Chinese Nutrition and Cuisine
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Introduction:
Health in Traditional Chinese Medicine
In the traditional Chinese approach to health, good nutrition
and living habits are essential to maintaining a balanced flow
of qi (pronounced “chee”), the essential life force,
through the body. Qi is a Taoist concept of life energy that is
present in all of nature. Qi responds to the natural forces of
yin and yang and is a part of every activity, every food, every
aspect of life. In the Chinese system, health maintenance derives
from good unity and balance of the body, mind and energy (qi)
through the integration of nutrition and medicine. A balanced
diet is defined in this system as one in which Yin—dark,
cold and passive—and Yang—light, heat and active—are
consumed in a balance that harmonizes with the foods a person
needs. These counterparts also regulate two very important oppositions
in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and modern Chinese nutrition:
hot versus cold.i. (PIC: Yin/Yang) |
Photo courtesy of Yvette Kuan
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Chinese Concepts of Food
Foods not only give strength and energy, but also have the power
to heal and help an individual regain Yin-Yang balance for a healthy
body.
The balance achieved through combining TCM and nutrition designates
four uses of food: “food as diet, food as tonic, food as medicine,
and food abstention” . As diet, nutrition is sustenance and
energy; tonic is ease for those people with general weakness (like
the elderly) with bland/plain foods. Nutrition as medicine uses
special foods and combinations that prevent illnesses and correct
imbalances, and abstention is avoiding foods that will increase
the likelihood of imbalance. |
Food as medicine
TCM philosophy takes an intuitionist route in achieving health
and longevity through diet. Because food is used as tonic, it
serves to provide a source of balance and equilibrium for the
smooth flow of qi, the body’s energy. An imbalance of yin
and yang can result in blocked qi that manifests itself in various
forms: pain, tumor, bleeding, etc. Food as medicine, then, must
be prepared with great care: using diverse and particular herbs
prescribed for the ailment by Chinese medicine that are then slow-cooked
with traditional foods to preserve all of the essential and beneficial
qualities of each ingredient. And food is seen as a much more
fortifying and resourceful means to combating illness than medicine.
source of information:
http://www.travelchinaguide.com/intro/cuisine_drink/cuisine/medicine.htm |
Hot and cold foods
Hot and cold are not references to the actual temperature of the
food; they are rated by their effect on the body. Lists of classifications
of foods along this continuum exist today, but disagreement has
caused “frequent modern dismissal of the whole system as
sheer superstition”(Anderson 190). Generally speaking, hot
foods are used to treat pallor and weakness. Higher in calories,
these foods provide more energy for activity, but can be generalized
as anything that could “standardly be used in winter to
make one feel warm”(Anderson 191). Cold foods are simply
the opposite, providing low-energy, and are usually vegetables,
raw or lightly cooked. Cold foods help balance the heated foods
and provide essential vitamins and minerals found in vegetables
and fruit. Neutral foods are classified “as the great mainstays,
starch staples and ordinary white-fleshed fish” that should
be consumed daily. A healthy person maintains a neutral state,
eating the traditional neutral cereal, and balancing his or her
intake of hot and cold foods.
Eating too many ‘hot’ or ‘cold’ foods
will have adverse effects. A person diagnosed with being too hot
(common ailments characterized by /identified as overheating,
anxiety, constipation and other binding conditions) may eat too
many saturated fats and sugars that are highly caloric. Too cool—from
one eating lettuce and cabbage excessively, or over hydrating
with water—and one may experience weakness, diarrhea, sloth
or depression.
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