Happy new year! Some words about food for 2012
Tuesday, January 17th, 2012
The symbol yin yang
“The root of a quiet body must be supplied by food.” —Sun Si-maio
Most people begin the new year with numerous resolutions. I‘d like to suggest that you keep things simple by focusing on eating in a balanced manner. The quote above means that the root of good health depends on a proper diet. Chinese medicine is based on the concept of yin and yang. Yin and yang are in a dual relationship and rely on each other. When our body becomes out of balance—if we eat improperly, for example—yin and yang become out of balance. If improper diet and unbalanced eating habits become a regular pattern, then over time disease will occur.
Here is another statement about eating from Chinese medicine:
“If drinking and eating lose their discipline, cold and warmth will not be proper and the spleen and stomach will therefore be damaged.”
In other words, if you eat too many foods that are either too hot or too cold in nature, cold and warmth will be unbalanced. Overeating hot foods causes heat to accumulate in the stomach, while overeating cold foods will damage the spleen and cause it to be vacuous.
This statement shows that yin and yang become out of balance via eating too much of something. On the other hand, not eating enough food is detrimental to your health as well:
“If grains do not enter, in a half day, the qi declines, and in one day, the qi is scanty.”
Your qi (your body’s vital energy) will have declined if one does not eat for half a day. And if one does not eat for a whole day, then one’s qi is insufficient for health. Yin and yang are out of balance due to lack of foods entering the body.
To help support you in 2012, I plan to regularly post about food, diet, and the energetic properties of foods from a Chinese medicine perspective. Feel free to follow these posts on Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/IngerJLac
Or you can find my posts on my Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Inger-Johnson-LAc-Acupuncture-Chinese-Medicine-Practitioner/218850764799964
Happy new year to you! Here’s to a year focusing on balance!
—Inger