Yin Yang balance in food

April 15, 2010

A few days ago I had the flu. My Chinese friend, CK called me. I told him I was sick and had a fever. He told me, “It’s because you have too much ‘hot’ in your body.”

The Chinese have a philosophy when it comes to food consumption that is very different than America’s conception of “healthy eating”. Chinese food therapy, as it is referred to on Wikipedia, is the delicate balance of yin and yang when eating. Yin foods are considered ‘cold’. Yang foods are considered ‘hot’. One should strive to not eat too much of either food. Hot and cold are not related to temperature. For instance, ice cream is considered hot.

This philosophy is a division of Chinese medicine and is used for the treatment of any ailment, although Chinese people try to maintain the balance at all times. If you have zits, a Chinese person will say you are eating too much hot. My friend’s Chinese mother tries to maintain the balance on a daily basis. If she is eating something hot, she will add vinegar, which is cold, to cool it down. There is a hairy crab season in China when it is very popular to eat hairy crabs. Chinese people always pair these crabs with Shaoxing wine because the crabs are a very cold food, and the hot Shaoxing wine balances that cold.

Wikipedia says, “As a generalization, Yang foods tend to be dense in food energy, especially energy from fat, while Yin foods tend to have high water content.” I really can’t tell the difference between hot and cold foods. For example a mango is hot, but an apple is cold. Lamb is hot; snake is cold. I tend to like hot foods more. Maybe they are tastier and fattier.

Another interesting thing I’ve heard about about Chinese food philosophy is the reasoning behind eating spicy food. The cuisines of the Sichuan and Hunan provinces are very spicy. Chinese people have told me that the reason Sichuanese and Hunanese people eat such spicy food is because these provinces have very wet climates. The dampness seeps into their bodies. They eat the spicy food to dry their bodies out. It another example of a yin yang balance.

Here are some examples of hot and cold foods:

Hot:

deep fried food, chilies, pineapple, cherry, lychee, black tea, squid, chicken, apricots, barley, grapes, olives, onion, walnut, celery

Cold:

watermelon, cantaloupe, green tea, bean curd, banana, duck, cucumber, eggplant, lettuce, mung beans, oranges