Women's Diet: The Four Natures and Five Flavors
Introduction: Since ancient times, women have been particular about their food, but they are not entirely clear on what constitutes the healthiest way to eat. However, with Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) to safeguard their health, they have a strong preference for dietary调理 (dietary conditioning) based on TCM principles.
Eating Your Way to Health
To nourish the body through diet, one must seek benefits and avoid harm, establishing scientific and healthy eating habits, and overcoming the bad habits of eating indiscriminately—eating whatever and however much one wants. This, in turn, improves the overall quality of life.
TCM holds that regular meals and a reasonable combination of foods are the basic principles of "食养" (dietary nourishment). At the same time, food should be diverse in variety, well-matched, and moderate in the five flavors. When eating, one should chew slowly and not overeat. It is also important to enjoy beautiful food in beautiful vessels with a calm and peaceful state of mind. Furthermore, food should be adapted to one's age, constitution, geographical environment, and seasonal weather.
The Art of Eating Food
For foods that are tasty and highly nutritious, people naturally tend to eat more. However, TCM believes that while the nutritional value of food itself is important, its preparation and consumption method are also crucial for nutrient absorption and gastrointestinal health.
Eating on time is key to maintaining the body's rhythmic absorption and utilization of nutrients, and is one of the important factors in dietary nourishment. Eating in moderation is a crucial part of maintaining the body's balance of yin and yang.
Chewing slowly allows the saliva in the mouth to fully irrigate the five organs and six bowels (the zang-fu organs) and moisten the entire body. The enzymes, vitamins, organic acids, and other substances in saliva aid in digestion, cleanse the mouth, and have antibacterial, antitoxic, and anti-cancer properties. Overeating, bingeing, and indulging one's cravings can easily damage the spleen and stomach, leading to incomplete digestion of food. The intense nature of the food can then internally erode the organs and cause illness.
Food Also Has the "Four Natures and Five Flavors"
TCM believes that food has four properties: cold, hot, warm, and cool, and five flavors: sour, pungent (or spicy), bitter, salty, and sweet. The different properties and flavors of food affect how they act on the body.
Cold and cool foods are beneficial for "heat" diseases. For example: bitter melon is cold in nature and can clear heat and detoxify; it can be used for febrile diseases, summer heat and vexation, or red, painful eyes caused by liver heat. The difference between cold and cool is merely one of degree. For instance, apples and bananas are both cool fruits that can promote the production of body fluids to quench thirst, and are used for vexation and thirst caused by heat injuring the yin fluids. Hot and warm foods are beneficial for "cold" conditions. For example: mutton and dog meat are warm in nature and can warm the middle jiao (spleen and stomach) and warm the kidneys; they can be used for abdominal pain and poor appetite caused by deficiency-cold of the spleen and kidneys, or for weakness of the lower back and knees and impotence.
At the same time, TCM believes that different flavors have different effects. Sour flavor can astringe and restrain; for example, cherries can nourish the liver and kidneys and stop diarrhea. Pungent flavor can disperse and move; for example, scallion whites and coriander can disperse wind and cold. Bitter flavor can purge fire; for example, bitter melon can clear summer heat and detoxify.
Salty flavor can soften hard masses and promote downward movement; for example, seaweed and kelp can soften and resolve hard masses. Sweet flavor can tonify deficiency; for example, longan flesh can tonify the spleen and stomach, nourish blood, and calm the spirit; and jujubes can tonify the spleen and stomach and nourish qi and blood.