FOOD AS MEDICINE PART II: FOOD QUALITIES

Photo Courtesy of Bronwyn Davies

As mentioned in the previous post (click here to view), whole foods are important. Every food is viewed for its qualitative aspects as a whole. These qualities include the food’s physical nature and temperature, but more importantly its innate physiological temperature, its flavors and its affinities within the body. These aspects together create actions on, and within, the body that are very specific.

Weight
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Weight bears consideration in a food's actions on the body. Is the food light and fluffy or heavy and dense for its size? An example of this might be  the filling of a bag with mint leaves, and filling that same bag with walnuts. The same amount of space is filled, but the there will be a very noticeable difference in weight. Many heavy things tend to have downward, sinking and condensing actions, light weight foods tend to have upward, rising and dispersing actions. Of course, like the I before E except after C rule, there are always exceptions.

Physical Temperature

Another physical aspect to consider is physical temperature. This is the temperature to touch; when something is placed in the mouth and the teeth bite down, is it warmer or cooler? This is often where prep and processing effects the physical temperature; cold beverages versus warm, raw or chilled in the refrigerator versus steamed or baked. These are physical temperatures that give a different temperature feeling in the mouth, and prep and processing can easily change them. This physical temperature effect the actions of food on the body, but no nearly as much as a food’s innate thermal nature.

Innate Thermal Nature

From the views of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), every whole food contains an innate thermal nature. This is not the same as the physical temperature of a food (such a cooked food being hot and chilled food being cold). This innate thermal nature of food is an innate physiological temperature of the food that remains regardless of being heated by fire or chilled by ice. The innate thermal nature of a food effects the body’s temperature, making an individual feel warmer or cooler; or can cause actions associated with warming or cooling. The innate thermal nature of a food can fall on a spectrum; cold, cool, neutral, warm, hot. An example of the innate thermal nature of a food might be mint, which is cooling in nature, regardless of consuming it in a hot tea or in an iced beverage. Mint has a soothing effect to a sore and inflamed throat, such as found in flues and colds. In this example the sore throat is seen as a heat condition, and the ability of mint to soothe such a condition makes it cooling in its innate thermal nature, regardless of the temperature it is consumed at. 

Affinity

Each food has affinities for certain systems, organs, structures, tissues, and areas of the body. In Traditional Chinese Medicine the body is mapped into systems called meridians or channels. There are 12 main meridians and 8 additional meridians called extraordinary meridians. Each of these meridians map out an interconnected area on, and within, the body; these meridians include associated organs, structures, tissues and processes (on physical, mental and emotional planes, as is the holistic approach). All 12 main channels and 8 additional channels, while having separate processes and functions of their own, will greatly influence one another and will rely on one another for certain cooperative processes and functions. 

Flavor

A major qualitative aspect of food, and one regarded closely in healing, is flavors. Every whole food has one or more flavors associated with it, and each flavor is associated with specific actions on the body (be it physical, mental or emotional). The main flavors include pungent, salty, sour, bitter, and sweet. 

Pungent foods (also known as acrid) disperse, invigorate and stimulate; these foods are associated with the lungs. These actions are often most clear when mentioning spicy foods, which are pungent in nature. Pungent, and therefore spicy, foods have the effects of stimulating sweating and blood circulation (think of spicey foods and red faces), and encouraging appetite.

Salty foods are known to dissipate, descend, dissolve and soften as well as remove moisture. They are associated with the Kidney. Foods with a salty nature are good for purging constipated bowels, reducing hard lumps (think kidney stones and various cysts), and treat toxic swellings; they are often thought to soften and make more supple, such as the case with Epsom salt baths for sore tight muscles.

Sour foods astringe, arrest and contract, prevent leakage, and firm up. They are thought to be good for the liver and gallbladder. Foods of this nature can be used for preventing and restraining any loss of fluids, such as in excessive sweating, incontinence, diarrhea, and the loss of reproductive fluid; they are also used to firm up flaccid skin.

Bitter foods cleanse, reduce, descend, drain and dry, and are thought to be good for the heart. Foods of this nature encourage bowel movement, reduce high blood pressure and high cholesterol (I always think of bitter coffee and bitter chocolate with this one). Foods of this flavor can also reduce inflammation and skin issues, drying excess mucus and fluids such as swelling and edema.

Sweet foods are tonics that energize, nourish and build; they generate fluids and lubricate; as well as relax, soothe, harmonize, and reduce irritation. They are associated with digestive organs; in the case of TCM the stomach and spleen (spleen here is different than in western medicine). Examples of these actions include the building and nourishment of energy and fluids, the ability to calm and settle upset of many sorts (physical and emotional), as well as the ability to slow down toxins and acute negative reaction. 

Balance as Key

As discussed in the previous post, Food is an effective force on, and within, the body; and balance a crucial factor to maintaining health or leading to unhealthy states. When we consume too much of a good thing, it becomes a bad thing. Consuming too many things that are one-sided in temperature draws the body in the direction of that temperature and has adverse effects on the body and processes in the body. Eating too many physically cold foods, can lead to the body temperature dropping regularly, leading to feeling cold as well as to sluggish processes. Eating too much physiologically hot natured foods can lead to heat accumulation in the body and hyperactive processes.

Too much or too little of a specific flavor can have negative and detrimental effects. Flavors are associated with specific organs and the meridians and processes that these organs are part of. Too little foods of a certain flavor can lead to deficiency or weakness of the organ and its associated processes and meridian system. Too much food of that flavor can lead to excess which causes its own set of issues. Too much sweet can lead to what TCM calls dampness. Dampness  leads to conditions causing diseases of the flesh; which can create a heavy weightiness of the body or obesity, sluggish processes, or issues of mucus, phlegm or fluid build-up. Too much pungent can lead to hyperactive processes as well as causes heat and dispersion, which means loss of fluids and dryness. Too much salty means too much purging or dissolving, leading to dryness as well as too much softening causing weakened structures. Too much sour leads to excessive astringing, leading to fluid build-up and retention; on the other hand it can also lead to too much firming up which can cause tight structures such as tendons. Too much bitter foods can adversely effect blood pressure and cholesterol, cause purging of the bowels and weaken processes. 
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Regard and respect of food and the impact food has on the body is the approach one should take to avoiding these negative effects. When in doubt, moderation is key. The following post, Food as Medicine Part III: Food Preparation and Eating Practices, will discuss further considerations in food practices such as the effects of processing food, different preparation and cooking, as well as various eating practices.