Foods 'n' Herbs

Eat According to the Season  

In Chinese medicine, all illnesses can be prevented if you constantly observe and maintain the balance of qi (vital energy) in your body. There is good qi and bad qi resulting from external influences - the weather, and from internal influences - our food. For example, a diet with too much spicy and deep-fried foods generates excessive heat and hot-qi. It dries up the internal body fluid, causes constipation and dries up lips and skin. It is worse in summer when the weather is hot and the body loses water through perspiration. To bring the body back to the right balance, you need to eat cool-food such as watermelon, citrus fruits or white turnips to counter the internal and external heat. If the imbalance is not rectified promptly, the body can develop a deficiency in protecting-qi and you become ill. Eating to counter the seasonal excesses or evils is a very effective way in staying well.

In spring, it is the season dominated by wind. When the pores of your skin dilate due to the warmer temperatures after the cold winter, it is easier for "wind-evil" to enter the body causing coughing, a stuffy or runny nose, headaches, dizziness and sneezing. It is important to eat food that can eliminate excessive wind in the body during spring.

In summer, it is heat / fire that dominates with symptoms such as excess body heat, profuse sweating, parched mouth and throat, constipation and heart palpitations. When summer heat combines with dampness, it results in abdominal pains, vomiting and intestinal spasms. Cooling yin foods will help, while overly hot yang foods should be avoided. Iced drinks are cool in temperature, but not cool in nature. They can damage the spleen and stomach causing more health problems.

In autumn, dryness dominates and can easily injure the lungs, causing heavy coughing, blood in the sputum, dry nose and throat and pains in the chest. "Inner-dryness" can be a result of profuse sweating, vomiting, bleeding or diarrhea. The symptoms are dry and wrinkled skin, dry hair and scalp, dry mouth and cracked lips, and dry stomach with hard and dry stools. Insufficient body fluid is harmful. You should eat more nourishing yin food to promote body fluid and soothe the lungs.

In winter, cold is a "yin-evil", which dominates and injures the body's yang energy. If cold enters the body through the skin, it produces symptoms of fever, cold, headaches and body pain. If it reaches the meridians, it produces muscle cramps and pains in the bones and joints. If it enters as far as the internal organs, cold excess causes nausea, diarrhea, vomiting, abdominal pains, coldness in limbs and many other complications. To prevent the attack of cold, plenty of warming yang foods and slightly fatty foods should be included in the diet. And in extreme cold, a few warming yang herbal medications should be consumed regularly.