Let food be thy medicine and

medicine be thy food."

   - Hippocrates circa 431 B.C. 

 

Know Your Food

 

Foods are made not equal, even if they are in the same food category such as vegetable or meat, etc. Each food is truly the gift of nature with our needs in mind. There are more to each food than just vitamin, mineral, calorie and fat as known by western food science.  Each food has its unique nature, characteristics, photychemicals, glyconutrients, functional properties and health benefits. Modern science has only scratched the surface in the understanding of food and knowing fully how each food does to our body. 

Food should be more than just to fill our hunger but as the nutritional source for our body to prevent and cure sickness. Using food as medicine and medicine as food is not only practical and economical, there is no unknown side effect. To do that, we need to know our body constitution and condition first. Then the proper food knowledge is essential in knowing what to choose to meet our needs. All is not good and too much of the good thing can be bad. Since our body changes all the time and with age, our food choices have to change accordingly to be healthful.  

The   nature of food can be cold, cool, neutral, warm and hot. The functional characteristics of food can be suppressing, stimulating, expelling, absorbing, moving downward, uplifting, drying, moisturizing, dissolving and cumulating. They can change the internal environment and conditions of our body to facilitate natural repair, maintenance and regeneration. 

The followings are examples of how foods of different nature and characteristics are used for healing.

Cold foods:
banana - for constipation and hemorrhoids
freshwater clams - for fever and detoxifying
cucumber - for fever, sore throat and red eyes
pear - for thirst and constipation
all chilled foods and drinks
watermelon - for sore throat and to relieve summer heat
grapefruit
persimmon

Cool foods:
bitter almond - for chronic bronchitis
celery - for hypertension
duck - for hypertension with dizziness
lotus root - for anemia
white turnip - for constipation
bat-choy - for phlegm
winter melon - diuretic and clear mucus
bitter melon - for diabetes and acne
pumpkin - for diabetes and clear inflammation
tomato - for high blood pressure and cholesterol

Neutral foods:
black beans - to blacken hair and to ease post-partum pain
soybeans - for anemia, asthma and to promote lactation
carrots - to prevent night blindness and promotes digestive function
chrysanthemum - for fever, also relieves dizziness
apple, grape, papaya, berries, spinach, carrot, cauliflower, chicken, fish, pork, egg, soy milk, rice

Warm foods:
aniseed - relieves intestinal spasm
beef - for the tendons and bones
garlic - for dysentery
coriander - for skin rashes
ginger - for expelling wind cold
hot pepper - for warming stomach

Hot foods:
chili - to stimulate the appetite
black and white pepper - warms up the body
clove - warms the spleen and stomach, stops vomiting
lychee
longan
mango

 

In this section, we introduce you to the nature and functional benefits of some common foods so that you can use them as both food and medicine to solve related health problems without having to pay more than just the cost of food.