Yin, Yang and Qi: Basic Theories of Nutrition in Traditional Chinese Medicine
According to TCM the human body is an integrated whole. Treatment is based on the concept of an integral human body and is decided through careful differentiation of the signs and symptoms in an individual. Nutrition in TCM is applied in four ways: food as diet, food as tonic, food as medicine and food abstention.
Food as diet means simply food provides the necessary substances for life, growth and health. Food as tonic refers to using food to treat individuals who have a general weakness, but no specific disease diagnosis (a disease-free elder, for example) or for those who are recovering from an ailment and need added strength. Food as medicine is using specific foodstuffs with specific properties to correct imbalances that have led to disease states and particular signs and symptoms. Finally, food abstention is much like it sounds. It is the practice of avoiding foods that would make a disease condition or an imbalance in the body worse. For example, avoid eating pepper, old ginger, mutton or liquor, which produce "fire"(heat) in the body during acute inflammation, acute conjunctivitis or high fever which are all disease states characterized by too much heat or excessive yang.
The basic nutritional theories of Traditional Chinese Medicine arise through the concepts of Yin,Yang and Qi.
Yin and Yang is a complicated philosophical concept. Yin literally translates as "in the shade," and is considered to represent darkness, the moon, coldness and passivity. Yang, "in the sunlight," on the other hand, encompasses lightness, sun, heat and activity. Yin represents all kinds of inadequate under-functioning such as cold, fatigue and general weakness. Yang represents all kinds of detrimental over-functioning or overreacting such as fever, hyper-reactivity and red swelling (skin). A healthy body depends on the balance of Yin and Yang, and all disease result from an imbalance of Yin and Yang. When these two forces are in balance, whether it occurs in a meal, in a person or in nature, harmony and equilibrium are achieved.
Qi is known as vital energy that represents various functions of the body. For example, the Qi of a lung indicates the function of the lung. Blood is a conceptual term that refers to the material basis of Qi or the comprehensive material that represents all internal organs. Therefore, blood and Qi are often linked together. Certain disease conditions are described as 'blood weak" (e.g. anemia), "blood hot" (e.g. nosebleeds, gastric bleeding), or "blood stasis" (e.g. heart attack, pain). Keep in mind this use of the word blood is different from the understanding of blood as it is used in modern medicine.
When used properly, food can regulate Yin, Yang, Qi and blood. According to TCM, like medicines, each item of food has its own property (cool, cold, warm, hot, and plain). To simplify this concept the five categories have been collapsed to three–cool/cold, warm/hot, and plain. Cold and cool foods (Table 1) are used to treat diseases of a hot nature. For example, watermelon is used to treat fever, thirst, mild mania and similar ailments. Hot and warm foods (Table 2) are used in treating diseases with a cold nature. Onion and garlic, for example, are used to treat the common cold, and old ginger is used to treat "spleen weakness" (e.g. vomiting, diarrhea, stomach pain, loss of appetite). The plain foods (Table 3) such as apple, rice and milk are used in treating both hot and cold diseases as general tonics. The most commonly used medicinal foods organized by their properties are listed in Table 4. Traditionally, these are medicines, but also they can be classified as foods that are foods commonly used in TCM.
|
Table 1 |
| Foods with Cool and Cold Properties |
|
|
|||
| Apple | Cucumber | Lily bulb | Soy sauce |
|
|
|||
| Bamboo shoot | Duck egg | Lotus root | Spinach |
|
|
|||
| Banana | Duck meat | Millet | Sponge gourd |
|
|
|||
| Barley | Eggplant | Mung bean | Tomato |
|
|
|||
| Bitter melon | Frog meat | Orange | Turnip (white) |
|
|
|||
| Buckwheat | Green cabbage stem | Oyster | Watermelon |
|
|
|||
| Celery | Green tea | Pear | Winter melon |
|
|
|||
| Coix seed | Kelp | Rabbit meat | |
|
|
|||
| Crystal sugar | Laver (seaweed) | Salt | |
|
|
|||
| Crab | Lettuce | Snail | |
|
|
| Table 2
|
| Foods with Warm and Hot Properties |
|
|
|||
| Apricot | Coriander | Longan | Red bayberry |
|
|
|||
| Black tea | Deer meat | Mustard green | Silver carp |
|
|
|||
| Brown sugar | Dog meat | Mutton | Sorghum |
|
|
|||
| Chestnut | Fennel green | Onion | Trout |
|
|
|||
| Cherry | Garlic | Peach | Turkey |
|
|
|||
| Chicken | Ginger | Pepper | Vinegar |
|
|
|||
| Chinese date | Glutinous rice | Pineapple | Walnut |
|
|
|||
| Chives | Grass carp | Plum | Wine |
|
|
|||
| Coffee | Hot pepper | Pomegranate | |
|
|
| Table 3
|
| Foods with Plain Properties |
|
|
|||
| Abalone | Daylily | Mushroom | Quail meat |
|
|
|||
| Beef | Eel | Olive | Red bean |
|
|
|||
| Cabbage | Goose meat | Oolong tea | Rice |
|
|
|||
| Carp | Grape | Pea | Soybean |
|
|
|||
| Carrot | Honey | Peanut | Spring chicken |
|
|
|||
| Cauliflower | Jasmine tea | Pigeon meat | Sugar (white) |
|
|
|||
| Cherry apple | Jellyfish | Pork | Turtle |
|
|
|||
| Chinese yam | Lemon | Potato | Wheat |
|
|
|||
| Corn | Lotus seed | Quail egg | Yellow croaker |
|
|
| Table 4
|
| Medicinal Foods in Traditional Chinese Medicine by Properties |
|
|
||
| Cool and Cold | Plain | Warm and Hot |
|
|
||
| Cassia seed | Dangshan | Angelica |
|
|
||
| Chrysanthemum flower | Donkey-hide gelatin | Astragalus membanaceus |
|
|
||
| Dendrobium | Freshwater turtle shell | Curculigo rhizome |
|
|
||
| Dried rehammania root | Licorice root | Dogwood Fruit |
|
|
||
| Eclipta | Plastrum testudinis | Epimedium |
|
|
||
| Fragrant solomon seal rhizome | Poria | Ginseng |
|
|
||
| Glehnia root | Rhizome | Pilose |
|
|
||
| Glossy privet fruit | Wild juba seed | Prepared rhizome of rehmannia |
|
|
||
| Ophiopogon root | Schisandra fruit | |
|
|
||
| Pseudostellaria root | ||
|
|
||
| White peony root | ||
|
|
References
Chen, Junshi and Weng, Weijian. Medicinal Food: The Chinese Perspective, J of Med Food 1(2):117-122, 1998
Weng, Weijian and Chen, Junshi. The Eastern Perspective on Functional Foods Based on Traditional Chinese Medicine. Nutrition Reviews 54(11): S11-S16, 1996.
How Much Should We Eat?
Replacing Fats & Sweets With Vegetables and Fruits—A Question of Cost
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
Our Attribution Policy