Healthy Eating for Healthy Pregnancy

There is much wisdom in eating because food is medicine and medicine is food. We live to eat, and not eat to live.

According to the wisdom in Chinese medicine, the human body can be classified into two types based on its thermal nature: the cooling body type and the warming body type. The thermal nature is a result of eating certain types of food. The Chinese believe that there is internal energy, known as qi, which is produced when food is consumed, and this energy circulates the entire body through meridians, which are energy channels. The energy changes the temperature of the body, and thus resulting in a cooling or a warming body, In addition, the cooling effects move downwards and inwards, while the warming effects move upwards and outwards. A person with a cooling body slows down internally and externally; a person with a warming body speeds up internally and externally. 

It must be pointed out that no individual has an entirely cooling or warming body; rather, all individuals have a combination of both a cooling and a warming body. However, an individual may have a body with characteristics that are either predominantly cooling or warming. Hence, it is important to balance a cooling body with warming foods, and a warming body with cooling foods in order to create the internal harmony, which holds the key to health and wellness. Essentially, this explains the "yin" and "yang" concept in Chinese health and healing.

Some of the common characteristics of a cooling body are: feeling cold most of the time; walking and talking slowly; having a slow heart rate; feeling tired and sleepy most of the time; having cold hands and feet to the touch; having a pale complexion and moist skin; thinking intuitively.

A warming body, on the other hand, has some of these common characteristics: being aggressive and impatient; having a rapid heart rate; feeling energetic; having warm hands and feet. 

If you have a cooling body, eat more warming foods, such as: carrot, leek, onion, watercress; apricot, berries, cherries, mango, peach; pumpkin seed, sesame, sunflower seed, and walnut.

If you have a warming body, eat more cooling foods, such as: asparagus, broccoli, cauliflower, celery, corn, cucumber, lettuce, spinach, tomato, zucchini; apple, banana, citrus fruits, pear, pineapple, watermelon; barley, mung bean, soybean, and wheat.

There are foods that do not affect the thermal nature of the body. They are neutral: they are neither cooling nor warming, and they include the following common foods: beet, Brussels sprout, parsnip, squash, sweet potato, yam; date, fig, grape, papaya, plum; almond, peanut, pine nut, raisin; brown rice, corn, kidney bean, and snow pea.

Wisdom in eating requires a balance in the diet to maintain the harmony between the cooling and warming characteristics within the body. This profound wisdom in eating is also manifested in the balance and harmony concept in the Five Elements  (wood, fire, earth, metal, and water).

For thousands of years, the Chinese have believed that these Five Elements are not only fundamental to the cycles of nature, but also represent the five important organs in the body. These Five Elements also correspond to five different colors in foods. 

Wood corresponds to green color, such as dark green vegetables and fruits (e.g. lime), green beans (e.g. lentils) and seeds (e.g. pumpkin). 

Fire corresponds to red color, such as red vegetables (e.g. red pepper) and fruits (e.g. cherries), red nuts (e.g. pecans) and beans (e.g. red beans). 

Earth corresponds to orange and yellow, such as red and yellow vegetables (e.g. squash and yam) and red and yellow fruits (e.g. papaya), orange and yellow nuts (e.g. almond and cashew) and beans (e.g. chickpea).

Metal corresponds to white color, such as white vegetables (e.g. cauliflower) and fruits (e.g. banana), white nuts (e.g. pine nuts) and beans (e.g. soybean).

Water corresponds to black, blue, and purple, such as dark-colored vegetables (e.g. eggplant) and fruits (e.g. blackberries), dark-colored nuts (e.g. walnut) and beans (e.g. navy bean).

The wisdom in eating requires a daily diet in which the five different colors of foods are consumed. 

Indeed, there is so much wisdom in eating according to Chinese medicine because food is medicine and medicine is food. 

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Stephen Lau

Copyright© by Stephen Lau