Eating Well, Part 2

In a previous blog I covered 3 simple principles of using diet as the foundation of good health: eat slowly, eat simply, and support your microbiome.

This blog takes the discussion in a more Chinese Medicine specific direction, and focuses on temperature.

Chinese Medicine is in many respects an agrarian medicine: it was borne of a time where growing food was the primary activity for the vast majority of the population. 

Accordingly, a lot of the language and metaphor used in Chinese Medicine reflect an intimate relationship with the external environment, nature and the seasons: people’s fundamental ‘health type’, particular health pathologies, and the foods we eat are all classified using concepts such as hot or cold, damp or dry etc.

This can be contrasted with Modern Western Medicine which really started developing in the same era as the industrial revolution, and uses concepts such as levers, pulleys, pumps and valves to describe the human body and physiology.

So, temperature: both human beings themselves and the foods they eat can be mapped on this basic spectrum: Hot, Warm, Neutral, Cool, Cold.

The key is to balance out or ‘temper’ the constitutional temperature of the individual, using foods and cooking techniques that moderate rather than exacerbate that tendency. 

Warm – Hot Types

The individual whose constitutional tendency falls into this category will likely exhibit some (and almost certainly not all) of the following characteristics:

Notable thirst, sweats easily, sweating not always related to exercise, feels the need to wear fewer jumpers & coats etc than many people, doesn’t want the heating on, needs the window open, not too bothered by winter, tendency towards inflammatory conditions, constipation, perhaps easily irritated, possible insomnia or difficulty ‘quietening down’, ants-in-your-pants…. That’s the general picture.

For these people, we obviously want to bring balance with a diet & dietary practices that are broadly cooling:

More of these: fresh vegetables & fruit, greens, cucumbers, apples & pears, parsley, asparagus, celery, aubergine, spinach, seaweed, barley, millet, tofu, buckwheat, green tea. 

Cook with meals with a high water content eg soups, and also use steaming and gentle boiling as cooking techniques.

Limit / restrict these: Alcohol, coffee, chocolate, chilli, garlic, red meat, refined sugars, puddings, chicken, prawns, black pepper, cinnamon, ginger. 

Avoid using bbq, roasting and frying as food preparation methods. Avoid eating later in the evening.

(I’m sorry, I know these are all the fun things… Would that it were different!)

Cool – Cold Types

The individual whose constitutional tendency falls into this category will likely exhibit some (and almost certainly not all) of the following characteristics:

Lower energy, more difficulty ‘getting going’, some lethargy, notable aversion to cold, needs lots of layers in winter, goes to bed wearing socks and with a hot water bottle, tendency to diarrhoea, notices draughts, perhaps some oedema (water retension), poor circulation to the extremities, catches any colds doing the rounds.

For these people, we obviously want to bring balance with a diet & dietary practices that are broadly warming:

More of these: Onions, leeks, chives, spring onions, mustard greens, pumpkins, squash, sweet potatoes, carrots, parsnips, chestnut, apricot, peach, raspberries, walnuts, rice, chicken, lamb, venison, ginger, garlic, black pepper, cinnamon. Black tea and rooisbos. 

Limit / Restrict these: cold / fridge temperature foods, salads, ice cream, dairy products generally.

The last thing is to mention the importance of correlating all the above with the current season / the temperature of the external environment: 

The Hot constitutional type can get away with eating a bit more of the stuff on their Limit / Restrict list when it’s the depths of winter or if they’re in a particularly chilly environment.

Ditto the Cold constitutional type: You can get away with eating a bit more of the stuff on the Limit / Restrict list when it’s the height of summer or if you’re in a particularly hot environment.

Caveat: This is a very much a ‘broad brushstrokes’ kind of guide to a subject that can become highly nuanced. 

However, as is so often the case, the most basic and general starting point is usually all that is needed for the vast majority of individuals to get benefit.

Using diet to balance temperature has significant health benefits: your body recovers more quickly and with fewer complications when there has been trauma or illness. And your immune system is more effectively primed for action as & when needed.