Healing with Food

"Modern medicine seems to ignore the obvious: foods can stimulate body processes and potentially trigger (or relieve) countless pathologic events." A Patients's Guide to Chinese Medicine

Dietary imbalances or extremes can negatively affect both the organs and the qi (vital energy). For instance, an excessively stimulating diet can trigger various bodily processes, leading to inflammation, fever, hyperactivity, or hormonal abnormalities. These patterns may manifest as fevers, excessive sweating, insomnia, hyperthyroidism, inflammatory skin conditions, and other issues.

Such conditions can worsen with the overconsumption of "hot," stimulating, or yang foods. People experiencing overstimulation may benefit from consuming foods that are considered "cool," calming, or yin.

On the other hand, individuals with cold or "yang deficient" conditions—such as low blood pressure, excessive sleepiness, sciatica, hypothyroidism, and Hashimoto's disease—may find relief with a more stimulating (yang) diet.

Cooking methods also influence the stimulating properties of food. Boiling and steaming food typically result in cooler (yin) options, while frying and barbecuing tend to create more stimulating (yang) dishes. Remember, when making dietary changes, moderation is key. Sustainable changes are often best introduced gradually.

Foods and Their Natures

STIMULATING Foods	NEUTRAL Foods	CALMING Foods
Apricots* Artichoke Basil Beef* Black tea Butter Butterfish Carp* Cayenne Celery* Cherries Chestnuts Chicken Chili Cinnamon Chives Coconut Coconut milk Cod Coffee Coriander Dates Egg yolk Fennel Garlic Ginger Goose* Grapes* Green onion Ham Lamb Malt Mussels Mustard Mustard Greens Nectarine Oats Olives Onions Oolong tea Parsley Peach Pepper Pineapple* Pine nut Plums* Safflower Shrimp Soy oil Sugar, brown Sweet potato Turkey Turmeric Vinegar Walnuts Wine	Almonds Apples** Artichoke, Jerusalem Beans, Kidney** Bean sprouts Beets Black mushrooms Blueberries Cabbage Carrots Catfish Cauliflower Carob Cheese Clams** Coconut Oil Corn Currant Eel Figs Guava Grits Honey Huckleberries Mackerel Maple Syrup Milk Nutmeg Okra Olive Oil Papaya Peanuts Pecans Perch Pinto Beans Pork Potatoes Pumpkin Seeds Quail Raisin* Rice Sardines Sesame seeds Shark Shiitake Mushroom Sugar, white Strawberries String bean Sturgeon Tapioca Taro Turnip Vanilla Whitefish Winter squash Yam Yogurt	Abalone Agar Banana Barley Beer Beans** Bean curd** Bran Buckwheat Cottage cheese Crab Cucumber Duck** Eggplant Egg, white Frog's Legs Gluten Kelp Lettuce Lotus Root Malt Mango Marrow Melon Millet Mulberries Mung Beans Mushrooms Octopus Oysters Pears Peas Persimmons Pumpkin Rabbit Rock salt Rhubarb Seaweed Sesame oil* Snails Spirulina Sugar, cane Summer squash Sunflower seeds Tangerine Tea, green Tofu Tomato Water Chestnut Watercress Watermelon Wheat Wheatberries Wheat germ White fungus

*Classified in some texts as stimulating and in others as neutral.

*Classified in some texts as calming and in others as neutral.



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