Eating to suit your Chinese diagnosis
If you have been given a TCM diagnosis from an Oriental doctor and you are not sure how to adjust your diet to help the healing process, here is a short list of food categories relating to the different conditions.
Qi tonics for rebuilding qi when there is a deficiency
to tonify yin: soups, casseroles, congees, barley, wheat, rice, quinoa, amaranth, seaweeds, micro-algae (especially chlorella and spirulina), tofu, black beans, kidney beans, mung beans (and their sprouts), milk, yogurt, cheese, chicken, egg, clams, sardines, beef, pork, grapes, bananas, watermelon, beets, string beans
to tonify yang: chicken, beef, lamb, cherries, dates, oats, spelt, quinoa, walnuts, fennel, sweet brown rice, parsley, mustard greens, winter squash, cabbage, kale, onion, leeks, garlic, beans cooked with ginger
Blood tonics: micro-algae, sprouts, leafy greens, seaweed, spirulina, royal jelly, beef, lamb, or chicken livers
To clear stagnation in
qi: rosemary, garlic, onions, leeks, ginger, black pepper, hot peppers, cayenne, fennel, mustard greens, horseradish, basil, nutmeg, peppermint, marjoram, radishes, turnips
blood: turmeric, nutmeg, spearmint, garlic, vinegar, basil, ginger,, rosemary, eggplant, aduki beans, sweet rice, butter
To eliminate wind
wind-cold: oats, shrimp, ginger
wind-hot: celery, strawberries, peppermint
To eliminate dryness: soy, spinach, asparagus, millet, barley, salt, seaweed, apples, pears, honey
To eliminate dampness: lettuce, celery, turnips, rye, amaranth, aduki beans, wild blue-green micro-algae, asparagus, alfalfa, pumpkin, vinegar, papaya.
In general, cooling foods will reduce symptoms of heat and warming foods will reduce symptoms of cold.
For a detailed list of the properties of food see Paul Pitchford’s book Healing with Whole Foods
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