive charges (hot) and cooling (electrons and negative charges). Medicine is developing. Conventional physicians in the West have long since begun to integrate, learn and integrate alternative treatment methods or medications into their practice. Today they believe that these new medical approaches are useful and effective in many ways.

Source: www.benefits-of-honey.com/heaty.html