“Food and medicine are not two different things;
they are the front and back of one body.”
– Masanobu Fukuoka
According to Traditional Chinese Medicine, every food has an energy. Yin food is cool and expanding; Yang food is warm and contracting. It has nothing to do with the temperature at which they are served!
Conventional fields of western nutrition classify food in terms of its chemical composition, including the calories, carbohydrates, proteins, fats, and other nutrients that it contains. Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) focuses on the energy properties of food.
The concept of yin and yang was introduced in the I Ching. The philosophy states that imbalances in the life force (qi) cause illness and unhappiness. Hence, by adjusting your diet you can regain equilibrium.
Practitioners of TCM believe that qi is the essential life force that flows through all of nature. To achieve harmony of your body, mind, and qi, they emphasize the importance of eating yin-yang balanced foods. Yin and yang are said to be energetic qualities that shape everything in the universe, including your health.
The Chinese symbol for yin is the shaded side of a hill. It signifies femininity, coolness, dampness, and darkness. In contrast, yang is the sunny side of the hill. It signifies masculinity, warmth, dryness, and light. Yin and yang are complementary qualities and essential to each other.
Yin foods are believed to be cool and thought to moisten your body. Yang foods are believed to be warm and drying. The yin or yang characteristics of a certain food have less to do with its actual temperature or moisture level than its purported energy properties and effects on your body. Boiled spinach for example, is cooling and moistening. Tea has a cool energy, it means that when we drink hot tea, it generates cool energy and it is therefore considered a cool beverage. Chilled wine is warming. The effects of such food qualities on health have been observed for thousands of years.
"Cool" or yin foods are generally low in calories and high in potassium.
"Hot" or yang foods tend to be higher in calories and sodium.
Yin foods usually grow in the earth and darkness.
Yang foods usually grow in the air and sunshine.
If it is soft, wet and cool, it is more yin.
If it is hard, dry and spicy, it is more yang.
Tropical foods are considered more yin because they have a more expansive and cooling effect on the body.
Yin/cooling energy comes from less motion, while Yang/warming energy comes from more action. For example, a chicken holds more heat than a lamb, and a lamb more heat than a cow. Land animals are mostly warming, from their dry environment, while water animals are mostly cooling. And thus, ducks are considered cooling by some, neutral by others. Even different body parts of the same pig might be considered yin or yang depending on their function and location.
Practitioners of TCM believe that eating too many yin or yang foods will throw off your body’s balance and cause adverse health effects. They link certain disorders to an excess of yin, yang, or both types of foods.
Yin and Yang body balance is also created through our activities (sitting still is Yin, exercise is Yang), and our environments (a cold weather climate and a sleepy country town is more Yin; a hotter climate and busy city is Yang).
Winter is yin, while summer is yang, and night is yin while day is yang. Arthritis made worse by cold weather is a yin condition. A red, inflamed rash brought on by heat is a yang condition. A ruddy-faced, irritable man with high blood pressure is relatively yang. An anemic, melancholy woman is relatively yin.
If you eat predominantly yin foods, your body will be capable of producing more yin energy - darker, slower-moving and colder. In contrast, eating predominantly yang foods will produce more yang energy - faster, hotter and much more energetic.
Yang Excess/Yin Deficiency
When yin energy is deficient, your body starts to show heat signs. You prefer cold beverages and cool weather. You may even have high blood pressure, red eyes, inflamed tissues, rashes, swellings, or dry skin
Extreme yang force has some emotional and behavioral side effects: chronic aggression, rigidity in thinking and behavior, being controlling and overly competitive, sexual obsession or compulsivity, materialism, inability to relax, self-absorption, lack of sensitivity to one’s inner world, one’s emotions, or other people, the desire to dominate others.
Yin-Building Foods
Alfalfa sprouts, apples, artichokes, asparagus, avocados, bananas, barley, bean sprouts, broccoli, carrots, celery, cilantro, crab, clams, cucumbers, dandelion greens, duck, eggplant, egg whites, fish, grapefruit, grapes, honey, kelp, nettles, papaya, pears, pomegranates, radish, romaine lettuce, seaweed, soybean sprouts, spinach, star fruit, strawberries, tofu, tomatoes, watermelons, zucchinis.
Raw foods are generally cooling. Avoid stimulating foods like caffeine, alcohol, sugar, and pungent spices.
Yin Excess/Yang Deficiency
When yang energy is deficient, the body begins to slow down, showing signs of diminished activity and coldness. You are attracted to warmth, warming food and drink. It is important to build up the yang energy to bring balance back to the body. Excess of yin in the body causes fatigue, depression, muscle ache, stuffy nose, cough with clear white phlegm, fluid retention, weak/sluggish digestion.
Extreme yin force has some emotional and behavioral side effects: Depression is definitely a Yin state. Yin is cold, dark, slow, black/blue, introverted, and damp. It’s like north side of a hill, which will feel much colder than the south side, which receives the warming and drying rays of the sun. There is a distinct lack of drive, motivation, courage, and mojo in this state. Victim thinking, sadness, guilt and grief.
Yang-Building Foods:
Basil, beef, black beans, pepper, butter, cayenne, chicken liver and fat, chestnuts, chili powder, cinnamon, clove, coffee, egg yolks, garlic, ginger, horseradish, lamb, leeks, lobster, lochi, mussels, mustard greens, nutmeg, oats, onions, parsnips, pork, pumpkin seeds, turkey, quinoa, scallions, shrimp, walnuts.
Avoid cold foods, cold liquids, and too many raw foods.
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