As an example, eating foods with a hot energy will make us experience hot sensations in the body and foods with a cold energy, cold sensations.
In daily life, each of us knows that eating ice makes us feel cold and drinking hot water makes us feel warm. This is because ice has a cold energy and hot water, a hot energy. But ice or hot water produce only temporary effects. To produce long-lasting effects, herbs are used as substitutes for foods that provide only temporary relief In other words, to produce cold or hot sensations, herbs are more effective than foods and foods are more effective than ice or hot water.
However, the adjectives "cold", "hot", "warm", "cool" and "neutral" do not refer to the present state of foods.
For example, tea has a cold energy, so even though you may drink hot tea, you are actually drinking a cold beverage. Shortly after the tea enters your body, its heat (a temporary phenomenon) will be lost and as it begins to generate cold energy, your body begins to cool off.
Another example, red pepper, has a hot energy. Even though you may eat cold red pepper from the refrigerator, you still consume a hot food. Shortly after it enters your body, its temporary coldness is lost and your body begins to feel hot. 醫(yī).學(xué) 全,在.線,提供www.med126.com
The energies of foods, therefore, refer to what the foods do in our bodies - whether they generate hot or cold, warm or cool, or neutral sensations.
Hot is opposed to cold; warm is opposed to cool; neutral is somewhere between warm and cool.
Cold and cool foods differ from each other, as do warm and hot foods.
Bamboo shoots have a cold energy, black pepper a hot energy; cucumber has a cool energy, chicken a warm and corn a neutral energy.
It is important for us to know the energies of foods, because different energies act upon the human body in different ways. This has important effects on good health.
As an example, when a person suffers from cold rheumatism and the pain is particularly severe on cold winter days, then it is good for him or her to eat foods with a warm or hot energy, which should considerably relieve the pain.
Or if you suffer from skin eruptions that worsen when exposed to heat, it is good to eat foods with a cold or cool energy to relieve your symptoms.
While the energies of foods play an important role in Chinese diet, the Chinese also classify the human body into cold and hot types.
One person may have a hot physical constitution, another a cold one. The person with a hot physical constitution should consume more foods with a cold or cool energy; the person with a cold physical constitution, more foods with a hot or warm energy-a plan the Chinese call "a balanced diet." Such a diet is always related to each individual's physical constitution and may differ from one person to another.
There are no absolute answers. In fact, these are the wrong questions. It would make more sense to ask:
Those questions can be answered correctly. Tea is good for you if you have a hot physical constitution, because tea has a cold energy; if you have a cold physical constitution, coffee is better for you than tea, because coffee has a warm energy. If you have a cold physical constitution, liquor can warm you, but if you have a hot physical constitution, it may create many symptoms of certain hot diseases, such as skin problems. For this reason, in the Chinese diet, foods with a cold energy are used to counteract intoxication and alcoholism.
The process of learning the energies of foods is basically the same as that of finding the flavors of foods.
At first, the foods that obviously make us feel hot may be considered as having a hot energy; the foods that make us cold, a cold energy.
For example, obviously ice makes us feel cold, so it is believed to have a cold energy; and since red pepper makes us feel hot, it is thought to have a hot energy. As time goes on, any food that can make us hot is regarded as having a hot energy; any food that can make us cold, a cold energy.
