When we go shopping, we fill our cart with foods that we feel are essential for our physical health as well as for our gustatory well-being. Indeed, we generally know the benefits of certain foods but only in a global way.

Of course, we rarely shop for foods that are rich in vitamins or simply because they are rich in good nutrients. When we want to eat "healthy", we generally go for organic fruits and vegetables, ideally in season. But with a little research, we can think about our food differently.

Thinking about food through the eyes of traditional Chinese medicine[/quote].

Chinese dietetics is mainly energetic and benevolent. Each food will then be seen with an interesting potential for each individual. Indeed, the foods are then studied according to the age, the constitution but also the state of health of each person.

Consuming 'healthy' is a real priority in the plate of this people which is quite different from ours.

In TCM, foods are separated into categories that are called the flavor of the food:

• The so-called bitter foods
• The so-called sweet foods
• The so-called spicy foods
• Acidic foods
• Salty foods

But also in subcategories that we will call the nature of the food:

• Cold foods
• Fresh foods
• The so-called neutral foods
• The so-called hot foods
• Warm foods

The notions of cold, neutral or hot and spicy are really specific to TCM and can sometimes be a bit difficult to understand. This is why some practitioners of traditional Chinese medicine have made Chinese dietetics their specialty. Let's look at a few foods in brief:

The banana

This fruit is a food of sweet flavor and cold nature that will act on some particular meridians. In the West, we know that bananas are a food low in water and yet they are considered to be moistening by TCM. Indeed, its cold nature gives it benefits unknown to us. It could thus calm the gastric pains, relieve the constipation if it is due to a dryness excess and at the intestinal level, it would also calm the inflammations. Fascinating, no? Whereas in our western medicine, it would be rather an enemy of constipation... It is then the excess of dryness which makes all the difference, a notion specific to TCM of course.

The carrot

This vegetable of sweet flavor and neutral nature will allow a humidification of the intestine and thus it will improve constipation. Totally unthinkable and yet, the carrot is antitussive, this because it regulates the heat in the lung meridian.

The lemon

This citrus fruit of acidic flavor and fresh nature has a great affinity with the liver but in TCM, this will not be the priority. Indeed, we will dwell more precisely on its fresh nature which will allow it, in case of heat, to obtain a refreshing character. From then on, it will also chase away excess heat that is the result of inflammations.

Fennel

This vegetable of sweet and spicy flavor and warm nature has the ability to regulate all the energy of our body. Muscle relaxant, it also has the ability to work on the stomach to strengthen it and promote good digestion. It is by cooking it that we will allow it to bring heat to the stomach or on the contrary, in raw food, to bring him a cooling in case of excess of heat.

Chinese dietetics is certainly not obvious but it allows to use nutrition in the most therapeutic way possible. By eating the foods that are best suited to our health problems, we make the choice to treat ourselves with the elements that nature has made available to us.

Let's enjoy the benefits of Mother Nature.

Source: La bible de la médecine chinoise aux Editions Leduc